As university officials ask MSU's head football coach to leave one week before elections, political analysts and election candidates say they believe the decision to relieve John L. Smith was not a political move to sway voters.
Instead, it was for the good of the football team, which has a losing 4-5 record under Smith's reign this season.
"Nobody likes having to make these sort of decisions — I believe this is the right one," said MSU Trustee David Porteous, who is one of two trustees running for re-election Tuesday. "I have no idea what that means at the election. I just support the president on this decision."
Trustee Dee Cook, who also is an election candidate, said Smith's dismissal is significant to the MSU community because the board chooses and approves who will become the next football coach.
"This decision is bigger than me and the election right now," Cook said. "This decision was made in order to help the university out — I had nothing to do with its timing."
Just as Smith was asked to leave his position, former MSU football coach George Perles also was fired prior to the football season's end and is running for a position on the board.
Perles was relieved of his position in 1994 after a decade of coaching. He attempted to sue the university because of his dismissal, but the suit was eventually dropped.
Perles did not return The State News' phone calls.
Mark Grebner of Practical Political Consulting, 220 Albert Ave., said the election had no influence on this decision.
"They took more of a football perspective than a political perspective when making this decision," Grebner said.
"It does help Perles even more being the old football coach, but the decision made by the president was probably not because of the election."
He added that he worries if Perles is elected Nov. 7, football could dominate the board's agenda.
"That is a football faction there," Grebner said. "Priority number one might be football all the time, and it makes it feel as if it is a football team attached to a university rather than a university with a football team."
Ed Sarpolus, vice president for the Lansing-based polling company EPIC-MRA, said he also believed this had more to do with football than politics.
This decision could make it easier for MSU to find the right coach, Sarpolus said.
"President Lou Anna K. Simon and the board had been under constant pressure to get something done from outside influences like alumni and donors," he said. "Secondly, if we want to get the right coach, it becomes easier if we can talk to this coach while the season is still going on before another team comes into the picture and picks them up."
Cook said she has no idea how this might influence the voters but does hope football is not the only thing they are placing their vote on.
"If (voters) are that narrow about only thinking about the football program and nothing else at this university, then I don't know what to think about that," Cook said.
Staff writer Laura Collins contributed to this report.
