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Scout's Relationship with the Athletic Dept.

IrishSlim

The Sultan of Swashbuckle
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A little over than a month ago, during a late night drunk posting session, I started calling an AD underling (NorthGARep) a plant. It was a complete joke.

Or so I thought.

I woke up the next noon to some curious reactions from board stalwarts. So, I kept poking and prodding. More and more curious reactions followed, including some post deletions from the moderators.

And then the PMs, Facebook messages, and emails started. (My contact info for the latter two is readily available to anyone who knows how to use the Google machine.)

Over the past four weeks, I've been contacted by 10 different people/posters who claim to be "in the know." (To be fair, I suspect one user posing as three different people, which would bring that total to 8 different individuals.) The recurring theme was this: Scout is only nominally independent of the University, and specifically, only nominally independent of the Athletic Department.

Some tidbits of our conversations follow. For obvious reasons, in agreeing to allow me to post these things, they all requested total and complete anonymity. Some are DC gurus, some are/were associated with Scout, some are current AD employees, others left their involvement with the WF sports programs unstated. Their motivations for sending me this information are their own and I didn't pry, but it's clear they were sent to me because I'm both a writer and a dickhead about censoring issues. So. Here we are.

I can't vouch for the veracity of these statements, but to borrow a phrase I learned in the Army, "where there's smoke, there's fire." Just passing along the information, I'll allow you all to determine what's legitimate and what's not.

***

- 4 different individuals claimed that Steve Shutt, Wake's Assistant Athletic Director of Media Relations, has multiple handles he posts from on DeaconSports. One specified "at least 3 or 4." I find this interesting because in email correspondences with DV7, Mr. Shutt has claimed to only lurk the boards and not post. (Correct me if I'm wrong about this, vision.)

- During the initial talks of this board being built, it was relayed to someone involved that "fucking with Scout is directly fucking with the Athletic Department and Wake," from someone in a prominent position.

- 1 emailer said that the relationship between Scout and the AD changed definitively when Naz was hired by the AD last summer. "It became a direct relationship, and ... [they] felt like they now had direct oversight."

- 2 individuals, after admitting a "clear and definite relationship" exists between Scout and the AD, argued that it's not DS' fault per se. Access and recruiting info has withered away since Dino left, they said, and that the AD made vague insinuations of cutting it off even further unless the free board was "cleaned up." A 3rd individual went on to describe a palpable fear within the AD and the basketball program that the BuzzOut movement is greatly harming recruiting efforts. (It wasn't RJ, either! I don't think.)

- The first 2 individuals mentioned in the paragraph above, when pressed to describe the relationship between Scout and the AD, used the words "feeder" and "proxy," respectively.

- 1 emailer argued that some of the DC moneymen who went to Ron Wellman last year about Dino, using "culture change" as a reason to justify their opinions, are now concerned Wellman has taken that argument too much to heart.
 
Steve Shutt did indeed tell me he was a lurker of DeaconSports.


He then thanked me for my passion for Wake Forest!
 
Interesting, I will agree that the line became extremely blurry when the AD hired Naz, but I'm still very happy for Naz to have received that position and think he's a great guy. He also seems to have really posted a lot less since that happened.

Still, not too surprising. It is what it is. They get some inside information but have to be a little more mindful of what gets posted. I will credit them for leaving a lot of the Bzzout stuff up that isn't just repeated material or people trying to get a reaction (*cough* Dv7 *cough*). :p
 
I know at least one of these moneymen. A person who donates a great deal of money to Wake every year. His cash flow to the DC is being cut off because of the culture change that Wellman and [Redacted] brought about and the product that we put on the basketball court this year.
 
All very interesting. The idea of them assuming they had "oversight" over those message boards is both laughable and noxious.
 
I assume this is one of the bombs to drop today. Interesting stuff, but not a surprise at all. Thanks for the post. This is why we need an alternative forum.

From the AD's perspective, it's not in the university's interest to have a public forum in which fans can express such dismay with the athletic programs.

Of course, in the fans' interest, it's not in the university's interest to have public athletic programs that put such a poor product on the field/court.
 
"A 3rd individual went on to describe a palpable fear within the AD and the basketball program that the BuzzOut movement is greatly harming recruiting efforts."

Ugh. Buzz and Wellman are the reasons why the BuzzOut movement exists, ergo Buzz and Wellman greatly harm recruiting efforts.
 
In my direct interactions with Mr. Shutt, I can say he definitely reads the boards, but he's never mentioned anything about posting. He definitely knows the happenings of the board though. I cant blame him or even RW if they read the boards....its a quick and easy way to gauge how the fanbase is taking things, even if we are the lunatic fringe.
 
None of this is altogether surprising. Given that you've received this information from several third party sources, it sounds totally credible.

I find it humorous they are so worried about the control of information about Wake Forest sports that they feel threatened by this board, by #BuzzOut, and by things posted on the free NK Sports board.

