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Dear Ian:
Glad to have you here at Baylor. We are in great need of professionalism all across the athletic board. It seems that you are creating the foundation to make Baylor athletics a top notch program.
One question. Top notch means everything, from hiring great coaches to field maintenance, and everything in between. Do you see Baylor signing any contract with one uniform/shoe/equipment provider for all teams? Thanks again for all you are doing.
Benny Johnston
Waco, Texas
Benny,
Thank you for the kind words and your question.
Baylor has existing contracts with a variety of equipment providers on a sport-by-sport basis. These relationships provide Baylor teams with products in return for marketing benefits. We have made a preliminary assessment of these relationships and believe that Baylor is receiving reasonable value from these relationships.
A number of schools around the country have established all-school relationships with equipment providers in order to maximize the value of these relationships to the athletic program. We would have a strong interest in moving in this direction at a future date when we could negotiate a more favorable relationship.
Ian
Ian, Let me be still another BU fan to welcome you to the athletic ranks.
My question: Are there plans to provide a roof over the tennis courts at the lovely facility Baylor has? It seems a shame having to move home matches to Ennis when there is inclement weather.
Thanks.
William H. Horick
Temple, Texas
William,
We are fortunate to have one of the nation's finest outdoor tennis facilities and there are no plans to put a roof over the Baylor tennis facility. There have been serious discussions about the development of an indoor tennis facility either on-campus at Baylor or in Waco. As you mentioned, it is unfortunate when we have to move our tennis teams to indoor facilities outside of the area when we have inclement weather.
We are excited about both of the tennis programs. The men's team under Matt Knoll's leadership is ranked 4th in the nation, while the women's team under Joey Scrivano is ranked 35th nationally.
We appreciate your interest and support of Baylor tennis.
Ian
Dear Ian, There have been a lot of positives connected with the changes made in the athletic program, but I read something that I considered a negative the other day from the fan's viewpoint. Why were we booing Kenny Taylor when he was introduced at the game against Texas? The article I read said that Kenny understood the boos, but I don't. Kenny, (Oklahoma State's) John (Lucas) and (Mississippi State's) Lawrence (Roberts) made decisions that were right for them and their careers. True, if they had stayed, where could we be in our overall and conference record? However, to boo them when they return to Baylor to play is inexcusable. I would like to see some of those fans write letters of apology to Kenny and see Baylor apologize and stress that this is unacceptable behavior and that it won't happen again. Poor sportsmanship has never been a tradition at Baylor; I don't want it to start now.
Michael A. Grady
Midwest City, Okla.
Michael,
There has been a great deal of discussion about the fan reaction to Kenny Taylor during the Baylor-Texas men's basketball game. I certainly recognize that the transfer of the three student-athletes during the summer was frustrating to Baylor fans.
However, all of us are representatives of an outstanding institution in Baylor, and we need to hold our student-athletes, staff, coaches and fans to a very high standard relative to our sporting conduct. Regrettably, we did not put our best foot forward in our reaction toward Kenny Taylor. He is an outstanding young man who represented Baylor very well during his time at the University.
We have an opportunity to more appropriately respond to John Lucas when Oklahoma State plays a televised game at the Ferrell Center on February 28. Coach Drew and I encourage Baylor fans to be respectful of John and demonstrate the tremendous character and class that is representative of the Baylor community.
Thank you for the comment and question.
Ian
Dear Ian, With all the talk about recruiting I was wondering if it would be possible to set up a link on the Baylor web page with information about how recruiting is going. I know coaches Morris and Drew are doing a great job, and I would like to keep up with who we are looking at a little closer. Is this possible
Brett Whittington
Waco, Texas
Brett,
Thank you for the positive comments about the recruiting efforts of Coach Morriss and Coach Drew. I agree that both are doing an excellent job recruiting student-athletes who will make a major impact in our football and men's basketball programs in the years to come. In fact, all of our coaches are recruiting at a very high level and we are extremely excitement about the future of Baylor Athletics!
Unfortunately, under NCAA rules, we cannot provide information on the BaylorBears.com website about recruiting of prospective student-athletes until they sign a National Letter of Intent.
There are several sites and publications that provide unofficial information that fans may access including the Waco Tribune-Herald, www.BaylorFans.com, www.Baylor.Rivals.com, www.Baylor.theinsiders.com and www.bearscoop.com.
Ian
Ian, With the new turf being installed at Floyd Casey Stadium, can you tell me what the design is going to look like?
Thanks, and keep up the good work.
Mike
Waco, Texas
Mike,
Thank you for the comments and question.
We are continuing to invite fans to vote for their preference on the new end zone design at www.BaylorBears.com. There are three options and as of this writing gold with a white outline is the preference of Baylor fans. Almost 1,000 votes have been cast in this process.
We will match the field installation as close as possible to the official Baylor gold color (PMS 873) despite how it may appear on the website. We are confident that this will have a dramatic effect on the appearance of the field and Floyd Casey Stadium.
