I wasn’t going to write a second thing today, or even this week, but when your brand new athletic director says something so galactically stupid at his own introductory press conference I just cannot help myself. Tommy McClelland was introduced as the New athletic director in West Lafayette earlier today. He won’t officially be on the job until January 1, 2027, but he has already hand delivered a piece of rivalry fodder to Bloomington we’re going to be seeing for a long time going forward:
I am appalled at the complete lack of self-awareness at this quote. I get it. You want to create a winning culture. You want to show you’re supporting your athletes.
I get it.
But you’re taking a shot at your bitter rival as they are coming off of one of the greatest seasons in the history of college football while you haven’t won a conference game in 3 years. Yes, I know he means for all sports across the board, but even that isn’t great before you consider that INDIANA IS LITERALLY THE REIGNING NATIONAL CHAMPION IN THE BIGGEST COLLEGE SPORT OF ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Historically, Purdue has won just three team NCAA championships in its history: 1961 Men’s Golf, 1999 Women’s Basketball, and 2010 Women’s Golf. David Boudia, Steele Johnson, & company have made Purdue a diving powerhouse with national championships and Olympic medals, but all this pales in comparison not only currently with IU. Historically, Indiana has won eight times as many NCAA championships. They are a national power in both metric and standard football right now. They are bringing home a haul of Olympic medals in the swimming pool every 4 years. Their baseball team has played in the College World Series semi-recently. Their women’s basketball program has been a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament more recently than we have even played in it. Their men’s program still has a national cachet. Yes, Purdue men’s basketball has done very well in recent seasons and is one of the premier programs in the second most populr college sport, but even then, the score is still 5-0 Indiana even with our recent national profile.
It’s not like Purdue has set the Big Ten on fire, either. Here is the complete list of team conference honors the athletic department has taken home in the last 10 years:
2017 Women’s Outdoor Track & Field
2017 Men’s Basketball
2019 Men’s Basketball
2023 Men’s Basketball
2023 Men’s Basketball Tournament
2024 Men’s Basketball
2026 Men’s Basketball Tournament
That’s it. That’s the list, and Matt Painter has done the heavy lifting. Dave Shondell continues to do an incredible job with volleyball. Greg Goff just had a solid baseball season and Meg Frezotti did the same in softball, but there is a huge difference between “solid year” and “Winning championships in the Big Ten. Indiana has more than that in a single sport, as they have won the Big Ten title in Men’s Swimming & Diving eight times in ten years, including the last five in a row.
This is “Stick both feet in your mouth all the way up to the thighs” levels of a lack of self-awareness. He said this as Indiana was the first 16-0 college football team in more than a century and they are the reigning champion at a time when college football has never been bigger with more money. In the last two years they have completed more “Greatest turnarounds in the history of not just this sport, but sports in general” than Purdue has won Big Ten football games. I mean… come on, man. I know their football coach made a name for himself with his “Google Me”, but the difference is he immediately backed it up (while kicking the living hell out of us 132-3 in the process).
Tommy, my dude, unless Barry Odom pulls off an even bigger miracle by taking Purdue to a 16-0 title this year with wins over at least three preseason top 10 teams (Indiana, Notre Dame, and likely Ohio State or Oregon in the B1G title game) you’re just going to look stupid. Also, we fans are never going to hear the end of it unless this specific scenario happens (well, maybe if Matt Painter gets his first natty we get some relief).
Again, I get that you want to establish a winning culture. I get that you also want to take a shot at your biggest rival, but this was an incredibly dumb thing to say at a time when not only is Indiana THE story in college football, but we haven’t won a game in our own conference in nearly three years. All you had to do was say, “We want to win championships here” and say how you’re going to elevate things. You can even take a shot or two jokingly at Indiana basketball. To say something like this, however… ugh. It is absolutely embarrassing and tone deaf to say this on literally day one.
He is not off to a great start.