Strike 1: The timing of Joe Parker’s dismissal was just odd. Yet something about it was familiar.

The now former athletic director at Colorado State is a good man, understated and professional. He’s got a deep and diverse resume, and his almost nine full years at the helm in Fort Collins were largely positive, winning 24 Mountain West titles in non-revenue sports. So his dismissal, coming right in the middle of an NCAA Tournament bid push by the Ram’s men’s hoops team, screamed out that something wasn’t right in areas that most followers can’t see.

Typically when an AD gets let go, it’s because one of the two major sports, football and/or basketball, has hit the skids. The AD had hired coaches who just didn’t work out, with his or her lack of success being tied closely to the failings of those coaches. Yet by all accounts, most everyone in the Fort remains happy to have football coach Jay Norvell and men’s basketball coach Nico Medved in the fold. The football program appears to be on the rise, while the hoops team is headed for a nice seeding in March Madness.

So what went wrong?

First the familiar part: Flashback to the end of November 2011. CSU was about to close out a 3-9 football season under Steve Fairchild. Without warning, then CSU president Tony Frank called a news conference that simultaneously announced the dismissal of six-year AD Paul Kowalczyk and the hiring of former CSU QB turned successful businessman Jack Graham. Graham had zero experience as a college administrator, but had an internationally successful insurance business.

The money was doing the talking.

At the press conference, Frank called Kowalczyk “a wonderful human being” who “worked hard on behalf of the university.” These are almost the exact same things that were said about Parker as he was shown the door. Frank added that there was, “a need to have someone take us to the next level, sooner rather than later.”

As it turned out, Graham was brought in almost entirely due to his support – financial and otherwise – for the construction of a new on-campus football stadium. Graham had the influence to get a vote approved, the funding in place and the ball rolling on what became the jewel, Canvas Stadium. He also fired Fairchild and replaced him with Jim McElwain.

Both the successful head coach and the novice AD were gone three years later, before the first on campus football game in almost 50 years was played.

Graham was replaced by Parker, a seasoned athletic department administrator who came over from Power Five school Texas Tech. He was the anti-Graham, understated and experienced. Parker hired Mike Bobo to replace McElwain and then hired Steve Addazio to replace Bobo. Two swings and misses. But he also let controversial yet successful men’s hoops coach Larry Eustachy go for non-wins/losses reasons, and hired Medved and Norvell. So perhaps he hit .500 on those.

Nonetheless, it appears that Parker was let go mostly over financial concerns (although there are reports about friction between Parker and Medved as well.) This time it wasn’t about money for facility upgrades, but money for player upgrades, as in Name, Image and Likeness dollars.

Being old school, it’s likely that Parker – as most long-tenured athletic directors are – was uncomfortable in dealing with the twin messes of NIL and the transfer portal. It appears, but hasn’t been confirmed, that current CSU president Amy Parsons heard the voices swirling around that told her CSU wasn’t doing enough as an athletic program to compete in the NIL universe. The fact that she immediately elevated CSU alum John Weber, who was the head of the department’s “Green and Gold Guard” NIL collective to be the interim AD certainly follows that line of reasoning.

Once again, follow the money?

Which leads to the question: Who will be the next AD at Colorado State? Will it be a seasoned athletic administrator like, say former CSU associate AD Mike Bohn, the former U of Colorado, U of Cincinnati and USC Athletic Director, who is currently out of work after leaving USC almost a year ago? Bohn’s got some baggage, but he’s also got a great resume. Or will it be someone we’ve never heard of, an up and coming staffer from a Power Four school who is well versed in dealing with matters of NIL?

Times are changing. Rapidly. Perhaps letting Parker go was a sign that CSU has plans to make rapid changes, too.