The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss Makes Major Announcements
8/31/2015 | Athletics
Ross Bjork
Opening Statement…
"This week, as we get ready to kick off the football season, but also as we have already started the athletic year with soccer and volleyball being undefeated at this point and time, so we are glad to kick things off. We have done a lot this summer that improves our program in many ways. If you look at the momentum right now at Ole Miss and in Oxford, there has probably never been a better time to be an Ole Miss Rebel. We feel it every day in our community. We feel it every day with traffic, parking and packed restaurants. There's a dump truck or cement truck or hard hat crew on every corner right now, but that is a good thing. That is a great thing for our University and our community. Our enrollment is up once again. We will set another record for university population. The University will announce that as we move ahead. Applications are up. Alumni membership is up. Fundraising for the entire university are up. Ticket sales are up. Athletic fundraising is up. We set a record this past June. Right now there is $400 million worth of projects that have either started on this campus, in the planning phase, or will be completed by 2020 including $175 million of athletic facilities here on campus. Our athletic budget has increased from $57 million in 2011-12. This year for 2015-16 it will be a $96 million budget. That has been resolved through a lot of blocking and tackling. Ticket sales, sponsorship, fundraising, also the SEC. We have seen those numbers that have been released this past spring. We are proud of that growth."
On the Nike contract extension, and what it does financially for the athletic department…
"As part of that improved financial position of our athletic department, we are very excited to announce an extension of our Nike contract for another 12 years. Nike is the best apparel and athletic company in the entire country. It is really the preferred brand of our players and coaches. Under our previous agreement, we received 1.9 million of product each year, and we spent about $775,000 of cash towards product every year. Our new contract will more than double the amount of product received and eliminates the cash expense of our contract. So we double our contract and eliminate that $775,000 of cash spending that we have been doing the last couple of years. The extension with Nike is another example of our increased financial position that allows us for us to do more for our athletes than ever before. Unlimited meals and nutrition plans, cost of attendance money as part of the scholarship program, better academic environment with more tutors and opportunities to go to summer school or attend intersession classes. In 2015-16, we will spend $78,000 per student-athlete for their experience both academically and athletically. We have 378 student athletes and we will spend $78,000 per student-athlete. We will continue to focus on teaching, education, leadership, graduation, and of course competing at the highest level.
On the academics of the student-athletes…
"Last year, we had a great year in many respects. In 2014-15, a lot of things happened to really achieve at the highest level, but the thing we are most proud of is that we had our best year ever academically. We averaged a 2.90 GPA for all of our student athletes."
On the opening of the Pavilion…
"The Pavilion at Ole Miss is on track for a January 7, 2016 opening. Our contractor, BL Harbert, and our architect, AECom, are doing a great job and are on track to meet that opening date. As part of the grand opening, we are evaluating the career of Randy Kennedy. We know you have seen Randy a lot lately. He had a run in with the media and had a rough press conference. He is under evaluation all the time as we move into the Pavilion. In all seriousness, the unique features we thought of as we designed that building, the front door of Ole Miss Athletics along All-American drive between the stadium, the FedEx center, and now the Pavilion, are becoming a reality. The plaza between Vaught-Hemmingway Stadium and the Pavilion will have a Steak-N-Shake and a Raising Cane's. That'll be a part of the food court area in the north lobby of the Pavilion. Those things are all coming together. A soon to be announced technology hub that will be part of that lobby area, so when students, faculty, fans come into the Pavilion, they will be able to really be connected in a unique way through this technology hub that we will have further details of as we come together. The other thing about the Pavilion is that we will have the largest center-hung video board in all of college basketball. We will have a center-hung video board that will be anchored by four video screens 12 feet tall and 22 feet wide. It is more than double what we have in the coliseum right now. We did that on purpose to create a unique gameday experience inside the Pavilion. The Pavilion is progressing and coming along at a great level.
