They're the new power trippers of college sports, pushing the star coaches aside as they puff out their chests.

Once, athletics directors were old college coaches. They had a measure of coolness, calm and protocol. They had a human touch. Eventually, though, the university presidents, obsessed over budgets and bottom lines, started hiring the marketers, the P.R. flaks and the bankers to be athletics directors. They started hiring people who lived to see their names in the headlines.

	Kansas AD Al Bohl, right, had some explaining to do after Jayhawks hoops coach Roy Williams criticized Bohl's firing of football coach Terry Allen.

What happened? Maybe the pencils were suddenly sharper, but you also ended up with a lot of men trying to be someone they just aren't. They want respect, but couldn't get it with sweater vests and slide rules. These ADs act tough. They march onto campus, unpack a few boxes and fire a football coach in the middle of a season.

This isn't the NFL. This isn't the pros. It shouldn't happen this way.

Meet new Kansas athletics director Al Bohl, hired mere months ago and one who spits out statements he learned at a leadership self-help workshop. Things like, "Al Bohl runs a tight ship," and "Al Bohl doesn't stand losing." Well, Al Bohl needlessly fired his football coach, Terry Allen, with three games left in the season. And Al Bohl couldn't wait to get to his news conference and essentially declare to everyone: "Al Bohl is going to find you a good football coach," and then Al Bohl smiled for the television cameras.

Worst of all, Bohl wasn't even the first athletics director to fire a football coach with games left this fall. Navy's Chet Gladchuck is guilty, too. The Academy hired Gladchuck in September, and his winless football coach, Charlie Weatherbie, was dismissed in October. At Navy, athletes are actually taught to value and honor leaders -- not throw them overboard in mid-battle.

So, what are they teaching the Midshipmen with this firing? And what are they teaching those Jayhawks, too? What are they teaching them about the priorities of football at a supposed non-factory? And what message is sent about athletics at these universities and beyond, where people are constantly searching for reasons to doubt the integrity of these football operations?

Bohl and Gladchuck could've had their little announcements, declared Weatherbie and Allen done at season's end and started coaching searches with clear consciences.

	Weatherbie led Navy to a bowl victory five years ago, but the Midshipmen won just once in his last 18 games.

This isn't a plea to save a coach's job. Allen and Weatherbie don't deserve it. Navy's coach had uncommon security for an academy, just five seasons into a 10-year contract that owes him $1 million. Allen had his chance to resurrect Kansas. It didn't happen. Maybe he overscheduled, but it's clear there was little progress for the Jayhawks. This is life. Coaches want to be paid CEO salaries but own the tenure of a math professor.

This is a plea for presidents and athletics directors to stop making this sport look, feel and seem so professional. The NFL doesn't often fire coaches at mid-year. So why are two-bit, small-time football losers daring to do it? Whatever Bohl and Gladchuck tell you, they aren't doing this to try out coordinators for the head job. These are two athletics directors with track records of inflated, self-important egos, and ADs like that never promote from within for their first big hires. They'll never get headlines that way. And that's what they're all about.

Alabama's Mike Dubose dragged that university through an embarrassing office affair, lost a lot of games and ended his tenure with his program under investigation for alleged recruiting violations. Still, Alabama let him complete the season before firing him. Understand: DuBose deserved to get fired on the spot. He deserved to get fired, picked up, and fired again.

Allen and Weatherbie never embarrassed those schools, except on Saturdays anyway. There are far worse crimes than losing in college sports that go unpunished every day. It's a disgrace that administrations allowed Bohl and Gladchuck to get away with this. These ADs weren't making midseason changes to make a push for a bowl berth.

How do these ADs keep their jobs -- never mind get new ones? Know what Gladchuck did for the University of Houston before washing up at Navy? He hired Clyde Drexler as basketball coach, whose spectacular failure surprised no one except Gladchuck and the Houston boosters living in the Guy Lewis past. Two years ago, Gladchuck hired a football coach, Dana Dimel, for Houston. Now Dimel shares something with the deposed Weatherbie: He's winless on this season, too.

	Terry Allen made it through four straight losing season at Kansas, but couldn't make it through a fifth.

Kansas basketball coach Roy Williams did something surprisingly noble. He called out his new boss on the timing of Terry Allen's firing. Al Bohl doesn't like to be told Al Bohl made a mistake, so Al Bohl went to the papers and defended Al Bohl.

"I'm running this program," he told The Kansas City Star. "I'm not asking Roy for permission to do things. It's a new era here. I'm going to run this program like a CEO would run a company. There's going to be no confusion over who's in charge."

During his days at Fresno State, there was no confusion: Bohl was forever selling himself as the ethical voice lording over a basketball coach with a tainted track record. In reality, Jerry Tarkanian ran the athletic department, with Bohl nothing more than his errand boy.

This time, he isn't much better. After Bohl fired Allen, the coach said goodbye to his players in the locker room. He wanted to be remembered as a good person, he told them, and then, Allen started to leave. Reportedly, his players wouldn't let him. The Jayhawks stood and delivered Allen a standing ovation.

Upstairs, alone in his office, there was Al Bohl, probably applauding himself. Welcome to 2001, when slide rules met ego, and small-time college football programs tried to play the part of the pros.

Adrian Wojnarowski is a sports columnist for The Record (Northern N.J.) and a regular contributor to ESPN.com.