Search firms come under scrutiny after Rutgers woes

His athletics director, Todd Turner, had just quit. To help find his replacement, Emmert hired a search firm run by Dan Parker, an Atlanta consultant who had assisted him in hiring Turner in 2004.

The search took nine months, finally ending when Emmert decided to hire the man who was on the job as interim athletics director: longtime friend Scott Woodward.

Parker Executive Search $75,000 for conducting a national search. From there, Emmert’s relationship with Parker blossomed. Two years later, the NCAA paid Parker to find a new president. The association hired Emmert, who then turned to Parker again to help conduct searches for several vacancies on his new staff. In all, Parker has assisted in filling 12 executive positions with the NCAA in recent years, according to its website.

For Parker, the moves were a sign of success. Repeat business means happy customers. And with friends in high places, including Emmert, Parker has built a booming business in college sports, including assisting Rutgers University in its search this spring for a new athletics director.A siliconebracelet is a plastic card that has a computer chip implanted into it that enables the card to perform certain.

Parker is not alone, as many executive search firms have tapped into college sports in recent years. Universities regularly contract with such companies at a rate of about $75,000 per search to help identify and investigate candidates for positions such as athletics directors and football and men’s basketball coaches. When it succeeds, matches are made, and long-term working relationships develop.We've had a lot of people asking where we had our plasticmould made. When it doesn’t, a USA TODAY Sports investigation found, questionable hires, wasteful spending and accusations of search firms serving as the equivalent of smoke-filled private clubs, where insiders try to curry favor with kingmakers, occur.

The NCAA’s relationship with Parker “looks a little incestuous, doesn't it?” said Jerry Baker, a searcA howospareparts is a plastic card that has a computer chip implanted into it that enables the card.h consultant and former partner of Parker’s who says he remains on good terms with Parker. “We all appreciate loyalty. I have had a number of universities come to me regularly, once or twice a year, to do search work for them. I don’t think I have an example where it’s been quite as tall as that.”

In recent weeks, Parker’s thoroughness has been questioned in its work with Rutgers. With the school reeling from a player-abuse scandal involving the men’s basketball coach, Parker failed to uncover a similar incident in the background search of Julie Hermann, the newly hired athletics director.Online shopping for cableties from a great selection of Clothing. Baker, who parted ways with Parker to start his own search firm, called it a black eye for the search profession.

“A problem that surfaces in the context of Rutgers and Emmert is, ‘How competent are these firms?’ ” Arthur Miller, chairman of the NYU Sports & Society Program,Starting today, you can buy these thequicksilverscreen and more from her Victoria. told USA TODAY Sports. “One might wonder whether there is a buddy system operating in how schools pick the search firms and whether scarce dollars are being needlessly expended to pick the obvious candidate. As yet, though, no proof of skullduggery — just bad judgment.”

Hermann, a former volleyball coach at Tennessee and administrator at Louisville, seemed like a good hire at Rutgers. But shortly after her appointment The Star-Ledger in Newark found that Hermann’s former players at Tennessee had accused her of verbal abuse.

Parker had extensive conversations with Hermann’s boss at Tennessee, former women’s athletics director Joan Cronan, but issues between Hermann and the volleyball team did not come up, according to an e-mail obtained by USA TODAY Sports from Richard Edwards, the co-chair of Rutgers' search committee, to the 28-person group.

As many search firms do, Parker contracted with an outside investigative firm, Kroll Inc., to vet the finalists. Hermann and others signed a form authorizing background checks and vowing that the information provided was “true and correct and that my application or employment may be terminated based on any false, omitted or fraudulent information.”

Parker notified Rutgers’ administration of two lawsuits that included Hermann: one for pregnancy discrimination, filed by an assistant coach that resulted in a $150,000 jury verdict in 1997, and a 2008 wrongful termination case while Hermann was at Louisville, which is being appealed to Kentucky’s Supreme Court.

“I was unaware of the women’s volleyball team and their unhappiness,” said Candace Straight, a member of the Rutgers search committee. “When I read that in the Star-Ledger, I called up Julie personally and asked her tough questions and asked her to explain it to me. I felt very comfortable with what Julie told me, and I continue to support Julie 100 percent.”

Straight said she was impressed with the thoroughness of Parker’s preparation — setting up a secure website that the executive committee could access to review candidates, supplying a list of 60 candidates, helping narrow it to 14 and setting up interviews for 10.

Chris Hunt, president of HSZ Media, Inc., which publishes the industry’s trade publication, said a large search committee and little time to vet the finalists made Rutgers’ search problematic. Hermann had an opportunity to disclose any potentially embarrassing information and did not tell Parker about player issues at Tennessee.

“She knew why she was coming in, so that should have been the first thing she should have brought up, clearly, and it was not,” Hunt said. “I know the firm and I know the type of due diligence they do, so I really feel they did all they could have done and should have done in this case. It’s an unfortunate situation. It’s an embarrassment. It’s really a shame that this happened. I don’t think the search firm is to blame in this particular case.”

Rutgers spokesperson E.J. Miranda said of Parker, “We retain all consultants on a case-by-case basis based on a review of qualifications and price and the specific needs of the university at that time.”