There are more holes in this story than a Kennedy conspiracy theory but the fact Darren Mueller is staying as the NDSU softball coach rather than accept two Big Ten jobs is almost unheard of. So, deduct the following: the University of Minnesota is one dingy of an athletic department.

We’re hearing that four coaches have turned down the position now. Four.

Now, softball isn’t a marquee sport in Gopherland by any means but a job within a department is still a job within a department. The politics within the organization … who knows what is going on. And you wonder how football lost to the I-AA Bison and you wonder how the Gophers will ever make a run at a Big Ten football title. If you can’t hire a softball coach, then who can you hire? Makes the Tubby Smith hiring all the more puzzling.

And what’s that also say about Wisconsin. Mueller won’t talk about it until the Badgers make a hire, but bank on it that he turned down the Badgers, too.

Maybe the big time in some places is not so big time. Greg McDermott got the heck out of dodge at Iowa State for the security of Creighton. Wisconsin, by the way, hired the Creighton softball coach only to see him change his mind and head back to Creighton a week later. Aaron Johnston and his ungodly winning percentage is staying at SDSU.

And this week, a Bison coach said no to the Big Ten. Goldy Gopher needs some meds.