Bardo interview

[pogo]

This is as good a thread to throw it into as any other. The Eagle had two interviews with new president John Bardo one on priorities with WSU and one on sports. Someone please post a link for these articles as they answer alot of questions about how the new guy thinks.

[SubGod22]

Bardo in the Eagle - Football is addressed to a certain degree.

[DUShock]

My favorite quote: "My wife always reminds me that they can’t actually hear me when I yell at the television.” Hear, hear!

Go Shocks!!!!

[kcshocker11]

I have those same two T-shirts

[wu_shizzle]

I was not expecting that level of knowledge of the current landscape of college sports. He really seems to get it.

[pogo]

I was not expecting that level of knowledge of the current landscape of college sports. He really seems to get it.

I too was impressed with what I feel is a very thorough thought process. I especially liked the part where he asks "At what level do you want to win at" if the big dogs are playing other big dogs are the local folks going to stay home and watch us play southern illinois. Also his perspective on letting the big boys beat on us 70-0. How about his thoughts on underfunding something now and not being able to catch up later on down the line. I think I really like the way HE thinks.

[pogo]

Talked to Dr Rhatigan today about the articles and in his words "He's been through all of this before so he knows what he's doing." Dr Rhatigan feels he is a very good replacement for Dr Beggs and brings a little different perspective to the job.

[rrshock]

I feel like President Bardo has a sincere interest in Wichita State. He comes in with a prior stay here and I think that can benefit everyone. I think all aspects of the university will benefit from Bardo's time at the helm. I look forward to him building on what Don Beggs had done and think that Wichita State will only be better in the long run. I also think that football will be looked into, but correctly like he mentioned. I feel that athletics will improve and help the school only get better.

[WstateU]

Here's my favorite part of the interview...

"It’s really important that we keep focused on what this really is about and who we’re really about. I want our men’s and women’s basketball teams in the Final Four. I want our students to graduate, and I want all our students to be good citizens. We have to keep that conversation at the forefront.”

I like it, I like it a lot!

[pogo]

I like the analogy that our sports programs are our "front porch" its how people know us that never attended classes here. The man can coin a phrase. If he didn't coin it then he sure picked a great time to use it.

[_kai_]

President Bardo does nothing but impress me every time I read about him, or read quotes from him.

The second to last question, his giant paragraph on football at WSU. That whole thing is a masterpiece. He summed up Shocker football and what it will take to get it back, perfectly in one paragraph. It's not who do you want to play, who do you want to beat? Will people be happy beating SIU? Perfect question.

[SubGod22]

And the answer, at least to begin with, is yes. People would be happy with beating SIU. But as I've said before, there has to be a vision to build to more than that. But while we're building, beating up on Valley rivals would be a good thing. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I'd rather go to Cessna Stadium and watch the Shox battle the Salukis than stay home and watch any game involving Kansas, Kansas State, Texas, 0U, Nebraska, Notre Dame, LSU, Florida State, USC, Michigan, Ohio State or any Little East team. Simply put, I'd rather watch MY team than those I don't have any passion for.

[1979Shocker]

And the answer, at least to begin with, is yes. People would be happy with beating SIU. But as I've said before, there has to be a vision to build to more than that. But while we're building, beating up on Valley rivals would be a good thing. Maybe I'm in the minority, but I'd rather go to Cessna Stadium and watch the Shox battle the Salukis than stay home and watch any game involving Kansas, Kansas State, Texas, 0U, Nebraska, Notre Dame, LSU, Florida State, USC, Michigan, Ohio State or any Little East team. Simply put, I'd rather watch MY team than those I don't have any passion for.

I'd watch OU and Nebraska anytime. And maybe K-State. The others, not too much.

[1972Shocker]

Maybe I'm in the minority, but I'd rather go to Cessna Stadium and watch the Shox battle the Salukis than stay home and watch any game involving Kansas, Kansas State, Texas, 0U, Nebraska, Notre Dame, LSU, Florida State, USC, Michigan, Ohio State or any Little East team.

In measuring whether a majority or minority is behind football it will be more important that the majority includes our deep-pocketed fans and not just a majority of fans in general such as my self.

My take from reading the Bardo articles was that while he will be open-minded about football if and when that makes it to his front-burner it may be quite some time before that becomes the case.

There are a number of really key issues that we need to deal with as a university, and I’m going to focus on those first. When we get a few things in line that I feel are where they need to be … then I’ll try to figure out how we look at that in a meaningful way.

His priorities were outlined in this article: http://www.kansas.com/2012/08/12/244...improving.html

These are: Enhance Quality, Grow Enrollment, Basic Research, Intellectual Property (capitalize on Basic Research) and Quality of Student Life

Perhaps bringing back football could be included in improving the quality of student life but it was not mentioned and he clearly seemed to be focused on improving (perhaps replacing) the student residence infrastructure which from what I have heard is bad shape. As Dr. Bardo stated "we don’t have the competitive advantage that you need." While such improvements would no doubt help recruiting for all sports this will not be an overnight fix. This is a long-term project and, of course, just like football Dr. Bardo has to figure out where the money will come from.

[ISASO]

The unfortunate thing about waiting is that our window of opportunity to play football with the big dogs is closing rapidly, if it hasn't already slammed shut. Sure, it would be fun to beat SIU and the others if we beat them 80% of the time. Other than that, blah. It's nothing that 15-20,000 people will pay to see.