March 21, 2001
Athletic Director Tom Stanton sat down Wednesday afternoon and chatted with fans online. The following is a transcript of the chat session.
Head football coach Kevin Steele will be our next guest. For a complete schedule of Baylor coaches scheduled to chat, click here.
Allie Thompson: Hi Mr. Stanton! I was just looking around on the softball page and I went back to the main page and saw your picture and thought I'd say hello. So I hope to see you at the game my dad and I go to! Bye!
Tom Stanton: Allie - thanks for your message. I'll be so excited when you're a cheerleader at Baylor, rooting on the Bears. Tell Joel hello.
Jim Burleson: With the prestige that the baseball team as well as the men's and women's basketball teams are receiving, it is only a matter of time before the other programs move into the national spotlight. How is Baylor prepared to handle such prestige?
Tom Stanton: We welcome the national exposure. You may recall our concept has always been to find ways of leveraging athletics as a marketing window to the greater University, publicizing its missions, values and academic reputation. Our ability to create and maintain nationally ranked programs gives our coaches and student-athletes the platform from which they can exhibit outstanding servanthood, educational abilities, as well as quality role models for society.
We're proud of each of our sports and all they have and will continue to accomplish in that regard.
Jim Wright: A couple of facility related questions: I have seen the proposed improvements on the athletic website. Are we likely to see any facility improvements completed at Floyd Casey in time for the upcoming football season?
I watched the Big Monday game last month and noticed the video board that was installed. I understand it was installed as a test run and I heard that we were looking for corporate sponsors to underwrite the cost of boards for Ferrell Center and Floyd Casey. What is the status of those efforts?
Finally, with schools like A&M planning to install video boards at their baseball stadium, do you still think it is a good idea to move the J-Hawk graphics board to the Baylor Ballpark?
Tom Stanton: Regarding those upgrades, the expantion of our strength/conditioning area, training facility, and locker room at Floyd Casey Stadium is underway. We expect completion prior to the start of August two-a-day workouts. We are also in the process of pitching several major corporations for sponsorships to upgrade Floyd Casey, the Baylor Ballpark, Getterman Stadium, and the Ferrell Center with various designs of either display or instant replay capability boards. Our abilities to complete this for Floyd Casey is dependent upon the acquisiting of $500,000-plus in signage contracts.
The movement of the graphics display board to the Baylor Ballpark will enhance the aesthetics and honor an outstanding philanthropic gift from the J-Hawk corporation, more suited for the baseball game.
baylor mom: is it true that Paul E. Jette, IV, has been hired by Baylor University as defensive coach for the Baylor Bears?
Tom Stanton: We were pleased to announce the hiring of Paul Jette as coach of our defensive backs approximately two weeks ago. Paul has an outstanding reputation in the industry, has served as defensive coordinator at Oklahoma State, Miami (under Jimmy Johnson), and most recently at East Carolina. He makes a great addition to our defensive staff.
David Gibson: Tom - First, let me say the following: I love Baylor. Growing up, I spent just about every fall Saturday up in the endzone of Baylor Stadium. My grandfather taught Music Theory at Baylor for 40 years. My father and I have been season ticket holders for football and basketball for years. I am very excited about the direction of the athletic teams under your watch.
However, recently we were greatly disappointed by the way our 4 option seats and baseball season tickets were mistakenly sold to other people. For brevity's sake: 1) We originally bought two options at the $500 level 2) We changed those two $500 options to four $250 options. I wrote a letter in the first time explaining what we were doing and things were taken care of. 3) After going to the ballpark to see where our new 4 seats were, I decided to move them one last time. I PERSONALLY came into the office and sat down with Jim Huey's secretary (Charlotte?) and made the arrangements to change our seats for the final time. At that time I went o [SORRY: length exceeded]
Tom Stanton: David - thanks for the information. I will print out a copy of your e-mail and have David Taylor in our ticketing area assess and respond. My apologies for the problem, and I hope David can resolve to your satisfaction ASAP.
[Editor's note: David - your message was cut off due to length, please e-mail me at Jeffrey_Brown@baylor.edu so we can better help you.]
Chris Roose: On the official Baylor athletic website there is a list of proposed projects that funds are being raised for. Could you give us a priority on these projects and where we stand on raising the funds for these?
Tom Stanton: Regarding money raising for the projects listed on the website, athletics falls within the framework of a total scope of university projects. Four major projects have been approved by the Board of Regents, those being the Endowment Campaign, science building, Discovery Center, and Floyd Casey football locker room/strength and conditioning project. The list you have seen is a work in progress of things I would like to accomplish for Baylor athletics, as permission is acquired. The Grant Teaff Athletic Plaza and "I Believe Walkway" around Floyd Casey is key. A new locker room facility for our track and field programs is high on the list, as is a new rehab center for all our student-athletes, slotted for Floyd Casey Stadium. Restrooms and concession amenities must also be improved. Hopefully, within the next 12-24 months, as approval is gained and funds are given.
[Click here for the Facility Update page.]
