Our view: Others could take a lesson from BC's hard line
Boston College's threat to fire head football coach Jeff Jagodzinki if he interviewed for another job may have seemed harsh. But perhaps it's time people in high-profile, well-compensated positions are penalized for breaking their word.
Jagodzinski took over the BC program — among the most competitive in the country on the field, and at the very top in terms of the percentage of players who graduate — in 2007 with a promise to stay at least five years. Yet the days following the Atlantic Coast Conference runner-up's loss to Vanderbilt in last week's Music City Bowl, found the coach looking for a job in the professional ranks.
BC wanted him to stay, but the lure of a job with the New York Jets or another NFL franchise proved too hard for Jagodzinki to resist. Many other big-time college teams would have thrown an extra million or so Jagodzinski's way in an effort to keep him. BC Athletic Director Gene DeFilippo reportedly told the coach that if he interviewed with another team, he was done.
Now if only local school boards would take a similar hard line when their superintendents, despite having negotiated lucrative, long-term deals, start to look for even more money elsewhere.
