Between whacks at the pinata that is currently the University of Hawaii administration, we pause to reflect upon something Bachman and Hawaii halls got right.

Perhaps you noticed Friday that the University of Idaho, anticipating the pending demise of the Western Athletic Conference, got permission from its State Board of Education to take the drastic steps of becoming a football independent in 2013 and moving all its other sports to the Big Sky Conference.

While we mourn for Idaho and the arduous task that surely awaits the Vandals as a wandering independent, it is worth recalling that could have been UH’s fate, too.

With Boise State, Fresno State and Nevada announcing their intention of bolting the WAC and nobody inviting the Warriors in the summer of 2010, UH was nervously staring at the possibility of becoming an independent in football and finding a home for its other sports. UH could have easily been Idaho, only with more humongous travel bills.

What saved it was a lot of people, with UH vice president Rockne Freitas on point, coming together with the Mountain West on a football-only membership plan. President M.R.C. Greenwood, athletic director Jim Donovan, some key regents and Manoa chancellor Virginia Hinshaw pitched in on various facets to get the deal done with the MWC and Big West.

You knew it was a big moment because Greenwood and a couple of regents were actually answering questions, standing front and center at press conferences in the lobby of Bachman Hall. Back then, the athletic director and chancellor had to keep from getting squeezed out of the picture instead of worrying about being shoved out in front of an empty stage.

But more recent events — and some from UH history, too — remind us that this was the rarest of exceptions. Running UH athletics by a committee or via string puppetry rarely works for the long haul. And sometimes, as headlines of late should be teaching us, too many hands can portend disaster.

So, as UH prepares to go about the process of hiring another AD, can we please resolve that whomever the AD choice is it will be that person’s charge to actually run the day-to-day and overall affairs of the athletic department?

With oversight for all concerts and any money wire transfer above $9.99, of course.

Can UH just hire an AD that it and the community can believe in and let him — or her — do the job for which he or she was hired?

Can it please put more energy into supporting the AD than undermining the position?

And if, somewhere along the line, they should fall out of favor with each other and be unable to repair the relationship, let’s be up front about it. If the AD isn’t going to be renewed, acknowledge it instead of looking for buses to toss the body under in a way that invites political intervention.

The volatile landscape of major college athletics will surely shift again soon and UH will be best served by giving its new AD, whomever it might be, the room and support to maneuver.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.