On the improvements of athletic facilities on campus…
"Speaking of technology, we will have new video boards for baseball and softball as they begin their 2016 seasons. Those will be installed through the winter time. Soccer has never had a video board, so they'll have a new video board for the 2016 season as well. We will also have a video board at our track stadium as that project kicks off. A very unique aspect of our forming together of capital campaign is part of the north end zone expansion, there will be a new plaza between the football stadium and All-American drive that will really be a center piece and really destination for our fans and for our team on game day and every day of the week. As part of a partnership with the M-Club, we will have a Letterwinner Walk. Essentially we will have columns that will have every letterwinner's name who has ever stepped on our campus. All 7,000 letterwinners will be featured name by name, sport by sport, along a continued Walk of Champions as you lead into Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. We have been working on this idea with the M-Club with the right approach, and we will have graphics that we will release at a later date. But that is who we are. Our history, our legacy, we need to do a better job of showcasing them. Vaught-Hemingway Stadium is coming together. A lot of last-minute final touches are being put together, including new digs for the media. They are in the west side. Renovation of the suites and premium areas there are done as well. We have added 30 suites to the south end zone. We have 700 club seats that are in place. Also, something that will benefit our fans is more restrooms and concessions that will be added in the south end zone concourse that will be added to this year's stadium. The finishing touches are being completed and will be finished by when the gates open on September 5 for the home opener. For 2016, we know about the north end zone enclosure as we expand the stadium to 64,038 including 2,000 more seats for our students. We will also have three new video boards inside Vaught-Hemingway Stadium. We will replace the video board on the north, and then we will have two new video screens in the south end zone, as well as a new sound system and lights for 2016."
On the opening of the parking garage…
"The parking garage is open for business. It has been packed and operational, and will be ready on Saturday for the home opener."
On the renovation of the practice fields…
"A unique aspect that we have been studying all summer is how we redo our practice complex. There has been a ripple effect with the parking garage and our practice facilities. We have two operational practice fields for the 2015 season. However, we will take one of those fields and turn it into artificial turf for next year. We will turn the other one into grass."
On the switch from artificial turf to natural grass for the playing surface of Hollingsworth Field at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium…
"That means that Vaught-Hemingway Stadium will return to a natural grass playing surface for the 2016 season. Natural Grass, Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, Hollingsworth Field, for the 2016 season. So that does have a ripple effect. That means we will have to close the stadium for the 2016 spring and summer. We will not be able to host a public Regions Bank Grove Bowl. We will not be able to host inside of Vaught-Hemingway Stadium because of the turf replacement. We think it is the right thing to do for our program on many levels. Natural grass is the preferred playing surface of our players and coaches. In the SEC West, we and Arkansas are the only ones with artificial turf, so we think this is the right move. We are on our last leg with that turf. We would either replace artificial turf for next season or make the switch to natural grass. It really is a wash for artificial turf to natural grass. The playability and durability of natural grass in this climate, we should be able to grow some great grass. We have a great crew and have confidence, so we think this is the right approach."
On men's health, prostate cancer awareness month, and the powder blue helmets…
"For the Vanderbilt game, we will break out the powder blue helmets. We will bring those out for prostate cancer awareness month, which is happening around the SEC at every institution and honoring our former commissioner Mike Slive for his battle the last few years with prostate cancer. It is a great way for us to be a part of his legacy to showcase men's health for the entire month of September. We will have special helmet stickers and our helmets, which happen to be the same color as prostate cancer awareness. "
On information regarding changes to rules of tailgating at Ole Miss…
"There is a lot of information that we put out about this season that we put out, whether it is about the changes in the stadium or outside. OleMissFB.com is the best source for that information. It really outlines all the new rules for the Grove, Circle, and campus wide tailgating. There have been a lot of things that have been in place before, just haven't been publicized or enforced quite frankly. We have had record crowds in the past three seasons, so we need to give everyone the best experience possible. We think this accomplishes that by communicating, by opening the Grove Friday at 7:30 versus 9:00. The other thing is that people don't have to find and wait for a spot for two days. It really alleviates a lot of things that have really become challenges for our campus, for our cleaning crew, our landscape crew, and for our fans. It has been a university wide decision, not just athletics. So we come together to what we think is a great game day experience already, and we will enhance it and evaluate how it works on Friday and Saturday."
