A few weeks ago, I broached this idea in a column about Holden Thorp, who is leaving the sports-obsessed University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for Washington University in St. Louis, where athletics don't matter much at all. He was visibly relieved. His tenure as North Carolina's chancellor had been marked by a long-running football scandal that, as he himself acknowledged, his academic background left him ill-equipped to deal with.
Thorp drew criticism for saying that higher education would be better served if college presidents weren't expected to drop everything and micromanage the athletic department every time there was a problem. But look at what's happened since. First came the public clamor over the way the president of Rutgers University, Robert Barchi, has managed — or, rather, mismanaged — a scandal that began when Mike Rice, the former basketball coach, was caught on video physically and verbally abusing his players. Barchi's job may be in jeopardy, even though he has held it for less than a year. And, on Tuesday, E. Gordon Gee, the president of Ohio State, said he would be retiring on July 1 after some crass private remarks he made in December about other college teams were reported last week by The Associated Press.