Universities never come out and say they botched a personnel search, but the Northwestern AD search is as close to an admission as you'll get.
On Wednesday, AD Mike Polisky resigned as the Wildcats' AD. He was promoted internally on May 3, making today his 10th in the AD chair.
“Over the last 10 days, it has become clear to me that the current challenges will not allow me to effectively lead our department, especially during these unsettling times in college athletics,” Polisky said in a statement. “My love and respect for Northwestern and for our student-athletes, coaches and staff is greater than my own desire to lead the department.
“I do not want to be a distraction to our incredible men and women as they pursue a collective goal — to help our student-athletes become the best they can be. While my family and I are disappointed, I move forward knowing this is the right decision.”
To set the stage, the ACC named then-Northwestern AD Jim Phillips as its next commissioner on Dec. 14, a full five months ago Friday. After an exhaustive search in which NU contracted the services of DHR International, the Wildcats chose Polisky, who had worked for the department since 2010 and was at the time the department's deputy AD for external affairs.
It was not a surprise that Phillips got the ACC job. He was a candidate for the Big Ten commissioner job that was filled in the summer of 2019 -- surely, some on Big Ten campuses wished it was Phillips calling the shots last summer -- and it's been clear for years that Phillips would leave for a bigger job sooner or later. And while there's certainly something to be said of doing one's due diligence and turning over every rock, but hiring a search firm and taking nearly five full months to ultimately hire a deputy who's been on your payroll for a decade seems a... curious use of university resources.
The curiosity only grows when we get to the next fact: Polisky is one of four defendants in an ongoing sexual harassment lawsuit brought by a former Northwestern cheerleader. In the suit, the former cheerleader accuses the university as "sex objects" to mingle with donors at fundraising events. Polisky is not accused of any harassment himself, but instead of dismissing the cheerleader's concerns and fabricating evidence, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The suit first went public over the winter, so Northwestern was well aware of Polisky's entanglement throughout its prolonged search, but hired him anyway.
Perhaps knowing how the hire would be received, Northwestern announced Polisky's hiring but did not formally introduce him to the community through a press conference. The lack of a press conference did not stop the bad press though; the student paper kept digging and nearly 400 students marched to NU president Morton Schapiro's home.
And by Wednesday evening, it was clear Polisky could not continue atop the athletics department.
The wild part of all this is Northwestern is, or at least should be, a plum job on the AD market. A high-achieving academic school in a pro market, no Northwestern program will ever be subject to unreasonable expectations. The football program practically runs itself with Pat Fitzgerald entrenched as the head coach, and the newly-opened lakeside football facility is still one of the best in the nation. NU is flush with Big Ten cash, and the milk and honey will only flow even more robustly once the next round of TV contracts is signed here in a few years.
No Power 5 AD job is easy by any stretch, but if one were, it'd be Northwestern's.
One would think Northwestern could choose among any number of ADs currently running departments lower than their purple, black and white rung on the totem pole and they'd eagerly accept the job. That's not the route Northwestern chose on their first crack at replacing Jim Phillips. Perhaps it's what they'll do on the second try.