Going Deep

The Petty Politics of Loboland

By Daniel Libit

On January 26, 2015, Craig Neal went to Santa Fe to collect a check.

At a press conference in the rotunda of The Roundhouse, Gov. Susana Martinez presented the University of New Mexico men’s basketball coach with a $10,000 donation to the “Pink Pack,” a cancer charity founded by Hugh Greenwood, the Lobos’ starting guard.

The next day, a photograph from the ceremony appeared, below-the-fold, on the front of the Albuquerque Journal’s sports section.

The image showed the governor and the coach standing face-to-face, staring intently into each other’s eyes: Neal’s right hand rests insouciantly on Martinez’s left shoulder, as she gazes up at him with a tight-lipped smile.

The picture captured, among other things, an increasingly rare sign of comity between the state’s chief executive and its largest university. But Neal was a special exception. Continue reading “The Petty Politics of Loboland” →

Self-promotion

Coming tomorrow…

How did the University of New Mexico become such a festering political swamp, which has consumed everything from UNM Hospital to Lobo basketball? Tomorrow, Sep. 5, we will plunge into this question with a 20,000-word exposé, based on over 50 interviews with key sources in and around the university. So you don’t miss it, please sign up for our email alerts on the left-hand rail of the website. 

                                                                                                       -Daniel Libit, NMFishbowl.com

        

 

 

School Ties

Letter: Audit puts UNM’s Accreditation at Risk

By Daniel Libit

The fallout from the financial scandals involving the University of New Mexico’s Athletics Department continues to cast a pall over the school.

A national organization in charge of accrediting universities has now notified UNM that its regional accreditation status is in potential jeopardy, pending the findings of a state audit into the school’s fiscal management. Continue reading “Letter: Audit puts UNM’s Accreditation at Risk” →

Companion Pass

Who Flies Free with the Lobos?

By Daniel Libit

How many people does it take to play a football game? Technically, 11.

But when the University of New Mexico football team flew to New Jersey last year to play Rutgers, it hauled 152 people along for the flight. Of those, only 72 were actually on the team. The remaining 80 included coaches and team personnel, doctors, trainers, cheerleaders, university officials, regents, development officers and various friends of the program. (Perhaps a pilot was in the mix, too.) Continue reading “Who Flies Free with the Lobos?” →

#SHOWLOBOS

Why We’re Suing Learfield/Lobo Sports Properties

By Daniel Libit

File this under: Same song, different verse.

In May, the University of New Mexico announced that Dreamstyle Remodeling would be the new naming-rights holder for The Pit and University Stadium. The agreement had the Albuquerque company paying UNM $10 million for the next decade of sponsorship. It piggybacked off the faltered deal UNM had struck, three years before, with WisePies Pizza and Salad. Continue reading “Why We’re Suing Learfield/Lobo Sports Properties” →

Executive Compensation

How UNM Recouped Neal’s Overpayments

By Daniel Libit

In July 2014, the same month the University of New Mexico gave Craig Neal a $200,000 raise, the university also entered into a “Memorandum of Agreement” with its  basketball coach that stipulated how he would return $123,710.83 he had been inadvertently overpaid. Continue reading “How UNM Recouped Neal’s Overpayments” →

Follow the Money

UNM Keeps Overpaying its Coaches by Accident

By Daniel Libit

In 2012, then-ESPN.com reporter Andy Katz wrote a story about then-UNM men’s basketball coach Steve Alford and his well-compensated skipper, Craig Neal.

“I pay him too much,” Alford jokingly said of Neal, who made $300,000 at the time as the Lobos’ top assistant.

Said Neal: “(Alford) does pay me too much and it makes it hard for me to leave.”

The funny thing (if heedless public spending is your kind of humor) is that when Alford left to UCLA, and Neal was promoted as his replacement, UNM actually did overpay him. By quite a lot. Continue reading “UNM Keeps Overpaying its Coaches by Accident” →

Truth or Consequences

BREAKING: Lobos Tagged with ‘Special Audit’

By Daniel Libit

The Office of the New Mexico State Auditor has formally notified the University of New Mexico of its intent to take a long, hard look into the finances of Lobo sports, according to a document obtained by NMFishbowl.com.

On Wednesday, State Auditor Tim Keller sent a letter to UNM Interim President Chaouki Abdallah, informing him that OSA had designated UNM and its component units for ‘Special Audit’. Keller wrote this determination came after his office had received “information raising concerns related to athletic fundraising activities and expenses.” Continue reading “BREAKING: Lobos Tagged with ‘Special Audit’” →

Modern Technology

Who Has Paul Krebs Been Calling?

By Daniel Libit

It has been a trying past few months for Paul Krebs, the University of New Mexico’s Vice President for Athletics: a dismal conclusion to the Lobo men’s basketball season; the discombobulated firing of Craig Neal; the preemption of WisePies’ naming-rights agreement; the procurement of Dreamstyle’s naming-rights agreement; the death — and rejuvenation — of UNM’s ski programs; and the unfolding scandal involving Krebs’ 2015 booster golf trip to Scotland. Continue reading “Who Has Paul Krebs Been Calling?” →