The WSJ law blog has some nice research on the relationship between Colonial Bank and Auburn University, through its recently resigned CEO, the most powerful sports booster in America. He hired and fired every football coach and president at the university since 1983. He used his private jet for recruiting trips. He has an oppo blog. And, as the WSJ's cheeky chart comparing football wins and asset bases, Auburn's best two years, when it finished ranked 9th and 4th, were in 1993 and 1994, the years that Colonial reported its largest number of total assets (though the numbers look weird - Colonial blew up those two years, then shrank rapidly, and didn't really recover until the housing boom). But the CEO was so involved in Auburn that the university was put on probation by an accrediation agency, and the team isn't doing well any more. Perhaps the financial crisis - Colonial was sold by the FDIC to BB&T on Friday - will free Auburn of a micromanaging booster who might make it easier to higher a Nick Saban-like coach. And then, who knows, triumph in the Iron Bowl might just await.
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