Here's why I would be a lousy athletic director: In evaluating coaches, I would measure performance versus realistic expectations for any program (not performance versus the narcissistic wishes of big-money boosters and premium ticket-holders). This would be professional suicide, of course, but it might at least temporarily change the conversation about what is and is not important in college sports.

Seth Greenberg has been with the Virginia Tech Hokies for nine years. It is well documented that the Hokies made only one NCAA tournament appearance in that span, a fact that had to have been a major factor in Greenberg's being pink-slipped Monday in Blacksburg. (Hokies AD Jim Weaver cited other reasons, but you tell me whether we'd be having this conversation if Greenberg had earned a few more tourney bids during his tenure.)

Yet it seems that such a decision, when it involves a perennial bubble team, is less about institutional review and more about the isolated votes of a selection committee with no direct connection to the school.

And that's nuts.

Look, I've had more on- and off-air arguments with Seth Greenberg than I have with any other coach. In recent years, the Hokies have made more appearances in my "Last Four In" and "First Four Out" lists than any team in the country. I can only imagine the frustration in being a serious Virginia Tech basketball fan. But to dismiss a coach whose greatest failure is having an NCAA "bubble team" every year makes absolutely no sense.

Because realistically, that's his job.