College athletic administrators and their presidents are a fickle breed.

Mr. Athletic Director has plenty of constituencies to answer to these days. There are the ticket-paying fans and the even more important well-heeled boosters. There is the upper management, which craves wins and packed stands, not necessarily in that order. There's the local business community, TV networks, even the student body to answer to.

All of these groups yearn for some input into the most important decision in any collegiate athletic department: who's wearing the coach's whistle.

These are the factions that Thorr Bjorn will be listening to over the next few weeks and months as the University of Rhode Island athletic director weighs how to handle the future of the men's basketball program. Head coach Jim Baron, who will begin his ninth year in Kingston in October, has four years left on his contract. Now he's looking for more to cement himself in the job in the minds of prospective recruits, AAU coaches and the other decision-makers in the college hoops world.

Baron has proven he can win at URI — to a point, anyway. The Rams have won 19 or more games five times and played in four NITs under him. He has won the Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year award three times. Baron's teams have turned the Ryan Center into one of the toughest arenas in the East in which to grab a road win, especially on the nights when URI's erratic crowds show up in droves. They own rival Providence College at the Ryan Center, and have knocked off nonleague foes such as Syracuse, Penn State, Utah and Miami (Fla.).

What Baron hasn't proven is that he can get the Rams an NCAA Tournament bid. That's the black mark on the resume, but a very big one in this day and age. Is that enough to make your coach sweat out an extension? We'll see.

Some of the groups the AD and president have to listen to are already offering their input, for whatever it's worth. On the Projo's always-entertaining URI Bulletin Board, the fans get a chance to type their passion away. "He is a mediocre coach. As a URI financial supporter, I don't want him to get any contract extension," read one response.

"Are you crazy??? We need to get rid of this guy, not give him an extension." Came another.

"Somebody here said it best. Baron has one or two years to produce an NCAA run or it's see-ya."

On the flip side, there is certainly some support for the coach. One poll responder wrote: "The state is broke, but if anybody deserves a raise it's Mr. Baron! We seem to find $$ for all the cronies and connected ones who give nothing back. Why not him?"

These fans, the alums, boosters and administrators had better remember they need to be careful what they wish for. Winning as Baron has is difficult to do, especially in a league in which URI is perceived as a middle-of-the road program. Rate the jobs in the A-10, and Rhody falls far behind Xavier and Dayton, and also trails Temple, UMass, St. Louis and Saint Joseph's, for starters.

College sports are littered with programs that pushed aside successful coaches and now long for the good old days. Consider North Carolina State, where Herb Sendek led the Wolfpack to five NCAAs in a row but was razzed for getting to only one Sweet 16. Since he bolted for Arizona State three years ago, N.C. State hasn't seen the NCAAs. URI is no N.C. State, but the point is that getting to the NCAAs at a place such as URI is extremely difficult, much harder than it was 10 or 20 years ago.

Word is there will be no movement on the Baron contract issue until new URI president David Dooley meets with Bjorn and gets comfortable with Baron. This could take until mid-summer or even the fall. URI could also make Baron wait another year, leaving him with three years of security and injecting all sorts of uncertainty into the program.

It's a quandary for Bjorn and Dooley to hash out. All Baron can do is keep coaching and recruiting and try to win 20 or so games for a fourth straight season. Considering that's never been done at URI, it would be an achievement worth a reward.

kmcnamar@projo.com