If you are a college football fan the argument over the last three years with the advent of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) money, the open Transfer Portal, and the expansion of the major conferences is whether the Big Ten Conference or the Southeastern Conference (SEC) is now the dominant conference in college football.

 

Proponents of both conferences have their arguments for supremacy.  Over the last three years SEC fans can argue that they hold an 11-10 won-loss record against the Big Ten in inter-conference match-ups.  On the other hand, if you are a Big Ten fan like me, you can argue that the Big Ten has won the last three national championships.

 

However, if you are questioning where the governance of the National Funeral Directors Association (NFDA) marching orders come from you just need to take a look at my artificial intelligence-generated map of home addresses of NFDA Board members to see the SEC Conference-area is dominant. . . . .and there are no Big Ten area board members.

 

 

 

As you can see, aside from NFDA President Daniel J. Ford of Connecticut, the other eight board members hail from the Southern, or Confederate, or SEC Conference states!

 

I came across this fact as I registered for the upcoming NFDA convention just this past Monday and was looking at the NFDA magazine – The Director – as I was putting a temporary plan in place for my workshop schedule at the convention.  There is a photo listing of all the Board Members on Page 65 and I just happened to glance at it and noticed the addresses were almost all from the Southeast U.S.

 

Coincidence or a Reason?  —  I have had no malice or issues with the governance of the NFDA before or after my discovery of this situation.  And, I don’t have any answers as to why this phenomena has occured.  I just found it interesting and something I would pass along to all my colleagues.

 

One thought that I had is that the American South probably has the highest percentage of traditional burial rates of any geographic region in the United States and I wondered if that fact alone may have something to do with the apparent high interest of governance from this region. . . .That’s just a thought though.

 

The Big Ten/SEC and my role in U of Minnesota athletics —  When I served on the Board of Regents at the University of Minnesota part of our duties was to have “oversight” on Athletics.  The University of Minnesota participates in 22 college sports and has about 625 student-athletes on campus at any time.  The current budget for “Athletics” is about $151 million and has to be raised internally via television money, ticket sales, licensing fees, concessions, and donations.  Minnesota may be unique in that no state tax dollars are appropriated and used for Men’s Athletics.

 

Most people don’t realize that out of that budget the “Athletic Department” actually pays the academic departments and the housing department for the scholarship  athletes’ tuition, room, and board.  That cost, in itself, is about $13 million annually.

 

When the current Athletic Director of the university was hired in May 2016, University President Eric Kaler appointed myself and one other Board member to supervise the search committee hiring process.  That process resulted in the hiring of former Boise State and Syracuse Athletic Director Mark Coyle who remains at Minnesota and is now the 3rd longest tenured AD in the Big Ten.

 

Not long after that, in January 2017, I received a call from AD Coyle at my home notifying me that he had a new football coach that agreed to take the job at Minnesota, dependent on the pay scale.  However, the pay scale AD Coyle wanted to offer would be above the policy limits that the University had set for any University contract without the special approval of the Board of Regents and AD Coyle asked me to call my colleagues to see if we could get the pay scale raised in this instance.

 

I was able to call several of my colleagues and get assurances that they would make a one-time exemption to raise the pay scale in this instance.  I reported that to AD Coyle and later that evening P.J. Fleck was announced as the new football coach at Minnesota.  Coach Fleck is still at the U of Minnesota and now stands 2nd in seniority among Big Ten football coaches.

 

More news from the world of Death Care:

• Northport funeral director installed as state association president.  Huntington Now (NY)
• Stony Plain celebrates grand opening of new cemetery.  Town of Stony Plain – Alberta (Canada)
• Local preservationists work to restore Wayne County cemetery.  WHAM Channel 13 TV – Buffalo (NY)

 

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