Someone sent me an e-mail Friday wondering why the media isn’t making a big deal out of the news that Lowe’s Motor Speedway president Marcus Smith does not have a college degree.
The news broke in the Bloomberg Press this week that Smith, the son of Speedway Motorsports Inc., founder Bruton Smith, is defrauding SMI stockholders by falsifying his personal record. Marcus Smith did attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for four years, but the university says he does not have a degree. Smith, who majored in journalism and mass communications, responded that he believes he has enough credits for graduation and is “checking on the situation.”
The error in his record was uncovered by Barry Minkow, who makes a living doing such things. It seems Minkow spent seven years in federal prison for fraud while running something called ZZZZ Best Co. It also seems he owns what are called “put options” in SMI, options that increase in value as the price of the security falls.
In other words, if he discredits Smith he could make money. Nice.
I guess the belief is that if Smith isn’t qualified to run SMI, then stockholders have the right to have him removed. So this could be big news.
However, do I believe Smith needs a degree to run the business? No, a thousand times. He happens to be learning his trade from the man who made the company what it is. Could he have learned as much at UNC or anywhere else?
Please, don’t we have better things to be worrying about?
Lindsey Young is a sports writer at the Chattanooga Times Free Press who started work at the Chattanooga News-Free Press 24 years ago. He covers the Northwest Georgia prep beat and NASCAR. Lindsey’s hometown is Ringgold, Ga., and he graduated from Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School. He received an associate’s degree from Dalton Junior College (now Dalton State) and a bachelor’s degree in communications from UTC. He has won several writing awards, including two Tennessee Sports ...
It isn't that Smith needs a college degree, it's that Smith felt he had to lie about it to stockholders. Now, if you think that lying to stockholders is ok, then by all means say so. But don't suck up to the non-degree holders with all this blather about "you don't need a college degree to run a business". Just about every race team is hiring degree holders with lots of experience in Nascar and connections to the sponsors for their business and licensing divisions.
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