Perhaps rather than worrying about suppressing fans' fears about the program, they should work on bettering the program itself. The boards really are representative of Wake alumni opinion on the whole about Bzzz, the program, and the AD's office. They can accept that or ignore it, potentially at their own peril. But they ought not to pretend as if #BuzzOut and the dissatisfaction within the fanbase is confined to loony internet posters. It's very real.

BuzzOUT
 
In my direct interactions with Mr. Shutt, I can say he definitely reads the boards, but he's never mentioned anything about posting. He definitely knows the happenings of the board though. I cant blame him or even RW if they read the boards....its a quick and easy way to gauge how the fanbase is taking things, even if we are the lunatic fringe.

Agreed
 
Interesting, I will agree that the line became extremely blurry when the AD hired Naz, but I'm still very happy for Naz to have received that position and think he's a great guy. He also seems to have really posted a lot less since that happened.

Still, not too surprising. It is what it is. They get some inside information but have to be a little more mindful of what gets posted. I will credit them for leaving a lot of the Bzzout stuff up that isn't just repeated material or people trying to get a reaction (*cough* Dv7 *cough*). :p

This is what I have a problem with. I agree Naz is a great guy and my problem with him being a mod isn't personal at all. It's just that there can't be a sense of separation between the board and the athletic department when an AD staff member is a board mod.
 
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I assume this is one of the bombs to drop today. Interesting stuff, but not a surprise at all. Thanks for the post. This is why we need an alternative forum.

From the AD's perspective, it's not in the university's interest to have a public forum in which fans can express such dismay with the athletic programs.

Of course, in the fans' interest, it's not in the university's interest to have public athletic programs that put such a poor product on the field/court.

Excellent point. I don't really blame the AD for their reaction - it's their job to protect their interests and the institutional voice. Personally, I'm more disappointed in Scout for not standing up for themselves. It's not like there's much of an alternative. (YET.) Sounds like they bent over, picked up the soap, took it, and then asked for more.
 
None of the above would surprise me. I would imagine they're largely dependent on the AD for access and info, info which they make money off of. Perhaps that explains the recent halfhearted crackdown. Of course they can't pull every angry thread- those threads get the most responses. If they did it would look ludicrous. The fanbase is as angry as I've ever seen it. People see the future and it ain't pretty.
 
In my direct interactions with Mr. Shutt, I can say he definitely reads the boards, but he's never mentioned anything about posting. He definitely knows the happenings of the board though. I cant blame him or even RW if they read the boards....its a quick and easy way to gauge how the fanbase is taking things, even if we are the lunatic fringe.

The lunatic fringe are the ones who buy tickets to bowl games (and even season tickets) that they know they're not going to use. The lunatic fringe are the ones who travel all over the country to watch our teams play. This lunatic fringe member plans on spending Thanksgiving in Orlando to watch our basketball team play regardless of how bad and embarrassing I think we'll be.

I don't think the connection between the AD and the Scout boards is new. It's just formalized. I have no personal knowledge of the internal working of the boards or what cagles does or whatever, but it's clearly in their best interest to have a good relationship with the AD given the premium model and the Scout format. So I'm not under the impression that members of the AD haven't had an active role in what's going on over there anyway and I'm sure cagles has a good working relationship with folks in the AD. Now with Naz employed by the AD in a clear conflict of interest and DemanDeac as a mod, it's just formal and the AD believes they can assert themselves and throw their weight around.

The boards moved away from what Kent originally intended them to be, a place for Wake fans to openly talk about Wake sports. Hopefully this new forum will restore that goal.

Hopefully this shake up is a reality check for the AD that they can't just put a bunch of crap on the field that we'll accept because we're a "family".
 
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This is what I have a problem with. I agree Naz is a great guy and my problem with him being a mod isn't personal at all. It's just that there can't be a since of separation between the board and the athletic department when an AD staff member is a board mod.

I'd agree with this. It's a conflict of interest IMO
 
Anyone remember the massive coverup back when ILT and GoDeacs became mods? There was a thread mentioning seeing some sort of initiation at WFU, and it was quickly removed by the mods. I want to say this was back around the time of the Orange Bowl, or shortly thereafter?
 
Steve Shutt gave fluff answers to all my questions even after asking me to ask said questions.

I found his skirting of the issues I raised to be extremely dissatisfying. So I thanked him for his response and left it at that.

I don't think he, or anybody in the Ath Dept, owe me anything personally, but it would be nice if they didn't treat the entire fanbase like children by spouting off nonsense to us. "Couldn't be happier" and all that from Ron Wellman was him just flat out lying to us. I find that to be just horrible rhetoric and completely dishonest.

I expected better of Mr. Wellman, and thru this whole process he has found himself wanting.
 
Anyone remember the massive coverup back when ILT and GoDeacs became mods? There was a thread mentioning seeing some sort of initiation at WFU, and it was quickly removed by the mods. I want to say this was back around the time of the Orange Bowl, or shortly thereafter?

Not at all. Enlighten me.
 
I never posted on scout but I checked everyday and etc and I find this post very interesting. as an outside from all of this but knowing DV7 i find this post very helpful in knowing bits of what all was going on in the inner workings of the department. thanks!
 
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