Northern Iowa has narrowed its list of candidates for the vacant athletic director's job to five, but only one has a former connection with the school - Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union executive director Troy Dannen. Does that matter? Sports writers Kelly

Beaton and Sean Hylton clash on the subject:

Sure, Beaton, I may be drinking Kool-Aid, but you must be drinking something a little more potent … and it isn't truth serum. Excuse me, I forget young Mr. Beaton is from the Harry Potter generation. Perhaps I should have said polyjuice potion.

Like many other schools its size, UNI can easily be lost in the deep sea of collegiate acronyms. Sure, for people like me who graduated as a Panther, the school evokes significant memories and emotion.

But, to someone who didn't wear purple and gold?

It might as well be another

faceless acronym on the horizon. If us Northeast Iowans can't see anything special about other mid-major types - schools like BSU (Ball State University), WMU (Western Michigan University) and GSU (Georgia Southern University), how can we expect outsiders to share our purple passion?

Sure, a paycheck helps. But when the days get long and tasks get tough, money can only motivate a person so much.

Allow me to quote an especially wise philosopher, Peter Gibbons from Office Space:

"It's not that I'm lazy. It's that I just don't care. … My only real motivation is not to be hassled. That, and the fear of losing my job. But, you know, Bob, that'll only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired."

Indeed, the next Panther athletic director needs to have purple pulsating through his veins, because UNI won't pay an AD the money Ohio State can, can't match the athletic tradition UCLA has or duplicate the sunny climate of Florida.

No, there has to be more of an attachment to the institution for a mid-major to matter as much as it needs to.

Backers want to know the AD won't be watching the classified ads for the next career move, and they want a boss who will make decisions based on the best interest of the school.

Yes, in the end, it's about loyalty to a job that deserves it.

Oh, and Beaton, by the way, I still need to see those TPS reports on my desk. Didn't you get the memo?