Tate: Waiting game burns UI in AD search

Speed is no longer needed in the search for an athletic director.

That’s because University of Illinois leaders made a mistake (imagine that!).

If the board of trustees, in cahoots with an interim chancellor (Barbara Wilson) and a first-year president, felt so strongly that Illinois needed a new direction, they should have dropped the ax on

Mike Thomas no later than football’s off week beginning Oct. 11.

By waiting until the football report came out Nov. 9, two negatives happened.

One, many fans were confused by the firing of Thomas while on the same day he was found to have done nothing ethically or institutionally wrong. Poor timing.

Two, the firing came too late to bring in a new director to…