Beth Sullivan making headlines at UT

Funny but an extremely ignorant post. I have nothing to do with BAS or Tennessee. I also don't think that I would ever do what BAS did. However, the fact that these posts keep coming in absolutely validate that the parents of or the student athletes keep posting some of the most ridiculous, ignorant things.

I believe that student athletes should be allowed to transfer ANYWHERE without sitting. I also think that 4 year scholarships are horrible and do not allow a university the ability to keep the good people and rid the program of cancers. It is absolutely what is necessary. It also will teach young people that they are accountable for behavior and performance as they will be in the real world. Again, if they don't like it then they should be able to test their market value and move on 1 time without penalty.

With that being said, I think BAS actually did these young ladies a favor. Now they can search for a program, school and coach that fits them and their ability levels. Maybe BAS will put their scholarship into distance runners. Maybe not. That is certainly up to her. This is her career and how she puts food on the table. If she messes up then it will also be her head. If she or her staff felt that ANY of these young ladies would score or could help her team then they would not have been cut regardless of the even area. That is a fact. To think she would cut a great athlete that could contribute in the SEC where any points are hard to come by is just foolishness.

BAS may not be a great person. Your opinion is just that. She may not even be a great coach. She is however, justified in doing what she did. You are also legally allowed to keep whining and moaning that life isn't fair but it is not doing you any good. Do your children a favor and teach them that life isn't fair. Sorry to break that one to you!

Again, you are assuming that the athletes DID SOMETHING WRONG! They didn't! The only thing they did wrong was accept too large a scholarship for what they brought to her table.

The fact that posters cannot accept that the athletes were not to blame for what happened to them illustrates how bad what BAS did was!

Don't give me "they asked for it" by signing with a big school crap. That is the argument of bitter no-talent kids!

These girls acted in good faith and Tennessee and BAS did not. End of story.

Snaggle tooth wrote:

Funny but an extremely ignorant post. I have nothing to do with BAS or Tennessee. I also don't think that I would ever do what BAS did. However, the fact that these posts keep coming in absolutely validate that the parents of or the student athletes keep posting some of the most ridiculous, ignorant things.

Really, someone who has no vested interest is defending this wretched bitches misconduct keeps defending her? Want to try to sell be a bridge in Brooklyn too?

Well, it seems highly unlikely that I am a parent or athlete involved with this since I have been posting on boards with this handle for more than a decade. You, on the other hand have a posting name of convenience and no track record on the board - the epitome of an insider in such a case or a troll.

My problem is that posters make the really idiotic suggestion/claim that all these girls misbehaved/were woefully out of shape all within a few days of the beginning of school and conveniently just after the point where they could have withdrawn with lower cost, which indicates that BAS did this and had planned to do it despite her statements about being happy that the recruits had stayed with the program. At this point, I think that it is time for LetsRun to go after the IP addresses of the posters repeatedly posting this nonsense.

I don't think the athletes necessarily did anything wrong but I do not know. We have only heard one side of the story over and over again from the same whiny parents. There is no way for me to tell the whole story.

I will assume that the coaches realized early that these young ladies could not help the program. They should be thankful that they weren't given a chance and still failed as their options would be far more limited. I would also say that if I were a coach there is no way I would bring any of these student-athletes onto my team after reading this thread with all of the whining. Too much baggage already that will destroy a college team.

To the poster above - I have met BAS a few times. I have nothing bad or good to say about her. I certainly am not defending her as much as I think the whining is annoying and is only hurting the girls. Keep digging that grave at your own peril instead of teaching your children about life.

Yet another argument for requiring registration to use Letsrun -- this "You're from UT!" shit on one side and the "No! But you're obviously a parent of one of the kids!" shit on the other would never come up. But the Johnson kids would rather have a shitty board than a decent one, so here we are.

I agree. Although the number of posts would be reduced by 90%, which may be a good thing. Also, the mods who use dozens of socks to promote their ideas and delete others would have to cease activities. Which would certainly be a great thing.

"whining" is now apparently synonymous with pointing out facts and bad behavior

the fact that you even label this as "whining" shows you're too biased to see things rationally

maybe you describe gays as "whiny" too for speaking up about the bad behavior of others

"they should be thankful that they weren't given a chance and still failed"

wow.

