re: from another board that will go unmentioned due to

Can anyone help clear some things up for me regarding the inner workings of our athletics department? First and foremost, I want to see JJ fired—I want to make that clear. Too many programs have suffered under his watch, and there should be an AD in place who is much more deserving of the position.

Now on to the real subject I wanted to put forth...

We have talked about a select group of individuals who hold the majority of control over decisions made within the athletics department—the "Good Ol Boy" group (GOB). I've only closely followed Auburn athletics since 2003, so I'm not completely aware of the GOB's history within Auburn athletics. Can anyone with a longer knowledge inform me on how long the GOB's have been influential? If you remember back to when JJ assembled the coaching search committee that brought us Gus, Mac Crawford was on it. He really didn't fit the bill as he seemed virtually unknown until he was announced to be on this committee. It seems as though he might've had the say for the GOB on the committee for who we should bring in next. Can anyone confirm if Mac Crawford is indeed considered as one in the group? I know these are a lot of questions on a group that A. might not even be that well defined and B. might not even exist as we think of it existing. I'm just looking for some clarity on the political workings of our AD.

Should JJ be fired, I know the President and BoT will have the final say on the replacement AD's hiring, but I cannot help to think that the GOB could have an indirect influence as well.

This may just be me being pessimistic, but due to these political workings behinds the scenes of our AD, I'm not even confident the infrastructure is in place to hire a competent replacement of JJ should the time come. It's easy to note the better Div I athletic departments, Cal, Stanford, USC, UCLA, UNC, Duke, Florida, Georgia. When the time comes for any of these schools to hire a new AD or coach, it seems as though they have a reliable process in place to hire a smart, long term candidate without the influence of any personal agendas. Contrarily, as an Auburn fan, I feel as though these Good Ol Boys are primarily worried about what's best for their own rank of power/egos instead of what's best for Auburn.

I want to see Auburn athletics be great, but lately, I've lost a lot of hope across the board in seeing progress in any sport. Unfortunately, I'm quite worried that the source of this goes farther back than anyone really wants to acknowledge. I wanted to get this out to you on here, and I'd like for any long time Auburn fans or anyone with "the know" on our athletics department to clear up any misconceptions I might have. Should I have hope as an Auburn fan?