Ian
Ian, I want to first thank you for taking the time to answer these questions.
It seems we constantly talk about the Athletic Departments revenue and fan support. Why is it then, that we cannot purchase authentic game apparel like other schools allow their fans to? I know many Baylor fans would love to buy authentic and replica game jerseys just like the teams wear. This is a common practice among all the big time college programs and used to be the case for us (my daughters attend the football games in my old Cody Carlson and Matt Clark replica jerseys). Since we changed our football uniforms this year we missed out on a great opportunity to please the fans and increase the athletic department revenue through the sale of these items. As a lifelong Baylor fan, I look forward to this year's baseball and softball season but find it hard to believe that with such successful teams we can't even buy a replica jersey in the Souvenir Shops. With baseball/softball season coming up, it would be worth the time and effort to make this happen.
Thanks again for this opportunity.
Bill Whitmire
Cameron, Texas
Editor's Note: Similar questions were received from Andrew D. Crews (San Antonio, Texas), William L Lee Waco, Texas), Greg Bell (Spring, Texas), John P. Cahill, Jr. (Houston, Texas)
Bill,
We have recently had some very productive meetings between Collegiate Licensing Company, the University's licensing vendor, and Baylor representatives.
CLC has made a series of recommendations including that Baylor offer more authentic and replica apparel as well as some "throw-back" uniforms. The Baylor Bookstore has purchased baseball jerseys that are available for sale. The bookstore can be contacted at 254.710.2161.
We will be working with the University Bookstore, Spirit Shop, Pics and Gifts and T-Shirts Plus to enhance our existing relationships and offer fans more of the apparel that they desire. In addition, other local and regional retailers will be contacted to establish relationships that will improve distribution of Baylor apparel throughout the area.
As you mention, this is an important service to Baylor fans as well as an opportunity to generate more revenue for Baylor Athletics. We appreciate your support in the form of purchasing officially licensed Baylor apparel!
Ian
Dear Ian, First off, I enjoyed the Baylor-OU men's basketball game while visiting Waco recently. The computer-animation flying through the campus was really great. I challenge more Baylor students and alumni to attend the sporting events-10,000 people and a loud atmosphere could have meant a big difference in that game. No matter the score, Coach Drew and the players are playing hard for Baylor and deserve all our support.
My question is: Why don't we use the bear or bear paw more often on television and other media? I realize BU likes to stick with the "traditional" interlocking BU but I'm not sure why. The bear has character while the BU is rather non-descript. We are one of the few teams in the Big 12 that actually has a cool mascot. UT and CU effectively use the longhorn and buffalo on helmets, in their sporting venues and in the media. And I'm sure Bevo and Ralphie will still be attending home games. I just hate to see our bear totally fade away - except for the green fuzzy bear.
Thanks for fielding our questions and Sic'em Bears!
Greg Pettigrew
Nashville, Tenn.
Greg,
Thank you for the compliment about the pre-game video board presentation. Our broadcast and marketing staff do an excellent job in this area.
Regarding the use of the Bear and paw marks, it is unfortunate that they have not been widely embraced (either internally or externally). The Bear marks were developed in 1997 and seem to have steadily diminished in use.
In fact, following the previous question, CLC suggested that we consider attempting to develop a Bear logo that would be more widely utilized and accepted by the Baylor community. At this point, clearly the interlocking BU and Baylor script are the most popular marks among Baylor fans.
Greg, you and I concur on the fuzzy green bear. Don't look for it to make a comeback!
Ian
Ian, Thanks for taking my question. I've reviewed our football recruits and the rating services haven't been very kind to us this year. I recognize that ratings are subjective and that we have recruited for need more than how a player is rated by a recruiting service. How do we expect to make up any ground on the rest of the Big 12 South?
David Perry
Sherwood, Ark.
David:
This is an excellent question and one that is important to address.
The recruiting rankings in media publications and recruiting services are interesting and have a measure of merit. However, they tend to highly value high school athletic performance, statistics, the quality of the high school program and the current success of the college team who receives a commitment from or signs the prospect. While these criteria are important, successful college coaches weigh athletic potential, personal character, academic profile and ability to fit into a particular system as vital characteristics. With that, you will often find disparities between the ranking of a recruiting class and the actual performance of student-athletes once they arrive at an institution.
Several schools can be cited who have not been among the Top 25 in recruiting classes, yet have advanced to BCS bowl games. Similarly, other institutions have regularly had highly ranked recruiting classes, yet failed to perform at a level commensurate with their recruiting.
In my view, Coach Morriss and his staff did an excellent job of identify and securing commitments from a number of outstanding prospective student-athletes early in the recruiting process. Many of these prospects received subsequent offers from SEC to Big 12 competitors and remained committed to and eventually signed with Baylor. I was very encouraged by this year's recruiting class and believe that it will make a powerful contribution to the future success of the football program.
Ian
