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GREENSBORO -- Athletics director Dee Todd said she wasn't alarmed when she was summoned to the fourth floor of the general administration building at N.C. A&T on Thursday morning. Twelve days had passed since the end of the Aggie football program's second straight winless season and Todd's public endorsement of coach Lee Fobbs and his staff.

Is Dee Todd a scapegoat? Join the discussion at the Debatables blog.

As recently as Nov. 19, she characterized the school's leaders as "supportive" of her efforts to manage a financially challenged department. So when Chancellor Stanley F. Battle informed Todd that he had reassigned her to an unspecified job in the university's School of Education, the 27-year veteran of college athletics administration was left with several questions, not the least of which was whether patience had cost her.

"Am I the scapegoat for football? You have to wonder," Todd said 90 minutes after the meeting. "I stand by my statement: Lee Fobbs is a great man, and people need to give him a chance."

Sources close to the program indicated no changes in coaching are imminent. Fobbs referred all comment to Mable Scott, A&T's associate vice chancellor for university relations. Scott did not respond to additional questions from the News & Record.

Todd came to A&T from an administrative position with the ACC in the summer of 2005. She was hired by James C. Renick, the school's chancellor at the time. Renick left after the 2005-06 academic year, and Todd has become the third AD to be removed from the post in this decade at A&T.

Wheeler Brown, a longtime associate AD, will be the third interim appointee and the sixth person overall to run the department in that time.

Todd said Battle, who took over as chancellor July 1, did not offer a specific reason for her reassignment during Thursday's meeting. University officials said they will initiate a national search, but Todd was skeptical about the search's outcome.

"If you keep changing your contractor when you're building a house, you're never going to get it built," she said. "If you keep changing, what quality person is going to come to A&T as athletics director?

"How many people would have left a job at the ACC, where I was very comfortable, where I had been for 17 years, where they didn't ask me to leave? I left to help. I left to build. If you can (treat) someone this way, who else is going to come?"

The change in job status apparently will come with an 11 percent pay cut. Todd said she may investigate whether her contract, a five-year agreement signed in 2005, allows the university to follow through on plans to reduce her annual salary from $135,106 to the $120,000 she made in the first fiscal year.

Battle's only comment on Todd's reassignment came in a four-paragraph statement released by the university:

"This decision was made in the best interests of the athletics program. The university expresses our appreciation for Ms. Todd's services and contributions during her tenure as athletics director."

Only last week, Battle offered a vague missive that began, "We have experienced a very difficult football season this year. The review of all athletics programs is well under way. There is considerable room for improvement in all athletics at A&T."

But in his next sentence, Battle said, "I fully support our football program."

Battle came to A&T from Coppin State University, which does not field a football team.

Todd apparently raised the chancellor's ire in September. Moments after the Aggies lost to longtime rival N.C. Central, a few Eagles players stomped on the logo on A&T's field in a derisive manner. Players from both teams scuffled briefly and the News & Observer of Raleigh cited Todd as the source of a comment that the schools' football series would be canceled. Todd denied saying that, but when Battle and Central Chancellor Charlie Nelms conducted an apologetic, joint news conference on the A&T campus a few days later, the Aggies' athletics director did not attend. She said representatives of the athletics department were not invited.

The schools have not said if they will play in Durham as scheduled in 2008.

Todd fired football coach George Small, an A&T alumnus who succeeded Bill Hayes, after the 2005 season. Small directed the Aggies to a MEAC championship in his first year, 2003, but was dismissed after losing campaigns in 2004 and '05.

Since that move, Todd has refrained from major changes. She has said player attrition following Small's departure was debilitating.

The Aggies, while still winless, went from being totally outclassed in 2006 to competitive in 2007. They were in position to win five of 11 games in the fourth quarter.

Todd gave men's basketball coach Jerry Eaves a new contract toward the end of 2006-07, in which the Aggies went 15-17. Their 10-8 MEAC record was their best in five years. In 2004, Eaves took over a team that was 1-26 the previous season.

Todd said A&T's overall athletics budget is the smallest of the nine football-playing institutions in the MEAC. Ascertaining the accuracy of that statement is difficult because private schools don't have to open their books to that degree of scrutiny and the most recent records available to the public are from the 2005-06 academic year. But according to those figures, provided by the U.S. Department of Education, A&T athletics as a whole spent $80,221 on recruiting that year -- about 50 percent less than the $125,400 spent, on average, by the other eight football-playing schools in the MEAC.

