The (Durham) Herald Sun may lag behind The (Raleigh) News & Observer, but Durham's daily beat Raleigh's rag to opining about Duke's extending David Cutcliffe's contract through 2015.The Herald Sun's editorial board wholeheartedly endorsed the move in an editorial today, writing that the extension is "hard to challenge" given the program's obvious improvement.
The editorial was particularly significant because the Herald Sun's board expressed doubt's about Cutcliffe's hiring last December. The board questioned whether Duke should continue to chase excellence in football because such a pursuit could compromise the academic integrity of the school. A season of optimism ebbed those concerns:
Well, maybe it doesn't have to be that way. Cutcliffe has made a believer out of many who say Duke can be a winner in both academic and athletic endeavors. He made good progress on and off the field, stirring enough interest to draw more than 30,000 to Wallace Wade Stadium for each of four home games, a record. And it's likely these fans will come back, because Cutcliffe and his players gave them something entertaining to watch. Duke won four games in Cutcliffe's first year, matching the total victories of the previous four seasons. And in many of this year's losses, Duke was competitive to the last quarter, even though it had one of the toughest schedules in college football. Based on Cutcliffe's record, his ability to inspire players, and the positive attitude he restored to Duke football, extending his contract is hard to challenge.
More than anything, the extension is a public vote of confidence from the Duke administration, both to Cutcliffe and to future recruits. Indeed, most reactions to the extension have been laudatory--although it should be noted that Director of Athletics Kevin White also gave Notre Dame head coach Charlie Weis an extension midway through his first season, and that hasn't worked out so well in South Bend.
The News & Observer's editorial board has not voiced its opinion about the contract yet, using its space to tackle topics such as an N&O investigation into local government corruption, Vice President Dick Cheney's use of executive power and the soaring price of tickets to President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration. Cutcliffe's extension would make for a tidy editorial, especially because it is a piece of news that most of the N&O's audience--whether Duke fans or North Carolina or N.C. State aficionados--would care about.
The Chronicle's independent editorial board, like the rest of the newspaper's print staff, has ceased publication until Jan. 7. There are many stories for the board to take on--a falling endowment figures to be on the top of the agenda--but I would bet that it deals with Cutcliffe's contract in the first two weeks of the semester.
It's not everyday that a newspaper's editorial board can pointedly comment on sports issues. This, after all, happens to be one of those occasions.
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