If you ran Grizzly Athletics for the day

[PlayerRep]

Lots of good ideas. I would work to make the athletic department and administration seem to be more, and fully, supportive of athletics. I would work to try to get more of the donors back on board and in a bigger way. Obviously, a new weight room. I would make sure an indoor practice facility is somewhere on the drawing board.

 

[GrizFBDad]

Upgrade weight room, locker room by 2015
Increase coaches salaries to be among the highest paying in FCS immediately
Get an indoor, multi purpose facility built by 2016
Prepare to take advantage of any opportunities to move up and or expand the BSC. Change is inevitable in the FBS/FCS landscape. Montana needs to be proactive and not reactive.

 

[Teton Cat]

I think it would be a great idea to hire some more MILFS as "assistant athletic directors". It would continue to be a great recruiting tool for the FB team. :mrgreen:

 

[reinell30]

Why not do men's golf instead of track. 6-7 athletes couldn't cost that much could it?

Ever hear of the great american pastime? Oh yeah, that is baseball. I don't think anyone in Big Sky plays baseball, why? Hockey, why not?

 

[reinell30]

Make the griz coaches the highest paid in FCS...How, by simple fan contributions put forth directly to coaches salary. If you have 30,000 griz fans each donate $50 per year, that give you 1.5 million to spend on just salaries. Now everyone knows there are a lot more than 30,000 loyal griz fans that would like to contribute $50 per year. Brint W. could be the president of griz fan club and solicit votes for coach hirings and salaries. All contributing members would have a say in who is hired and the amount of salary head coaches would receive. Kind of like Green Bay Packers.

Upgrade facilities to top in sports, no points for second place!

Sell beer in the stadium and all other venues during the games, all proceeds support new facilities.

 

[grizpack]

I would put a plan in place to deal with the football coaching situation. A succession plan that included a national search (truly national search). Not sure when the change would occur, but within the next 2 years.

 

[BWahlberg]

Wahlberg,

I see your point now and am on board, but still skeptical. I believe that the University releases GA tickets Thursday morning and makes them available to the public. Even with that, sections 116 and 115 are very poorly attended (albeit, most of 116 is the band). Perhaps making these available much earlier than the Thursday before the game would make a difference; probably worth a shot.

With that said, if it ever got to the point that there was more demand again from the students than sections being supplied, there should be an option to release that section back to the students. Maybe relooked at every year, in the best interest of the student population.

:thumb:

All good man, I get ya and I think you make a good point on the costs being put on all students. I did go back and look up that UM revenue sheet, students contributed about $1.7 million to athletics revenues, however total revenues were just over $20 million. So in the grand scheme of things it's not the largest chunk, not even close. However continually putting more and more financial burden on students, most of whom don't even go to the games doesn't seem like a smart practice.

 

[argh!]

Why not do men's golf instead of track. 6-7 athletes couldn't cost that much could it?

Ever hear of the great american pastime? Oh yeah, that is baseball. I don't think anyone in Big Sky plays baseball, why? Hockey, why not?

i would fire delaney and hire snap as head coach. then i would flip the bird to the ncaa by making all sports club level. the teams would of course still give scholarships, etc, but they wouldn't have to play any other teams that could compete with them. we would win the national university club sports titles in football, men's and women's basketball. probably in everything else but golf and tennis. that's right, nothing but winning from that day on! everyone would love me, until they discovered that snap and i spent half the day embezzling all the money! then they would hate me, but that would be ok, since i'd be sitting on the beach in venezuela, free from prosecution. snap would be left to do all the explaining.

 

[BWahlberg]

Came on here to post this as well. I got this email from a Griz fan who "lurks" on egriz but doesn't have an account. He asked me if I'd post this since it seemed like a unique conversation and something he wanted to put opinions on.

(So keep in mind these points and opinions aren't mine and I might not necessarily agree with all of them)

1. Not build a new academic center at this time. This is not needed for athletics nor will it help the major sports of football or basketball. This project is diverting resources and attention from more important projects—and standing in the way of other projects.

2. Make the new weight room and football and basketball locker rooms the top and immediate priority. Fundraising for this project would be much easier than for other projects and would probably get athletic fundraising back on track. There are multiple people who would support this project who are not supporting the academic center and other fundraising.

3. Be more vocal, both in private with Engstrom and in public, in supporting UM athletics. Not leave the impression that Engstrom is making all important athletic decisions.

4. Request and encourage Engstrom to be more supportive of athletics, and to work to correct some of the misimpressions that have been left out there, including some started by Engstrom. Ask Engstrom to stop whispering to alumni that it was necessary to fire Pflu and O’Day because of problems in the football program. This is helping perpetuate the misimpressions that are out there.

5. Request Engstrom to stop diverting athletic revenues to university projects. Suggest that the university allow the athletic department to keep more of its revenues, and then, to be revenue neutral, decrease the amount of university funding to athletics. This would show clearly what the athletic department is earning and using, and what the university is contributing. Ideally, the university would allow more revenue to stay with the athletic department and not decrease the university’s contribution, but given the budget shortfalls, I don’t see this happening.

