A Ranking of SEC Athletic Directors from Stadium Sports
Recent work from Brett McMurphy and Jeff Goodman at Stadium Sports ranked and graded the 14 athletic directors from the Southeastern Conference entering the new sports season.
It's with little surprise that Vanderbilt's athletic director Candice Storey-Lee is at the bottom of the list, though not because of any disrespect, or because it is Vanderbilt.
Lee is there because she, along with Keith Carter at Ole Miss, and Allan Greene at Auburn are all new to their posts and have no track record with which to rank or grade.
Here's what the writers said of Lee.
"Analysis: Candice Storey Lee was recently promoted after serving as the interim AD following the departure of Malcolm Turner. Lee is a former Vandy women’s basketball player who has worked in the athletics department for nearly 20 years. As for her current coaches, Derek Mason (27-47 overall) returns on the football side, while basketball coach Jerry Stackhouse is back after going 11-21 in his first season in Nashville."
This isn't an attempt to diminish Lee, it is a look at the current situation of each school athletically, and the person leading that department based on experience and how their record of coaching hires is valued.
Athletic directors like Scott Woodward at LSU and Greg Byrne, at Alabama have held similar positions at other schools and have made coaching hires.
For example, Woodward at Washington hired Chris Peterson and then Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M. Byrne hired Dan Mullen at Mississippi State, giving these two a sizeable advantage when attempting to grade them in their role as leader of an athletic department.
While there are no other details to evaluate how the rankings and grades were given, it's something to read and another thing sports fans can debate about in these days without actual sports to keep us busy,
Follow Greg on Twitter @GregAriasSports and @SIVanderbilt or Facebook at Vanderbilt Commodores-Maven