Todd's new job, if she chooses to accept it, will start Jan. 14.

"At the moment, I don't have any choice," she said. "I didn't even see it coming, so I don't know."

Administrative assistant Robyn Taylor contributed to this report.

Contact Rob Daniels at 373-7028 or rdaniels@news-record.com

TIMELINE OF TURMOIL

July 6, 1999: Alphonso Scandrett, most recently at SUNY Buffalo, hired as AD.

June 3, 2002: Scandrett fired as AD. Replaced on an interim basis by Roselle Wilson, vice chancellor for student affairs: ``The fit was not going to be the right fit at this point in time,'' Wilson said. ``Nothing was wrong. We're just going in a new direction.''

Oct. 9, 2002: A&T begins the public phase of "From Generation to Generation," a $100 million capital campaign considered the most ambitious fund-raising effort by an Historically Black College or University.

Oct. 11, 2002: Charlie Davis, a former Wake Forest basketball star most recently AD at Bowie State University in Maryland, introduced as AD.

Oct. 14, 2002: Pressure begins to mount on Bill Hayes, the winningest football coach in school history, two days after a loss during a Homecoming built around the capital campaign announcement.

Nov. 29, 2002: Bill Hayes fired as coach after 15 seasons.

Dec. 3, 2002: Davis acknowledges his interest in investigating a move from Division I-AA to Division I-A, the NCAA's highest classification of football. Davis tells Aggie players he has been in touch with Donald Watkins, an Atlanta financier and investment banker once linked with a $350 million plan for a Minnesota Twins baseball stadium, about leading the fund-raising effort necessary for any jump.

Jan. 14, 2003: George Small, a decorated A&T linebacker in the 1970s and most recently an assistant coach at Hampton University, is named as Hayes' successor.

Nov. 15, 2003: The Aggies defeat Hampton 38-28 for the MEAC championship.

Feb. 19, 2003: Chancellor James C. Renick abandons the I-A plans, citing cost concerns.

Nov. 12, 2004: Charlie Davis fired as AD. "It is time for the N.C. A&T Athletics Department to move toward new directions in keeping with the university's overall vision, mission and goals," Renick says. Reginald E. Wade, associate vice chancellor for business services, named interim AD.

Nov. 25, 2004: Davis says A&T is contractually obligated to pay the remainder of his money due him under his contract. The total is estimated at $160,000.

May 5, 2005: DeLores S. Todd, a 17-year administrator at the ACC whose duties included formation and organization of conference championship events, is introduced as the new AD at A&T.

June 15, 2005: Todd begins duties as AD.

Nov. 21, 2005: George Small is fired as football coach -- two years to the day after being named MEAC Coach of the Year. His final two teams produced losing records.

Dec. 2, 2005: Lee Fobbs, a former Grambling player and longtime assistant at Alabama and most recently Texas A&M, is named the Aggies' new coach. "I felt that in the scheme of things I wanted a football coach who could take us to the I-AA championship game and win it," Todd said. "I didn't want someone who could just win the MEAC title."

Feb. 3, 2006: Renick announces his resignation, effective at the end of the spring semester, to take over an educational think tank in Washington, D.C.

July 1, 2007: Stanley F. Battle, most recently president of MEAC member Coppin State University in Baltimore, becomes A&T's chancellor. He immediately succeds interim appointment Lloyd V. Hackley, who ran the university after Renick's departure.

Nov. 17, 2007: A&T loses to South Carolina State 51-7, sustaining its 27th consecutive defeat dating back to October 2005. It stands as the fourth-longest in the 30-year history of Division I-AA play.

Nov. 19, 2007: Todd says Fobbs will be retained and that program is demonstrating progress. She says her superiors are "supportive" of Fobbs and the program.

Nov. 24, 2007: The A&T men's basketball team, a winner of one game the year before Jerry Eaves took over as coach, wins at DePaul of the Big East Conference. It's only the fourth win by a MEAC school against members of the six most powerful leagues in the past 200 meetings.

Nov. 29, 2007: Todd reassigned to unspecified position in the university's School of Education, effective Jan. 14. Associate AD Wheeler Brown named interim AD.