Tom Mackenzie: Baylor Track & Field teams consistently perform higher in the national standings than any of our other sports. While we celebrate our top 10 standings, we seldom have the metal to post a top 5 team. Why not invest in the Field sports (not just relays and speed) and award the team with the facilities to be #1 ???
Tom Stanton: Tom, great question regarding track and field. The answer is actually quite simple. It will require some length. Track and field is an equivalency sport, meaning Coach Hart has 12 scholarships for men and 18 scholarships for women to give.
If the cost of attendance at Baylor is approximately $17,000, that $17,000 times 12 scholarships yields a pool of money which Clyde can give. If he chooses to give a student-athlete a half-scholarship, that student still needs to fund $8,500 of his education per year. Now let's move to a state institution, whose average cost of attendance might be $10,000. The track coach at State School U. can give 1/3 of a scholarship, and the prospective student-athlete would still only have to fund $6,666. Point being that the cost of attendance means you must be extremely selective in recruiting, make fewer mistakes and strive for excellence rather than be able to have multiple athletes simply because of the inabilities of many to afford the difference in attendance costs. When you think about it, the jobs that Clyde Hart, Steve Smith, Matt Knoll and other coaches who are not coaching head count sports have accomplished is quite impressive. In Clyde's case, he's done it for 27 years and created Quarter Miler U. as a national figure for Baylor, and that's exceptional.
In the past 3 years, we've made $1 million worth of improvements to our track and field facility. We plan to enhance the locker room facilities for all our track and field athletes over the next several months in the same fashion that we have for other sports. Clyde and I have already agreed on the designs, square footage, and amenities for the locker room areas. Approval and fund raising are the next steps. If you have an interest in financially supporting this project, please contact me, and I will be happy to discuss. Hope to hear from you later today.
Pat Shannon: Hello Mr. Stanton. Thanks for having this chat. I really appreciate your willingness to press the "electronic flesh", so to speak. Here's my question: I am tired of seeing student-athletes from Junior Colleges express their desire to transfer to Baylor, yet wind up playing for Kansas State, Nebraska, Kansas, etc.. I am not asking that Baylor lower admission standards for Junior College student-athletes. My understanding is that these student-athletes are not transferring to Baylor because they are losing credit hours due to catalog incompatibilities. I transferred into Baylor in 1980 after one year at a Junior college and understand how this could happen. Baylor athletics appears to be denying itself a rich pool of fine student-athletes this way. As the latest example, several of Coach Steele's 2001 Junior College recruits have graduated from their respective Junior Colleges, yet are forced to attend an additional semester at their JuCo's to make up for lost hours. We're lucky that Coach Steele conv [SORRY: length exceeded]
Tom Stanton: Pat, thanks for your question. One of the major issues regarding juco transfers, particularly those who play in Texas, relates to their willingness to take and pass the TAAS test. For example, student-athletes like Bishop of KSU and others were not required to take that test for admission into an out of state institution. Those policies, we don't ever see changing for state of Texas institutions of higher education. What Kevin has done is a remarkable job of not only assessing quality talent to bring to our football program, but also to insure that those juco transfers have the ability to do the course load work required at Baylor and attain the college degree. Our goals are not only to win, but to walk student-athletes across the stage. We don't believe that those goals are mutually exclusive.
Buck: Baylor caps and other merchandise are in short sulpply at many retail outlets in contrast to the abundance of Longhorn and Aggie gear. Some blame this on Baylor's restrictive licensing policy. Is this criticism justified? Please give us the facts on this.
Tom Stanton: The criticism is not justified regarding restricted licensing. That was possibly the case three years ago, but much has been rectified. Basically, those stores are linked into larger "buyers", whose offices are located in other cities, not locally. What those buyers view are sales and inventory reports, which correspond to a much higher number of graduates from UT and Texas A&M vs. Baylor, as well as success levels to date.
We have entered into some new local arrangements, which we hope will give expanded coverage in the Waco market, but we have virtually no control over the major metroplex markets. Darryl Lehnus and Scott Stricklin are looking at expanded website opportunities for product sales.
CheerBears: How long do you think it will take the Baylor Football program to make a bowl game?
Tom Stanton: Football in the Big 12 is an extremely tough league. I think we all have seen Baylor's abilities to compete and win in virtually every other sport, and football will follow under Kevin's leadership. People don't realize how depleted our lines have been for several years. Kevin's willingness to address these issues in recruiting will improve our football team, and future years of recruiting will stabilize the number of victories to a competitive state. It's impossible to say whether that will happen in the next year or two. I do know that we have an outstanding coaching staff, who has taken on a significant building project in a brutal league. I know these men and our student-athletes will one day soon join our other Baylor athletic teams in the national scene. Patience, patience, patience.
TennisFan: Tom, with all the rain we've had, is the tennis construction still on schedule for us to host the Big XII tournament. I hope this won't be a situation where things are half finished like the Regionals at the Baylor Ballpark two years ago.
Tom Stanton: We are still on track. Rain delays were assumed in the schedule. We hope for a dedication ceremony the week before the Big 12 Conference Tournament. I don't know if you've seen the court status, as I visited yesterday. Our fixed seating is being completed, the six varsity court area will certainly handle a significant portion of the major play, with the balance conducted at a newly-resurfaced Streich Courts. The three additional varsity courts being worked on behind the other six courts will be used exclusively for warm-ups, as prescribed by Dave Luedtke and Matt Knoll. I think all will agree that this will be a gorgeous facility for the Julie and Jim Turner complex.
