In November, Rutgers athletic director Tim Pernetti viewed a video of coach Mike Rice physically and verbally abusing his players. That very same month, he spoke on an NYU panel on the role of sports in society. His main responsibility as an AD, Pernetti told the assembled crowd, "is the well-being of young people."

We've examined the difficulties faced by first-year athletic director Jeff Hammond, who inherited a multi-million-dollar budget deficit when he took over at Southern Miss. Complicating matters was the performance of the team, which went 0-12 under new head coach Ellis Johnson. Johnson had been hired under lame-duck AD…

Last month, we took a look at the University of Southern Mississippi football program and its athletic director, Jeff Hammond, who a year ago inherited a coach he never wanted and a multi-million-dollar athletic department deficit he had to fix. Last month, he addressed the former by firing coach Ellis Johnson after an …