No, I didn't say it was all her fault. I blame the BOT and MB too.
Under Jischke, the Ath. Dept. paid $0.6M / yr tax (overhead allocation) back to the U. He may not have demanded excellence from AD, but Jischke understood good football and basketball mean $$$ for academics from alums.
In Cordova's defense, it became very hard to raise money with the financial crisis, shortly after she became President, and at the same time, the state (under you know who) cut PU's support in some years and flat lined it in others. So she responded by essentially deciding she could drain all the newly found BTN $$$ out of the Ath. Dept. with no long-term consequences to the competitiveness of the revenue sports. Very short-term thinking on her part but predictable since the only real interest she had in Purdue is what the job could do for her resume. I do blame the BOT for letting her do it, and MB for not pitching a fit over it publicly, but apparently MB valued his job too much to do what was right by the Ath. Dept. and JPC.
Painter is the one who really put the issue front and center when it took national media attention and an emergency meeting of the BOT just to make his salary (and his assistants') competitive with other B1G coaches -- and keep him from being hired away by a bottom-feeder program out of the B12. Meanwhile, we had the lowest paid football coaching staff in the B1G, if not all in the power 5, but who did "we" (smart PU alums an fans) blame? Oh, it was all Danny Hope's fault!!! It must have been hard for Frances to keep a straight face when she attended football games in those years, watching the "cow" she was milking dry wither away in front of her, while our "fans" booed the team and DH1.
I agree with most of what you point out - and appreciate realizing that the economic situation Purdue faced during her tenure was definitely not something most people would ever like to experience handling.
However, I still think you put more weight on how big the President's role has on having successful football and basketball. I think there's a lot of having it both ways on this issue with Cordova. People say she didn't care about sports, but then somehow she's controlling the athletic department?
Look at the athletic director.
Burke took pride in slowly bumping up Tiller's salary - basically keeping it as minimum as can be. Tiller's biggest complaint? Not having proper resources for the coaching staff. That was under a different president, same athletic director.
Hope's hire was not Cordova's idea (and it wasn't Tiller's). It was flipping Morgan Burke's idea. MB oversees the athletic department. Cordova was not telling him how much money he can spend on everything. Remember the example about rental cars back in the Painter saga? The president of a university is not going to the athletic director and saying hey, you should put rental car restrictions on your head coaches to save a few dollars.
If Burke really only had the money for X amount and he wanted to hire X person that costs a bit more - the resources are there to find, within the athletic department or by looking at donors. How do you think Purdue magically found the money for Painter, Hazell's position, etc.? Burke made NO effort and thought he could hire on the cheap - he had been doing it for years. This wasn't Cordova's idea.
And quite frankly, look what DID happen under Cordova. Purdue Football had for years complained about not having the head coaching salary and resources necessary to succeed. Cordova was President when some big steps were made to alleviate that. The same thing with men's basketball. Purdue Basketball had for decades been under-investing - when did that change? While Cordova was President. I wouldn't sit there and brag about her role - because I simply don't believe she plays a huge role in approving or disapproving these things. As long as Burke, who is in charge of the AD budget, can show how things can work financially for these things to happen - she's going to approve. Burke's hand was simply forced both times.
But that's the whole point - this "on the cheap" mindset is not one of A president. It's the mindset of our athletic director. There's been 4 Presidents now where the Presidents have been very different, but the athletic director has stayed the same. One thing is changing, one is not. Do the math.