[For pics of the construction, click here.
Trey Weir: Tom, Just wanted to stop in and say congratulations on the Bears and Lady Bears Basketball Season. I think the invitation to both tournatments say alot about the turn around of the programs. Well done on all the hard work.
Tom Stanton: Trey, thanks for your positive remarks. We've got a lot of great basketball ahead.
Noe: Congratulations on the success of most of our sports. You are to be commended for bringing in Coach Mulkey and Coach Bliss, who have revitalized our basketball programs. Coach Bliss brought very much experience to the table, while Coach Mulkey was highly sought after. With that said, why did the athletic department take such a big gamble with Coach Steele? He may turn this football program around, but he may not. Why the big gamble? Was it a money issue?
Tom Stanton: In my opinion, Kevin Steele was not a gamble. His lineage in the world of football, both collegiately and as a professional, speaks to faith, character, intellect, and winning. Kevin was brought to Baylor to rebuild our football program the right way. Some may be frustrated, but many are not, because they realize that the foundation Kevin is laying will maintain a quality program for years to come. Money has not been an issue in the hiring of any head coach. Kevin was hired through a formal search process that was nationally based, and he was selected by individuals who believe, as I do, that he will in the end have taken a football program that was run in the ground by his predecessors and built it in a way which will yield long-lasting results of accomplishment and pride for us all. Don't give up the ship. It's a long way across the ocean, particularly in the Big 12.
TennisFan: Has our lack of football success seriously impeded our ability to raise money for athletic improvements? It seems like some projects such as parking lots and concessions/restroom improvements keep getting pushed back. Are we having trouble raising money for these projects? What priority are football improvements (excluding weightroom expansion) getting versus non-revenue sports such as the latter phases of the tennis projects, track and field, golf, etc.?
Tom Stanton: Our football success has not had negative impact on our abilities to raise money. If that were the case, we wouldn't have a new baseball stadium, softball stadium, soccer facility, remodeled basketball locker rooms, etc. Some of the projects are more pleasing for people to contribute toward, other than parking lots. And to be perfectly honest, our coaches have needed locker rooms for their student-athletes and things which aid recruiting far more than some of the other items, like paved parking. We have a master list which would probably require another $10 million to complete. Here's hoping the stock market returns to its "thrilling days of yesteryear", so we can keep the expansion of our Baylor athletic facility projects moving forward.
B. Sykora: Tom, Do consider the Baylor football program, facilitywise, leadershipwise, and coachingwise to the other eleven Big XII members? Ideally, what is being done to comlete the transition of Baylor football to a big time big conference program?
Tom Stanton: We've hired an outstanding coaching staff, we're providing them with new amenities, like the locker room, for recruiting, and we have an unwavering belief in their abilities as on a day-to-day basis. I see the communication and comradery between our football coaching staff and our student-athletes. Today's society demands instant gratification. I don't know if you watched the Notre Dame-Oregon State football game at the Fiesta Bowl. OSU made significant strides in their win-loss record, and I believe that also included 19 player arrests during the fall football season. Everyone might not want to hear this, but we're going to build it right and be committed to character and integrity, so the final product created is one with an excellent foundation that can stand the test of time in the tough league. Kevin is the leadership component needed to turn around a very difficult situation. I'm proud he's at the helm of Baylor's football program.
sicem bears: seeing our past history of short term coaches. if coach steele does not win or improve this year how long before we move on. also remind me again why we fired coach roberts?
Tom Stanton: I plan on Kevin Steele being our head football coach for a long time.
TennisFan: Tom on your answer to "Buck" above, you said that buyers look at inventories and sales reports to determine what to stock. If our merchandise was never in the stores to begin with, how do these people know whether Baylor merchandise would sell or not? If your argument is carried out to the extreme, no new products would ever make it to market because there would be no past inventory or sales reports to justify a store stocking them. IMO, we need to be proactive and target a few larger chains in the metro areas and find out how to get them to carry some of our merchandise. If it sells (and I believe it would) then they would start stocking more of our apparel. But it's not going to happen by itself. Someone at Baylor has to start forcing the issue.
Tom Stanton: Many of the buyers in northern sites have never heard of Baylor University or have any inclination to inventory product. Over the past four years, there have been numerous efforts made to discuss with buyers various methods to stock. It is difficult for us Baylor loyalists, but many stores, despite numerous efforts, will not stock any merchandise level that they are not able to produce in some quantity. The newer strategies created are to expand website availabilities so that we don't have to rely on many retail outlets, who simply don't want to bother with items that are not going to generate large volume sales. I also believe winning will give us a new leverage in continuing our discussions, but at the moment, we haven't unlocked the door with the right key, but we'll keep trying. If you have any ideas or you have a retail background, please don't hesitate to write my office. I'd love to hear your solutions.
Tom Stanton: I appreciate y'all's time. Let's do it again soon!
