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Incredibly tragic news from Macon as Mercer MBB student-athlete Bryan was shot & killed yesterday in the parking lot outside of a convenience store, HC Hoffmann, "Jibri Bryan was a special young man who was a great contributor to our team and did everything that was asked of him. He was important to us in every way. I loved him and cared about him from the very first time he was on our campus. We grew to be very close over the years. Our thoughts and prayers are with his special family." - link
Per the Chicago Tribune's Ryan Illinois brass interviewed the following AD candidates on Monday & Tuesday in Indianapolis: Northern Illinois AD Frazier, Eastern Illinois AD Michael, Wash. U. (DIII) AD Whitman, Florida Atlantic boss Chun, Central Michigan AD Heeke, Maryland Deputy AD Mehrtens & Tennis Australia CEO Tiley. One name not included that's been rumored is Memphis AD Bowen, Ryan also says the university is still recruiting Colorado AD George & initially reached-out to Northwestern AD Phillips who passed - link
Montana State will search for a new AD this Spring as word comes that current boss Fields won't have his contract renewed, university Director of Communications Ellig, in part, "MSU thanks Mr. Fields for his many years of service to the university and wishes him well on his future endeavors." Adds no further comments will come from Prez Cruzado's office, Fields arrived at MSU back in 2002 from Missouri & led the Bobcats to a number of key accomplishments - link
Big 12 leaders are set to meet in Dallas with a potential FB championship & conference expansion as two topics the general public would love to hear more about, but may not be discussed in detail, Commish Bowlsby, "I don’t expect major decisions to be made at these meetings. When I said it was 50-50 (whether they would even vote on staging a championship game), that was sort of a stab. I just can’t really handicap it at this point." A couple of unidentified ADs speak on growing their ranks, general sentiment is that there aren't enough solid reasons to do so, Bowlsby non-committal on if comments by the likes of Oklahoma Prez Boren are damaging to his league - link
Remember the push in Indiana back around the Final Four to strengthen rights for the LGBT community after a Religious Freedom Restoration Act act allowed business owners to deny service based on sexuality? Yesterday lawmakers in the state abandoned the effort without enough support to bring it to a vote, Senator Long, "This effort was unfortunately hampered by well-organized extreme messaging from groups representing both sides of this discussion — many of them from out of state. Neither of those sides were truly seeking a solution." More - link (current development), link (article from back in April with comments from NCAA Prez Emmert)
Michigan State AD Hollis, "What It Means to be a Michigan State Spartan" via a SportsMoney 6th Man guest post for Forbes with help from contributor Belzer, goes long-form to communicate what the culture in East Lansing is all about, recounts the hiring process of FB HC Dantonio, "Create a process; trust your process," adds, "the uniqueness of culture cannot be understated," more, "Success and failure are short lived in college athletics, and it is my job to keep our coaches grounded when things are going well, and to help them forge ahead when things are going badly. But above all else, I must insure the preservation of all that Michigan State athletics stands for to so many people." - link
Temple Prez Theobald continues to press forward for a new on-campus FB stadium for the Owls, tells student government leadership, "There is no cost to the students for this at all," says the $100m facility would be funded by private donations, plus what the university already pays to rent Lincoln Financial Field, protesters rallied against the move, a special Board of Trustees meeting called for next Monday to review next steps - link
On Monday, Wyoming AD Burman took to Facebook to communicate his thoughts on the $8m in match monies in Governor Mead's proposed budget that would be routed to UW athletics, "A reduction will mean we cannot properly feed, travel, recruit, develop, educate (scholarship), and provide the best health care possible. This is a really big deal - the cost of DI has increased dramatically in last 24 months due to NCAA deregulation. Reducing more than the 20% will mean we have to decide about the future of our programs and what we should offer." Has 88 likes & 104 shares thus far - link (actual post), link (article)
It's National Signing Day & CBSSports.com's Dodd is the latest to make the connection of high-level recruits to high-level success, "Since 2001, one-third of the teams finishing in the top 10 of the 247Sports Composite team rankings have played for a national championship within four years." Also points out "Florida finished inside the top 10 three out of four years in the middle of winning titles in 2006 and 2008." More - link
Kansas State AD Currie indicates he's re-upped with Learfield Licensing Partners, last year the Wildcats received $1.4m in royalties, says his piece of business is the largest in the LLP portfolio, which also includes the likes of Baylor, Iowa State, NC State & Mississippi State, in other updates has signed VB HC Fritz through 2020 after 11 NCAA Tourney appearances in the last 15 years - link
Arkansas FB HC Bielema & Notre Dame boss Kelly are two examples of the crazy ground/air covered during the close of the recruiting process, the Hogs HC traveled nearly 20k miles in the last two months stretching from NYC to Miami to Iowa to LA & dozens of other places in between, Kelly did nine cities in six days, over 10k miles, Portland, Vancouver, LA, Fresno, Westwood (NJ), Naples, Tuscaloosa, Rochester & Cleveland - link
MLive.com's Quinn looks at Michigan's budding relationship with The Players Tribune, which will get even more press today for National Signing Day, "The Players' Tribune, at its own cost, will have full production control of the live stream for Wednesday's spectacle. The event will be the largest and most noteworthy moment in the partnership between the outlet and the Michigan athletic department — the only one like it in the country." Notable former New York Yankee & former UM signee Jeter, who also is a key financial backer of TPT, connected the two parties, no hard contract between the two, only a hand shake, Assoc. AD Svoboda offers some perspective, questions surround sponsorship/ad inventory, lots more - link
