Cigarroa's Real Play

"Or what king, going to make war against another king, does not sit down first and consider whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? Or else, while the other is still a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks conditions of peace."
Luke 14:31-32

The good news is that Bill Powers' reign of terror will soon end:

AUSTIN, Texas--After three years of deteriorating relations with his employers on the University of Texas Board of Regents and a growing scandal involving legislators allegedly using their clout to get friends and family admitted without proper qualifications, UT president Bill Powers on Wednesday offered his resignation effective June 2015.

 The bad news is that Powers gets another year to entrench the culture of mediocrity at UT.

When this website first saw Kay Bailout's spin we almost bought it:

Post by Texas Exes.

But here's the thing: prior to Michael's article last week, the conventional wisdom was that Powers would remain indefinitely.  Five days later, with a deadline for public humiliation in place, Powers 'voluntarily' resigned.  This website has a funny feeling the original leak to Michael was Cigarroa's gambit to 'lead' Powers to the result UT-Reformers wanted.

'Rejection then retreat' appears frequently in sales:

This technique is often applied. You request something greater to get a smaller thing done. Let’s imagine that you sell dining tables. You could take your customer to the cheapest table in the hope that he will buy that, at least. Or you could take him to the most expensive, which he will probably reject and then move to cheaper ones. Not really surprisingly the second approach works far better. However, it is surprising that your customer will also be more satisfied because you retreated. [Emphasis Added]

Of course, BOR took the bait:

In the end, Bill Powers' resignation effective June 2, 2015 -- submitted and accepted by lame-duck UT System Chancellor Francisco Cigarroa in advance of today's meeting -- was the least-bad option possible in the situation. [Emphasis Added]

Texas Monthly also drank the kool-aid:

Powers was the winner, and Rick Perry was the loser.

Whatever the ex post facto spin, the business as usual crowd cannot deny that ten days ago it was widely assumed Powers was safe.

Bottom Line: Powers is leaving.  Instead of Rick Perry, Dan Patrick gets to influence the hiring of the next U.T. President.  That's not a bad place for U.T. reformers to sit.

#HookEm!!!