Commentary: Del Conte departure to hamper athletics' future

By Casey Michel     10/22/09 7:00pm

I thought it was just a rumor, floated to generate some much-needed publicity. I thought Texas Christian University was tripping over Chris Del Conte's coattails, trying to uncover some of the magic our athletic director had used to turn Rice athletics from a graying, disheveled mess into a gleaming summit of college athletics in the Space City. Del Conte simply had too much left to accomplish within Rice: seeing through the revamping of Rice Stadium, constructing a bigger and better soccer stadium, returning men's basketball back to the Big Dance. Too many goals left, I thought.

So much for wishful thinking.

On Wednesday afternoon, the words buzzed through my earbuds: Chris Del Conte was taking over as the new athletic director at TCU. The former Rice Athletic Director, three years tried in the position, would be hauling four hours north for a new chapter, stepping into a purple baseball hat and a school whose mascot is a misnomer.

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For months, Del Conte has been the only reason to have faith in Rice athletics. Look around the sports landscape right now. We have a football team, God bless 'em, slogging through a season of injury and misery, gnawing away all the ecstasy wrought by last year's Texas Bowl. We have a soccer team that's been burned by 10 one-goal losses. We have a men's cross country team still clawing its way back to the top, and we have a women's cross country team that just threw in the redshirt towel on the season.

The sports world at Rice right now is bleaker than the chances of finding a Michael Vick canine Halloween costume. But behind the scenes was Del Conte, the fount of faithfulness, reminding us time and again that Rice was the pinnacle for athletics and academics, instilling us with the reserve we would need to make it through the most painful season Rice athletics has experienced in years. With Del Conte at the helm, everything would be okay.

And why should we think otherwise? Here was a man who had brought Rice full force into the 21st century. Sure, his greased hair and tacky suits wafted "used car salesman," but his salesmanship was second to none.

Under Del Conte's tenure, the achievements are both indelible and incredible. Ninety million dollars in just three years, pocketed by the university, all because of one man's guile. A sparkling basketball facility, a glass and steel assemblage that, it can be argued, is the most beautiful facility on campus. A much-needed refurbishment of Reckling Park, giving Wayne Graham the venue he deserves. Hiring David Bailiff, who steered the greatest football team in a half century, and Ben Braun, who is prepping to return the men's basketball team to the heights it has only heard tales of.

All of this, and more, in only three years. Maybe it was luck. Maybe it was those abominable suits. Or maybe it's simply that Del Conte is among the most talented at what he does, and that his loss will pull the rug of resolution out from underneath the athletic department.

Without Del Conte at the head, the athletic department is in peril of losing all the significant and historic strides they have made over the past few years. The replacement, whoever he or she may be, will need to deal with Bailiff's future, Graham's replacement and the flack from the inevitable downturn in funds raised.

It may seem that I'm canonizing Del Conte for his work while an Owl. I'm not. I disagreed strongly, emotionally, with the way he handled former basketball coach Willis Wilson's departure. I could never get past the itch of unseemliness I got while interviewing him - he was simply too slick to be taken authentically. And I always believed he viewed Rice as but a stepping stone to a bigger pond, that he always invested his time in our school at an arm's length.

It turns out that I was right about his desire to jump ship - TCU may not be on par with Kentucky, where he was rumored to be heading last semester, but its football program is still light years beyond ours. And it seemed that everything he said at Wednesday's press conference was merely a rehashing of the sound bites he espoused at Rice. So, in that sense, I feel for TCU - it will be but a few years before his ascension to a BCS conference continues.

But that's just the business. Rice and TCU are simply too small-time for someone of Del Conte's talents. Someday, he will be running a Kansas, or a Texas, or a Florida, or a USC. Of this, I have little doubt.

So don't fault him for moving on. He didn't burn any bridges by his departure or throw the rest of his staff under the bus on his way out. He didn't finagle a backroom deal, a la former football coach Todd Graham. In fact, according to Del Conte, it was Bailiff who suggested he look into the TCU position.

He did what should have been expected, and he is reaping the rewards of his success.

Let's hope TCU likes pastel suits.

Casey Michel is a Brown College senior and Thresher editor in chief.

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