The higher ed budget situation in the State of Illinois is stretching Chicago State at the seams, the university has enough money to only last until March without an infusion of state monies, instead of $6.2m in operating budget, athletics has been moving forward based on $2.8m, MBB HC Dildy personally contacts hotels to try & get a deal for road trips, "It should be called Chicago State Hope University," Baseball HC Joslyn says he'll ride out this season, even if he isn't paid, but come summer time decisions have to be made, student-athlete also chime-in on the situation, more - link
Wisconsin sent an email to fans last week with questions on what they'd like to see in a potential renovation to Camp Randall Stadium, field-level club seats could be one enhancement, though Senior Assoc. AD for External Relations Doherty says, "Nothing's been decided or is concrete or anything like that. We're just looking for input and feedback and gauging interest from the folks that got sent that email." Of the potential options listed, pricing could range from $2k for an outdoor club seat to $80k for a 16-person suite, Doherty adds that no funding plans have been drawn up to date - link
Rutgers is expected to get approval from its Board of Governors today on a 22,500 square-foot practice facility for Baseball & Softball at a cost of $3.25m, CFO Purcaro, "It's all privately funded. There is not a dime of university support going into (the facility)." Once the foundation work is done projections call for six months of work to complete the structure, AD Hobbs points to August as a possible usage timeline - link
More facility updates come from Penn State & Pittsburgh as the Post-Gazette's Werner reviews the arms race, Nittany Lions COO & Deputy ADEsten, "When you have your conference counterparts and regional counterparts investing pretty heavily in facilities, we don’t live in a vacuum. We need to kind of keep up with what’s happening nationally." Panthers FB HC Narduzzi talks about the "beautiful" factor, push-back comes from author Gaul - link
SME Inc. selected to handle the new logo & branding process for North Dakota, AD Faison, "It's an important next step, and it's been a short but very engaged process. It's nice to get to this point, absolutely." SME will push to complete its work by the summer for full implementation in the fall, estimates cost is around $50k, spokesman Johnson, "It's about understanding how the image that's created fits into the overall culture of the institution." - link
Oral Roberts has always been a stickler for solid student health & now its 900-person Freshman class are required to wear Fitbits to monitor their physical activity, Provost Reid-Martinez says physical fitness is part of the university's "whole person education" & she hasn't heard any negative feedback, though there would seem to be some privacy issues, "Students are required to average 10,000 steps per day and 150 minutes of intense activity (as measured by heart rate) each week. The data comprise a portion of their grade in health and physical education classes." - link
Indiana AD Glass continues his State of the Athletics review, this time it's the facilities picture, says the Assembly Hall renovation is "going great" & is on budget, calls plans to enclosing the rest of Memorial Stadium "one of the worst kept secrets around - we're planning a significant investment in Memorial Stadium," points to the next month or so on an announcement, believes Soccer digs need to be upgraded to maintain national relevance, locker room renovations are always top of mind, 2020 seems to be the target date for more projects - link
Arkansas AD Long pens note to his fan base on FB ticket price increases in some areas, but decreases in others, full chart details changes according to the seating location, all tickets in Little Rock for the Hogs annual game at War Memorial were lowered, "...it is important to mention that even with these adjustments, our standard ticket prices remain below the SEC average and lower than other peer programs throughout our region." - link
Deadspin goes deep on "When Stadium Security Goes Bad," starts with a review of the situation at Houston last FB season when CSC personnel were far too physical with fans trying to rush the field, it wasn't the first time CSC, the "world leader" in stadium security, has been called-out for unruly force, the company has been sued 21 times in federal court, as a comparison, Elite Services has been sued on five occasions, "As the biggest private-event security contractor in the country, CSC is emblematic of larger problems in an industry that promotes cost-efficiency above nearly all else. But don’t blame the contractors; that’s what their clients want, too." More - link
Pure speculation of Big 12 expansion leads to journalists putting pen to paper, Tampa Bay Times scribe Knight couldn't resist as he looks at the situation from USF's perspective, "Maybe, just maybe, some suit in the room will make a verbal commitment to USF." (link); And the Austin American-Statesman continues to ride the hot topic, reviews BYU AD Holmoe's comments & the potential that the Cougars could be at the top of the pecking order if a move is made (link)
Oregon's new $17.2m Jane Sanders Softball Stadium is still on track for a late March completion, $200k more in raised monies needed to top-off project, AD Mullens, "Everything that we’ve heard is that we are right on schedule. It’s a very tight timeline, we knew that from the time we started, and it’s still very tight. There’s about 100 folks working a day, hustling." 900 of an available 1,500 season tickets have been moved for a program that's made it to OKC three of the last four years - link
Alcorn State responds quickly to losing former FB HC Hopson to Southern Miss, AD Horne elevates AC McNair to HC, "You take a look at the team that's coming back that's very mature. You have a coaching staff that is mature because they've been together for a while and you have a coach that coaches respect and a lot of times when you have that opportunity to pull something together, you need to do it." McNair, "Everybody is going to pitch in and do what it takes to keep this team where it's at." - link
By many accounts the Illinois AD search is nearing its conclusion. Before it crosses the finish line, I thought it would be interesting to catch-up with the Herald & Review's Mark Tupper, who has covered the developments very closely, for his latest view of the situation. In part one of two, Mark details the challenges that await a new leader in Champaign, along with how the opportunity ranks within the Big Ten & generally how it compares to the other B1G AD opening at Minnesota. Tomorrow's 1.Q will include Tupper's handicapping of the candidate field & what else he's hearing about the process. Listen to part one of Mark's interview by clicking the link. - link (length - 4:50)