Clicked on this thread thinking something new had been posted but alas...Nooooooo.

Lets summarise and put this to bed.

BAS committed a underhand, ruthless and unethical act but did not break any rules in doing so.

The End

26mi235 wrote:

At this point, I think that it is time for LetsRun to go after the IP addresses of the posters repeatedly posting this nonsense.

Why? Zero NCAA or SEC rule or policy violations have been committed here as you suggested earlier. I'm willing to believe that a number of these posters really aren't connected to Tennessee. A good number of them may be other coaches who can relate to what's likely going on on the other side, understand why the can't divulge "their side" and are willing to give the coaching staff the benefit of the doubt. They have had to sit by in disgust dealing with this crap one too many times. They may have handled it more delicately...but they've all been there at some point if they've ever experienced success. BAS may be generally unliked by her peers and other aforementioned flaws may or may not be true, but this thread and other negative attention like it are actually doing more to build support for BAS than the opposite. Go ahead, post my IP address...nowhere near Knoxville.

never say never

Wait for it! Wait for it! She is not staying? Is she?

Wild Duck Wisperer wrote:

but this thread and other negative attention like it are actually doing more to build support for BAS than the opposite.

Letting all of her potential recruits know what disappointment may be in store from them, helps Coach Sullivan's support? Really? Its a stretch to find anything redeemable about this situation. Her support are people posting speculation blaming the athletes and saying what a great CEO she is...reminds me of Al Dunlap's efforts at Sunbeam (before the wheels fell off).

In case you don't know who Al Dunlap is, here is the start of his wiki:

Albert John Dunlap (born July 26, 1937[1]) is a retired corporate executive. He was best known as a turnaround specialist and professional downsizer. The ruthless methods he employed to streamline failing companies, most notably Scott Paper, won him the nicknames "Chainsaw Al" and "Rambo in Pinstripes". However, his reputation was ruined after he engineered a massive accounting scandal at Sunbeam-Oster.

Funny that the Penn State men had it's highest finish in 14 years at Big Tens over the weekend.

All it took was BAS to get the hell out of town. That should say all you need to hear about her coaching.

9th to 3rd in a year, taking down some good teams in the process.

I read this thread when it first began, and it should have been over on page 1, yet here we are on page 21 with a lot of crap posted.

In an attempt to summarize for someone just arriving at page 21, here it is:

-BAS took over Tennessee

-She cut kids who weren't good enough to warrant their large scholarships

-The scholarships are still good for those students for this ENTIRE school year

-They are free to transfer anywhere outside the SEC

-The kids and their parents are whiny losers who rail a coach for acting well within her rights.

-They likely come from the generation where they believe everyone gets a trophy.

-Like minded losers try to argue for the kids and their parents for 21 pages.

Dial it up gets it! Finally.

To the person that says this bad letsrun thread will hurt recruiting - wow! That would be sad if a recruit used letsrun anonymous bashing to choose a school. When I was coaching college if I got the sense that a recruit was get their info from letsrun, it automatically gave me a sense that I did not want them. Do real research. Ask athletes on the current team or past penn state teams. Don't come to letsrun for info like this. It would just say that the recruit is lazy and uninformed. I would not want that type on my team if I were a coach!

dial it up wrote:

-The kids and their parents are whiny losers who rail a coach for acting well within her rights.

-They likely come from the generation where they believe everyone gets a trophy.

-Like minded losers try to argue for the kids and their parents for 21 pages.

Pointing out bad behavior is not whining.

Your characterization of this as "whining" is merely your attempt to dismiss the points raised without addressing them.

Too true wrote:

When I was coaching college if I got the sense that a recruit was get their info from letsrun, it automatically gave me a sense that I did not want them. Do real research. Ask athletes on the current team or past penn state teams. Don't come to letsrun for info like this. It would just say that the recruit is lazy and uninformed. I would not want that type on my team if I were a coach!

Hearing from the parents is doing research. They have first hand information regarding the situation that other athletes on the team do not.

Unlike athletes on the team, the parents are not under the thumb of BAS to stick to the script less their scholarship be cut too.

Reading the article linked in the first post on this thread is doing research.

People from Penn State have already chimed in on this thread and confirmed the behavior of BAS is unsurprising.