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What would Robert Witt do?

Michael Schill is the president of Northwestern University. At least he holds that title as I write these words. An asterisk seems necessary because the obvious leadership crisis at that school didn’t begin or end with the head football coach he suspended and then dismissed three days later.

In short, Schill is no Robert Witt.

Witt will be remembered for many things during his tenure as the University of Alabama president, but two stand out. On his watch, the school fired Mike Price and hired Nick Saban. Those decisions distinguished Witt as a rarity among his colleagues. By his actions as well as his words, he made it clear that football is extremely important to the university, but it is not all-important.

Keeping major college football in the proper perspective can be an impossible needle to thread as a CEO of an institution where you are neither the most highly paid employee nor the most powerful. Twenty years ago, two months into the job in Tuscaloosa, Witt threaded it perfectly.