Brother, can you spare 22 million dimes?

When the guano hits the fan, I don't know whether an academic is the guy you want emerging from an ivy-walled administration building to do crisis management.

Particularly when it involves something people actually care about. Like Nebraska football.

The Omaha World-Herald has another account from A Day in the Life of an Absent-Minded Ex-Law Professor:

This time Steve Pederson's trademark smile was missing.

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln athletic director walked briskly out of Chancellor Harvey Perlman's office at 1:35 p.m. Monday after a five-minute meeting.

Asked to stop for an interview, Pederson declined.

"I've got to get to another meeting," he said.

His days of meetings at Nebraska are over.

Pederson was fired Monday following a disastrous start to the Husker football season. Perlman said Pederson's leadership, not back-to-back 30-point losses, prompted his decision.

"I have become aware since July or August of a number of concerns from people in the athletic department about Steve's management style, about his connection with the staff, with donors, with fans, with former athletes," Perlman said.

Pederson no longer had the credibility to lead his staff, Perlman said.

In July, Perlman extended Pederson's contract five years through 2013, a move that will now cost the university more than $2.2 million in compensation.

Dissent inside the athletic department has been no secret. Several key employees have resigned or been fired in the past year, including chief fundraiser Paul Meyers two weeks ago.

Perlman said he wasn't aware of serious issues within the athletic department when he conducted a review of Pederson's leadership this summer.

"You know, it's really interesting that a person in my position ends up learning everything last," Perlman said.

Perlman said he decided to fire Pederson on Thursday, two days before Nebraska lost 45-14 on homecoming to Oklahoma State. He talked to President J.B. Milliken on Saturday morning but did not alert the Board of Regents until Monday morning.

IF YOU'RE THE MAN running the state university that's home to a big-time athletic program, it's a good idea to read the sports section. And watch the TV news.

And, for Pete's sake, have someone tape the Sunday-night TV sports call-in show 50 miles up the road in the state's biggest city.

If you're the absent-minded ex-law professor who's running the state university that's home to a big-time athletic program, and if you do that bare minimum, chances are good that you'll know enough about your wildly unpopular athletic director not to grant him a contract extension. One that's going to cost your school an extra $2.2 million after reality manages to worm its way behind those ivy-covered walls and make the obvious, well . . . obvious.

Even to an absent-minded ex-law professor.