AD

[60Shock]

I think it is a tremendous goal for Mr. Bardo to want to build the student population from our present 14,000+ to 20-25,000.

While the population of Wichita has roughly doubled over the last 50 years, unfortunately the student population increase has not approached this figure. Other than building a new residence hall, has he outlined any other ways to go about accomplishing this significant task?


.

[ripemupshocks]

Hey Spaulding, a big part of the AD's job is vision...where are we going and who do we want to be. Education is in flux and athletics are coupled with this. These are serious questions that Veritas asks. They are about growth and improvement. Are we getting better every day. If we don't visualize some better future, don't embrace growth and don't embrace improvement we could find ourselves slipping further in to the abyss.

Are we better off as a university / commumnity than we were 10,20,30,40 or 50 years ago. In many ways yes but in the realm of students using their feet to attend Wichita State University the answer is no. As I've argued elsewhere on Shockernet, market share enrollment at WSU is off 33% since we dropped football in 1986. Collegiate atmosphere and athletics are entertwined. The most important sports by priority to this atmosphere are FBS football, BCS conference basketball and a select few elite mid major (and I hate using that term almost as much as saying Obamacare) basketball programs of which we are becoming one under HCGM's leadership.

Dr. Bardo has proposed a new 55 million dollar residence hall in order to attract students. I'm not sure that this is the right direction as we have continually built buildings all around the campus in the last 50 years without noticeable increase in enrollment. In fact I have recently participated in a building project for campus housing and we are having a difficult time getting to capacity with a state of the art and cost competitive structure that is just as close to most of the classrooms that this new residence hall will be. I'm waiting for "Aargh" to "run the numbers on this new residence hall because this amount of money could easily get us a football program. Please don't misunderstand me. I am still supporting this residence hall because I trust what i'm hearing from the "leadership" at my alma mater. But I digress.

Dr. Bardo is embracing growth, improvement and change and I'm confident that Dr. Sexton is now keenly aware of his part of this growth and change mission.

I think Veritas listed the priorities for ADES in reverse order however.

my priorities would be as follows
#!+ How do we keep growing the success of HCGM's program,
#1A FBS football,
#2 get FBS football and get in to a better conference
#3 get the entire Koch Arena to sing the War chant.
#4 Revitalization of the baseball program,
#5 Continued building of women's volleyball program.

I'm not sure where to start with this post. You could've saved yourself and everybody else some time by simply stating the obvious. You believe there is nothing more important in higher education than FBS football and BCS basketball. You write of failing to embrace improvement, yet you fail to recognize anywhere in you post improvements that have been made in other athletic and academic programs at WSU. You write of failing to embrace growth, yet fail to recognize the growth that would be required in something like student housing associated with creating FBS/BCS programs at WSU. It's almost as if you are of the opinion everything should be sacrificed to attain FBS/BCS. Without a care in the world. Cost. Student housing. Other athletic programs. Nothing else matters. Hell man, on your priorities list you even put, "getting the entire Koch Arena to sing the War chant", above baseball and volleyball. Are you kidding. Those are two programs that have helped to put WSU on the map, and been a great source of pride for WSU fans. But they're not as important to you as that stupid arse war chant.

As to your statement that the $55 Mil for student housing "could easily get us a football program". Maybe. But definitely not at the level your talking about. Keep in mind you're starting a program from scratch. WSU has NOTHING football. No weight training program for 100 football players. No uniforms. No equipment. No practice field. And frankly, Cessna Stadium is butt ugly, and is in a sad state of disrepair. The locker rooms are inadequate. The restrooms are inadequate. The concession stands are inadequate. The scoreboard and press box are inadequate. It looks like a fifty year old stadium that has not been maintained and is falling apart. What would it cost to get even a decent head coach and staff to take on that recruiting job? Even at the lowest FBS level, maybe $2,000,000.00 per season in salary and bonuses for an entire staff. And this ain't no 4 or 5 season fix. You may be looking at a 10-12 season contract for a decent coach. And how would a coach recruit players to play in a dump like Cessna? I'd guess a coach would get that covered in his contract. WSU would have to spend the money to make it not only, not a dump, but also make it a nice, up to date, beautiful stadium that would appeal to players and fans alike. And what would that cost? How much was spent on the Levitt Arena renovation? $25,000,000.00. So what will 33,000 seat Cessna cost? Another $25,000,000.00? As you can see, just for low level FBS, you're burning thru your $55,000,000.00 pretty quick, without yet recruiting a single football player. And you still have not created a single women's program so as to comply with Title IX.

