Ken Kesey's Reindeer Milk wrote:
Just to shed some light on some things in the article and UT:
1) JJ Clark was not fired. His contract was up and the administration chose not to renew it.
2) Sharon Seagraves was not fired. Assistants at UT have one year contracts. Her contract was not renewed. BAS chose to go with another coach.
3) Although the athletes were let go from the team and did not have access to ATHLETICS facilities, they did have access to the university facilities which are top of the line. She also had access to the track; just not during team practice.
4) I could be wrong on this, but I'm pretty sure JJ Clark ever broke 4 minutes in the mile. I only say this to highlight how the article tended to exaggerate some things for what seemed to be for emotional response.
The next points are more opinion:
5) Because BAS recruited and offered a scholarship so one of the young ladies while at Penn State doesn't mean She would have recruited her at UT. The position needs at UT were different than those at Penn State. Just like in basketball where you don't need 6 centers, they probably decided they had too many sprinters.
6) One of the claims that was repeated by the article, the young lady, and her parents was that she was the best 400m hurdler on the team. That very well may have been the case. But that's only one event. Who knows if she could have scored at the SEC and NCAA meets? That's an awful lot of scholarship money on a one event girl when the sprints are already overloaded and there's barely enough women to fill a cross country roster.
7) I agree that this is sad for these women. If they're as resilient (and talented) as the article makes them out to be, then they'll be back competing and running good times soon.
8) BAS made a tough decision in a difficult situation. Both the men's and women's team had been declining under JJ Clark. He is a great women's middle distance coach, but he's not the greatest Head Track Coach. The alternative to the situation is BAS had let them stay on the team and compete for a year, informed them they were being cut following outdoor track, and consequently wasted a year of eligibility. While this does not make her a saint or gracious, it probably would have been more disappointing the other way.