"It just was enlightening about where our society, culture and support group has gone in their expectations of what constitutes a quality program on a campus of higher education." - Todd Turner

Yesterday I scoffed at that comment a little bit at first reaction. Turner started talking about larger entities like society and culture in general. I have to say that I was looking at this pretty narrowly. This morning I read that quote again and it hit me. This is really the core reason why Todd Turner decided to resign from the program. For Turner, wins were not the number one priority of the program. Turner is more worried about developing quality individuals and building a culture of success. Sure, winning is part of that, but it wasn't the only objective.

Obviously, this leads us very quickly to a philosophical debate. What should the purpose of collegiate athletics be? Is it purely to win in sport? Are there larger objectives that athletics such as developing quality individuals?

In fact, these are questions that Turner himself struggled with:
"And I have to look at that after 32 years of doing this and say, 'Wow, is that really what we are all about? Have I been that naive all this period of time? I have been spending all my time on the student-athlete experience and trying to create better lives for people and the proper place in higher education when all I should have been worrying about is how many games we've won.'"

I'm sure some of you are banging your head against the wall by this point, but those are questions worth thinking about. It's the old "win games at all costs" versus "it matters how you win" debate.

I'm not one to discount values and the importance of sport in instilling those values. However, as a fan dedicated to a team, you care about the bottom line: winning games. I'd even go a step further to claim that from that point it is where all those other things like building quality individuals can take place. If you're a losing program, chances are you aren't going to be able to care about that as much nor will you attract the type of talent that will make your program competitive to begin with.

Yeah, there is more to all of this, but I really do think that you cannot discount the importance of winning. You play the game to win. You want to win the right way with dignity, but nevertheless the point is winning. Todd Turner is a nice guy. Maybe he was the right guy when he first came here. I'm not really sure. But I do know that it is clear his focus was not as much on winning as it should have been.