Football issues

Jeremy Foley, athletics director
University of Florida
Florida Today

Discussing the Division I Board of Directors' adoption of a 12th Division I-A game:

"Everybody thinks automatically that now Florida is playing USC and Oklahoma is playing Michigan and that kind of stuff. I don't see that happening. The 12th game is a significant source of revenue for every program in America. I think that's going to be a driving force in the way a lot of these schedules come down. We'll just have to wait and see if it's a good rule or not. I was surprised it passed. Now it's here and you deal with it."

Mickey Matthews, head football coach
James Madison University
Richmond Times-Dispatch

Discussing the I-A and I-AA classification labels:

"In golf, you had the Seniors Tour (being renamed) the Champions Tour, done with the same idea, that 'Seniors' has a bad connotation to it. 'I-AA' sometimes can have a bad connotation to it. The higher-tier I-AA programs, we'd be called 'mid-majors' in college basketball."

Public relations

Bob Bronzan, former athletics director
San Jose State University
Athletics Administration

Discussing changes over the years in athletics public relations:

"Until roughly 40 years ago, the person charged with planning, preparing and executing public support was usually titled 'public relations director.' Then universities began to improve their public relations efforts and, at the same time, claim exclusive use of the title. Additionally, the NCAA wanted all its members to adopt the title 'sports information director.'

"Today, many athletics departments do not draw a distinction between public relations and sports information. Some departments presume that its sports information office also is fulfilling the role of public relations. Others recognize that sports information is but one facet of a public relations program. A distinct public relations office should concoct methods to create interest, financial and moral support and enthusiasm.

"I can envision an organized unit within the athletics department with a director. The primary role of this person is to coordinate the responsibilities of associate directors of sports information, fund-raising, promotions, marketing, communications, ticketing and approved support organizations."

Collegiate model

Kevin Weiberg commissioner
Big 12 Conference
USA Today

Discussing a request from the Knight Commission for the Bowl Championship Series to make its games more collegiate and less professional-looking:

"We have upon occasion expressed concern to our bowl partners about the general presentation of the games, particularly the championship games, and I'm sure that will be an ongoing theme for us as we go forward.

"I think it's important, though, to understand that these are bowl games, and the hoopla surrounding the games has always been controlled by the local bowl committees. It's a little different than an NCAA championship structure. ...

"It takes the form of working on it in a cooperative fashion with the bowls. We're not in a position to just sort of dictate all of those activities (for example, halftime shows), but I think we can make some progress on it."

Gerald Turner, president
Southern Methodist University
USA Today

"(The Knight Commission's) concern was simply that we wanted to reconsider how we best promote our universities in the football postseason as I think we have pretty well in the basketball postseason. If there are halftime entertainers, they're collegiate halftime entertainers. In what you present in PSAs and other kinds of things, you try to help people see these student-athletes as students as well as athletes."