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After numerous reports surfaced on Monday that Texas Longhorns athletic director DeLoss Dodds would announce his retirement on Tuesday, the school released the news on Tuesday morning that it will hold a press conference at 2 p.m. CT that will be available on the Longhorn Network and Texassports.com.
Presumably, this press conference is to announce Dodds' retirement.
Besides the end of a era for Texas athletics that once appeared golden -- and has remained so in terms of profitability -- but has now left a greenish stain on hands of Longhorn fans, the real drama around the press conference surrounds the timetable for his departure, especially in regards to when the next athletic director will take over.
Based on the Statesman report, as well as others that emerged later, president Bill Powers will hire the replacement for Dodds, hopefully as soon as late November or early December, right around the end of the football season, but it was unclear about how long Dodds will stick around in that role before he becomes a high-paid consultant for the school.
If Dodds wants to have a say in the search for his replacement, it's hard to begrudge him that courtesy, but the sooner that he is out of the way after that decision is made, the sooner the new athletic director can start putting his mark on Texas athletics.
And does the rhetoric about head football coach Mack Brown change? Expect the Texas brass to continue to toe the line on that one, just as they did with Dodds. And it will mean exactly the same thing -- absolutely nothing.
At issue has been the $1 million after-tax annuity that Dodds is set to collect next August, which has been widely seen as an impetus for Dodds to stick around. The Statesman's Mark Rossner told me yesterday that Dodds will receive that payment regardless, removing one major impediment to his ultimate departure, whenever that may be.
Frankly, given all that Dodds has done for the athletic department, taking another cool million on the way out the door is well deserved given his body of work, even if the end of his career is problematic as it relates to his overall legacy.