I don't know what you mean by "get FBS football and into a better conference". Since we do not currently have football, I assume you mean a better basketball conference with football. You can forget a BCS conference as none are available to us. CUSA is out of the question, as that is NOT a better basketball conference. Maybe the MWC. Here is a list of MWC football budgets:

https://www.mwcconnection.com/2013/1/4/3834582/nevada-budgets-help-illustrate-mwc-football-basketball-budgets-oveall

And as you can see, they all spend less on basketball than we do. So maybe if you can get HCGM to take a budget cut, you can put that money into football. I'm sure that would make him happy.

Lastly, I have no inside information on the WSU athletic department, or how good of a job ADES is doing. But it seems to me, no matter who the AD is, you either need to lower your expectations for football, or come up with a lot more money. Otherwise your position is just plain irresponsible.

[DUShock]

Ricky, do you think the Jackass aka Stephenson will get,a new contract? I have always been under the impression that his buy out is too Greta fr what Schauss negotiated.

[ABC]

Stephenson has two years left on his contract, through the 2014 season. It is possible that Sexton has done what he needs to do with GS. I don't see a contract extension in the future.

[pogo]

Winning solves alot of problems.

[Kung Wu]

I got a feeling if you tally up ADES win % in all sports, and compared with all former WSU ADs, it would look pretty dang impressive.

[ShockerPrez]

I would like for him to make the call on baseball, keep the train moving on basketball, and at least shake the trees on football. If it cant be done, it cant be done. Am I wrong in believing that some feasability studies on football have been done? I cant remember, but I thought someone had actually put a $$ figure on what it would cost, and it was astronomical. Given scholly costs, staff, facilities, etc.

[RoyalShock]

I got a feeling if you tally up ADES win % in all sports, and compared with all former WSU ADs, it would look pretty dang impressive.

But done with hires made by the previous AD.

[ABC]

But done with hires made by the previous AD.

Does anyone have a list of the hires Sexton has made? Seems like possibly both tennis coaches, softball, women's basketball, cross country. It isn't a small list.

[shox1989]

Does anyone have a list of the hires Sexton has made? Seems like possibly both tennis coaches, softball, women's basketball, cross country. It isn't a small list.

I was going to say that he has hired quite a few coaches in his 5 years as AD. Plus there are at least a couple of coaches who were hired by an AD prior to Schaus maybe more. Grier Jones (golf) and Gene Stephenson immediately come to mind.

To say Sexton has done it with JS's coaching hires really isn't accurate.

[Kung Wu]

But done with hires made by the previous AD.

It counts tho. Recognizing when not to make changes and raising money and keeping successful coaches happy is sumptin'.

[Kung Wu]

I think it would truly be an interesting metric.

[ShockerFever]

But done with hires made by the previous AD.

Yep.

Does anyone have a list of the hires Sexton has made? Seems like possibly both tennis coaches, softball, women's basketball, cross country. It isn't a small list.

How has women's basketball and softball been doing?

I think it's safe to say Sexton is cashing in on the success and drive of his predecessor.

[Kung Wu]

How has women's basketball and softball been doing?

I think it's safe to say Sexton is cashing in on the success and drive of his predecessor.

That makes me think it would also be interesting to see a year to year moving average of the win %. If new hires are doing worse overall we should see a decline. But if overall things are going up then he has improved.

[ShockerFever]

That makes me think it would also be interesting to see a year to year moving average of the win %. If new hires are doing worse overall we should see a decline. But if overall things are going up then he has improved.

Women's basketball has had a slow improvement period but has flatlined, if not regressed some. They were picked towards the top of the conference the last two years now and have nothing to show for it. I briefly caught a softball score here and there. We're easily the worst program in the Valley there. I don't think it looks good for next year in that department either.