Chris Graham: The freakonomics behind UVA retaining Mike London

Chris Graham

It was Adam Smith, the Wealth of Nations Adam Smith, who argued in 1776 that the daily operations of a firm are run by “principal clerks” who are essentially homogenous and interchangeable, whose “labour of inspection and direction may be either altogether or very nearly the same.” Which is another way of saying, when looking at UVA football in 2014, that the program is no better or worse off with Mike London as coach, somebody else as coach, or the proverbial empty chair, at least from an economics perspective.