My first reaction was "Huh?"
Late Thursday afternoon, word began to spread of a "hastily-called" meeting for members of the Missouri athletic department. As is often the case, the reason why became public soon after. Mike Alden was stepping down later this year as athletic director.
This was Alden's self-proclaimed "dream job" and after 17 years in the position, I had him pegged as a lifer who would hold the position as long as he wanted before leaving with a gold watch and a tearful good-bye press conference.
I got the tearful part right.
Alden was emotional when speaking Friday about his decision to leave later this year. He didn't get into specifics about the process of making the decision, just citing Martin Luther King Jr. and Christian pastor Rick Warren and saying it was time for someone else to lead and there were no health issues involved.
Alden owes no one a complete and definitive explanation about his decision. But it was just odd.
Anytime someone spends 17 years at a high-profile position, there are going to be positives and negatives. And there's no doubt, Alden had a lot of positives.
An athletic director at a major university is a politician. And he needs to raise money, lots of money. And there's no doubt Alden was very good at that.
Under his watch, Missouri built a new basketball arena and has made several improvements at and around the football stadium. When he took over, Missouri's athletic budget was $13.7 million. It's now $85 million. And the upgraded facilities cost $232 million, which came from private donations.
The move from the Big XII to the Southeastern Conference certainly helped the boom in bucks and may be Alden's lasting legacy.
And you can't forget Alden hired Gary Pinkel as head football coach, who has become Missouri's all-time leader in victories in the highest-profile sport.
But the men's basketball head coaching position has been a revolving door. Alden all but forced out Norm Stewart, then hired Quin Snyder. That soap opera ended badly and almost cost Alden his job. Then came Mike Anderson, who did a good job while waiting for the Arkansas job to become available. When it did, he couldn't get out of Columbia fast enough.
Next came Frank Haith, one step ahead of the NCAA posse. The fact Missouri claimed it knew nothing about the impending investigation Haith left at Miami is a headscratcher to this day. The jury is still out on Kim Anderson.
And anytime you hear ESPN and Outside the Lines in the same sentence with your institution, that's probably not good. Once is too much and Missouri has appeared more than that in recent years.
And how the university handled the cases of Derrick Washington, Michael Dixon and Sasha Menu Courey was not only irresponsible, it was reprehensible. You can't hold Alden personally responsible for what happened in any of the cases. But he was the one on top of the athletic pyramid and blame defies gravity and rolls uphill in situations like this. As it should.
There was some good, there was some bad, there was some ugly. But the Missouri athletic program is in a stable position and Alden deserves credit for that.