6. Change the post-football game egress to the south of the stadium, by having 2 open lanes of egress (not 1). Eliminate the on-street parking on the west side of the Campus Drive. This would eliminate only about 25 parking spots. Also, look at possible egress routes through some of the parking lots and interior campus streets, especially to the south and southwest. Divert one lane of traffic into the neighborhood as Campus Drive turns west, unless that would cause the neighborhood residents to become unglued.

7. Allow alcohol to be served in the Stadium/Canyon Club after the 3rd quarter and for some period of time after the game. There’s more revenue to be gained for the athletic dept/university. People in the Stadium Club area aren’t likely to get out of hand due to another quarter of alcohol, and no one is going to throw a plastic cup of beer onto the field from there.

8. Encourage, not discourage, fan participation and support at basketball games. Sending out mailings suggesting that fans should sit down at games and not be as loud and supportive is not the way to build fan, and rabid fan, support and better game atmosphere. My impression is that some at the athletic department are listening more to complainers at the expense of true supporters of the program.

9. Be more proactive in trying to keep good coaches. Request that Engstrom not let coaches’ contracts, etc. sit on his desk for so long.

10. Conduct an investigation of who leaked apparently inside information from the athletic department to the NCAA, which started the investigation.

11. Examine how the response to the NCAA investigation was handled, looking into such things as to why the coach was blamed for things that seemingly would have been the responsibility of others in the athletic department, why the particular (and significant) sanctions were suggested, and why it took 6 months to hire an experienced NCAA counsel.

12. Examine whether elements of racism have occurred with regard to athletes. There have been various rumors in that regard over the years.

13. Examine whether current compliance program and compliance group are what they should be.

14. Provide more support for the Spirit Squads. They are very good and put in huge effort. They deserve more financial support, not less.

 

[zengriz]

10. Conduct an investigation of who leaked apparently inside information from the athletic department to the NCAA, which started the investigation.

...got to love #10...
...an could only add...
...then kick their azz...

... ...

 

[fanofzoo]

The "ZOO" would be back.
The media seats in front of the ZOO would be gone.
Beer would be served to everyone not just the rich folk. (both BB and FB)

AND

I would change the music, seriously "Sweet Caroline" would never be heard of again.

 

[PlayerRep]

Wahlberg,

I see your point now and am on board, but still skeptical. I believe that the University releases GA tickets Thursday morning and makes them available to the public. Even with that, sections 116 and 115 are very poorly attended (albeit, most of 116 is the band). Perhaps making these available much earlier than the Thursday before the game would make a difference; probably worth a shot.

With that said, if it ever got to the point that there was more demand again from the students than sections being supplied, there should be an option to release that section back to the students. Maybe relooked at every year, in the best interest of the student population.

:thumb:

All good man, I get ya and I think you make a good point on the costs being put on all students. I did go back and look up that UM revenue sheet, students contributed about $1.7 million to athletics revenues, however total revenues were just over $20 million. So in the grand scheme of things it's not the largest chunk, not even close. However continually putting more and more financial burden on students, most of whom don't even go to the games doesn't seem like a smart practice.

Are there any examples of schools with student athletic fees where students not attending games don't have to pay the athletic fee, or some portion? I doubt that there are.

 

[AZGrizFan]

The "ZOO" would be back.
The media seats in front of the ZOO would be gone.
Beer would be served to everyone not just the rich folk. (both BB and FB)

AND

I would change the music, seriously "Sweet Caroline" would never be heard of again.

And for this, you would go on UM's Mount Rushmore! :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[Liquor up front!]

Why not do men's golf instead of track. 6-7 athletes couldn't cost that much could it?

Just think, if they let you use your handicap, you would be the #1 player in the conference!

 

[grizindabox]

All Thursday sporting events would be "Topless Thursday"

 

[Big Northern Griz]

Let's be real. Most of you, if you were AD for a day, would sit at the desk, get all of your ideas shot down in seconds, get frustrated and then take a dump on Engstrom's car.

 

[cclarkblues]

Serve beer at all appropriate sports venues.....and single-malt scotch.


Spend the rest of the day spinning around in my comfy office chair.

 

[Teton Cat]

All Thursday sporting events would be "Topless Thursday"

Also you could get Shannon Cate to show the recruits around town and then head down to the Stocks to top the night off.

 

[Potomac Griz]

Let's be real. Most of you, if you were AD for a day, would sit at the desk, get all of your ideas shot down in seconds, get frustrated and then take a dump on Engstrom's car.

Actually taking a dump on his car would probably be the first thing I'd do. After that I'd start brainstorming ideas...or maybe during. Either way.

 

[Hammer]

10. Conduct an investigation of who leaked apparently inside information from the athletic department to the NCAA, which started the investigation.

...got to love #10...
...an could only add...
...then kick their azz...

... ...

I didn't think it was that big of a secret? :?