Baylor Family,

As 2006 winds down in the coming days, it is a wonderful time to reflect upon all of the incredible accomplishments of Baylor teams and student-athletes this year. Over the past year, Baylor Athletics had record attendance and donations from our fans, won conference championships, had numerous successful NCAA appearances coupled with strong academic performances by our student-athletes. We are blessed to have such outstanding coaches, staff and student-athletes along with the generous and faithful support from the university's leadership and our fans.

One of the great examples of a Baylor success story is that of Daniel Sepulveda who five years ago came to the university and joined the football team as a walk-on linebacker. From that point on, Daniel distinguished himself as an outstanding student, great representative of the institution and became one of the finest football players in school history.

As we reflect upon Daniel's story and that of so many Baylor student-athletes who have achieved great success, I hope that those who are able will take the opportunity to make a year-end gift to the Baylor Bear Foundation, and make a difference in the lives and Baylor experience of our student-athletes. Year end gifts to the Bear Foundation must be postmarked by December 31. Thank you to all of those who make a difference by support the Bear Foundation!

There will be plenty of basketball action during the Holidays for Baylor fans and I encourage you to come out to the Ferrell Center to take in one of the doubleheaders next week (Dec. 28 and 30). Both the programs are playing exciting basketball and are looking forward to great seasons.

Please contact the Baylor athletic ticket office at 710-1000 to make sure that you are part of action!

Very best wishes for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The following are the most recent round of Ask Ian questions.

Ian,

Thanks for the great work you and your staff do at Baylor. We are enjoying the dvds on 1974 and 1980 football championship teams. I am wondering if there are plans for issuing full length game replays from some of our past classic games. Alternatively, can you get ESPN Classic to show some of our great games from the past? Preferably wins. We had many showdowns and wins in 70s-80s-90s with top 20 teams. I, for one, would love to see them again.

Happy holidays!

George M. Vickrey

Spring Branch, Texas

George,

Thank you for the kind e-mail. Our media relations staff working along with KWBU did an outstanding job of developing and marketing the 1974, 1980 and 1984-85 football DVDs. We have received very positive feedback from these two projects. We will continue to look at other DVD projects when demand warrants it.

Fans may purchase any of the three DVDs currently for sale by contacting KWBU's
Carla Hervey at 254.710.4298.

Regarding replaying past classic games, those rights belong to the entity that broadcasted the original game so in most cases that would not be ESPN. One of the features that you may have seen this year was FSN showing a condensed replay of selected games mid-week following a game. One such instance was Baylor's exciting win over Kansas at Homecoming.

Ian

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Ian;

I went to several volleyball matches this year and was really impressed. The team played great and they played with such class. I recommend that people go and see what an exciting game it is to watch.

Mike Pittman

Mike,

I appreciate your comments and could not agree more. I am very impressed with the direction of Baylor Volleyball under Coach Barnes' leadership, and look forward to the program experiencing great success in the coming years. We are looking into some ways of improving the atmosphere within the Ferrell Center to make it an even better experience for our fans.

Ian

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Ian;

Now that Daniel Sepulveda has won a second Ray Guy Award, do you think it would be possible to get him a banner on the outside of Floyd Casey? If so, how soon?

Thanks

Neil S. Haworth

Dallas, Texas

Neil,

We are looking into adding some additional banners at Floyd Casey Stadium in advance of next season. Certainly, Daniel Sepulveda's accomplishments are deserving of special recognition based upon winning the Ray Guy Award twice, along with being a consensus All-America and Academic All-America selection. Daniel is truly one of the finest student-athletes whom I have had the privilege of knowing and embodies the very best qualities of a Baylor student-athlete!

Ian

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Ian;

There are several coaching vacancies: Alabama & Miami are two of many. Others will become available soon.

Have any schools contacted you regarding talking to Coach Morriss?

Harold Dodson

Waco, Texas

Harold,

Thank you for the e-mail. As you know, I don't discuss personnel matters, but I will comment on the football program. It is clear that the football program is making progress. Baylor won three Big 12 games, the most in our 11 years in the conference. The current football recruiting class is clearly the best that Baylor has experienced since joining the Big 12.

In addition to a new single season attendance record being established, the team had five television appearances which is the most for Baylor in one season since joining the Big 12. Clearly, there is a great deal of progress in many areas and much to be encouraged about. I look forward to continued progress next season with the program reaching a bowl game.

Ian

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Ian;

Would it be possible for Baylor to move a football game to the Thanksgiving weekend for the purpose of giving us a bye week? A bye week is a tremendous advantage and could have made the difference for us this year. Some possible foes that some Baylor fans have been discussing are Texas Tech and TCU.

Jonathan Stinson

Cibolo, Texas

Jonathan,

Earlier this week, we released the Baylor football schedules through 2015. The Big 12 ADs voted to approve a schedule that builds in a bye week each season beginning in 2008 and results in the final regular season game being played on Thanksgiving weekend most years. Every Big 12 school will finish its season with a rivalry game, and Baylor will play Texas Tech on the last weekend each year beginning in 2008.

Overall, I believe that these schedules will afford our fans some terrific games including a number of former Southwest conference opponents, while at the same time, providing our football program with a schedule that will lead to competitive success.

Ian

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Ian;

While enjoying the tremendous win of the Lady Bears over the LSU Tigers, I was concerned with one aspect of the game. Please tell me why a group of fans were not allowed to hold up a banner that they had made. It was not offensive in any way and was rudely taken away from them as fans booed the Baylor employees who did this.

Please inform me as to whether there is a rule about banners. It doesn't seem like too many other universities would bust the enthusiastic bubble of the community. This was very disheartening to see. Thank You.

April McAdams

China Spring, Texas

April,

Thank you for the e-mail and comments. The Baylor - LSU women's basketball game was a highlight of the early season schedule, and turned out to be a great victory for the Lady Bears.

We did have some instances where fans displayed banners that were in violation of Big 12 sportsmanship guidelines, and those fans were asked not to display the signs. In two cases, fans went ahead and displayed the signs despite a warning from the game management staff and the signs needed to be removed. Essentially, any sign that contains inappropriate language or personally attacks an individual or team violates Big 12 sportsmanship policy.

Ian