This should end well.
With Illinois head coach Tim Beckman and members of the football and women’s basketball staff coming under fire for the way student-athletes have been treated, the University of Illinois called on an old friend for more help; good old Dan Beebe.
The former commissioner of the Big 12 Conference and his firm, the Dan Beebe Group, is being paid $50,000 by the University of Illinois for risk management services, according to a report from The News-Gazette. The firm is contracted to 11 months of work, during which time Beebe’s group will be tasked with guiding the university through the aftermath of three separate investigations commissioned in response to allegations of mistreatment of players within the football and women’s basketball programs, including Beckman.
It has been a rough offseason for Beckman in particular after former Illini player Simon Cvijanović dropped a haymaker on Beckman, suggesting Beckman abused his power as head coach and attacking players either physically or emotionally. Another former player of Beckman’s called him the worst coach he ever met. The stories did not end there, causing Illinois to find ways of standing by their football coach during a somewhat tumultuous time.
Whether Beckman was wrong or not in any of his actions, the costs are starting to add up for Illinois one way or the other. In addition to the $50,000 owed to Beebe’s firm, Illinois is on the hook for roughly $20,000 in public relations consultation and more for various hourly internal investigation charges. Beckman somehow managed to hold onto his job after last season because the Illini wiggled into the postseason. Despite some signs of small steps forward on the football field, the margin for error for Beckman may be getting narrower and narrower.