Florida Atlantic University started its football program to market FAU. This year, the market is down.
Palm Beach Post file photo of FAU head football coach Carl Pelini.
Last winter, FAU accepted $6 million from GEO Group, which runs private prisons and detention centers, to name the football stadium. That deal collapsed after revelations of GEO’s alleged human-rights abuses. Mary Jane Saunders, the FAU president who had defended the deal, was forced out.
On Wednesday, FAU forced out Head Coach Bo Pelini and defensive coordinator Pete Rekstis for what the university called their use of illegal drugs, reportedly marijuana. Mr. Pelini went a combined 5-15 this season and last. The Owls have four more games on this year’s schedule.
To many people, the decision to force out the coaches was an easy one. Marijuana is illegal in Florida, and universities cannot condone criminal activity by any staff member, especially those in high-profile positions.
But there is no indication that the coaches were selling drugs, and the federal government recently announced that it would back off enforcement in Washington state and Colorado, where voters legalized marijuana use.
There is a nationwide debate on the legalization, or at least decriminalization, of marijuana. One can assume that a percentage of FAU students use marijuana. Perhaps the coaches should been suspended, but not forced out, and ordered to speak about the use of drugs. Colleges have kept successful coaches even if arrests of players pile up under those coaches.
What do you think? Should FAU have forced out the football coaches over drug use? Take our poll and/or leave a comment.
