Did anyone else read today's TW article about Dr. Gragg? Really positive news that he is hiring a Marketing Director to help increase brand awareness. The article has a lot of info about some other areas of the conference change like the big increase in overall athletic revenue as well as budget information.

Tulsa World

I read it and am somewhat skeptical of our new AD for a couple of reasons after reading the article. As noted previously, I'm against ANY unfair contracts with our main recruiting rivals i.e. OU, OSU and especially Arkansas because it puts us at a recruting disadvantage in our own local area.

TU would be in a unique position of allowing these parasites a greater foothold into the Tulsa recruiting market. Right now we are recruiting local players and have established it as our base. IMO we don't need these vultures to pick and steal what we have. Those teams further cherry picking the Tulsa area means that we'd have to look elsewhere for talent, a more expensive propostion. So Gragg would initially get an injection of revenue during the season and go to the coaches afterwords and tell them to travel far and wide to supplement thier programs. IMO we'd be surrendering more than we gain.


What I want this AD to do is fund raise and as you mentioned, market correctly and improve attendence. We need an IPF and other needs, but signing unfair contracts just for the money is a slow road toward mediocrity IMO. But if I see another one and done "money" contract, I may be done with TU for a while - support wise. That would show me that our adminsitration is just milking the players and fans by putting us at a strategic disadvantage.

We will sell out the ISU game this year, but there won't be any recruiting ramifications and it WILL be a real home game where our fans don't were Red/Orange. That is what this is about.

IMO if Gragg signs an unfair contract with any of the aformentioned programs, he is just selling out the program and is just "using" us for his own ends. We aren't Eastern Michigan (EMU is one of the worst sports programs in the nation) and he needs to get that clear. IMO, him coming from Arkansas makes me stand back and judge him on a different plain. I hope he's not another Bubba.

My opine for what its worth.

Basically I just want to see our stadium full (or at least mostly full) of fans wearing blue and gold. I feel lilke that is issue #1 that needs to be addressed and once we fix our attendance issues - most of the rest will fall into place.

I agree that we need more deals with regional teams like Iowa St., Texas Tech, Baylor, Kansas etc. Those are teams that local sports fans will come out to see TU play AND more importantly cheer for TU to win - not cheer for the opposing team while wearing orange or crimson.

Bingo on that!

IMO an AD runs the dept and can either be a positive or a negative for the program. What caught my eye in that article was that it insinuated a series was being pushed by him with OU/OSU/Arkansas almost immediately. To me that is equivalent to us begging for "easy money" from the SEC/B12 for an unfair contract that some TU fans and media types with a BCS bias think we need. I do not agree. We should never trade a sure fire loss for the money with a recruiting rival IMO. Some ADs just look at the bottom line to make themselves look good for the short haul so thay can get a better gig in a few years IMO. I want them to have the same scrutiny a coach has - bottom line is are we winning. If we are signing unfair contracts, then sometimes its not just the coaches who are to blame, but their bosses as well. There are a lot of real good programs that would bring a lot of fans we don't have to play at their venue all the time. For instance Arkansas should never be in the discussion - at any amount of return.
IMO.

(06-12-2013 09:28 AM)goldenhurricane2 Wrote:  Did anyone else read today's TW article about Dr. Gragg? Really positive news that he is hiring a Marketing Director to help increase brand awareness. The article has a lot of info about some other areas of the conference change like the big increase in overall athletic revenue as well as budget information.

Tulsa World

I think this is great news for TU ! I like the whole tone of the article. It sounds like TU is finally being proactive in marketing, like many of us have asked for.

I have to admit that I have been concerned because Tulsa will really need to step it up in all facets of it's athletic department to keep up with our new conference.

Despite some comments from our current conference mates, all you have to do is look at the revenue #s of the AAC vs. future CUSA to see a big difference in the two conferences. IIRC, Tulsa was middle of the pack, budget-wise in old CUSA. We would've been 1st or 2nd in the new CUSA. We are next to last in the new AAC !

I agree with Rabid that I don't want any more trips to Fayettenam without a return game. However, I don't mind a 2 for 1 with OU. I wouldn't settle for less than a 4 for 3 with OSU. I noticed that Hoover mentioned football & basketball when he discussed OU, OSU & Arkansas.

Gragg did say that he is consulting with coaches on these issues. Hopefully, he will listen to his coaches. I think our new conference will give us a lot of good games, where we won't have to beg bigger schools for $$ games as much as we would have, if we'd been left in CUSA.

Anyway, I really like the idea of taking a completely new look at everything TU athletics is doing & why. I hope they really find an aggressive & creative marketing director. That may be a key hire for TU's athletic future.

I agree with you guys on all this if we can increase our perception in the media, the fans and the new conference by scheduling teams we have a fair chance of beating. This Arkansas business just disgusts me to no end. From Frank Broyles to Burns to the way Nolan Richardson was treated there (evidently). We should cut all ties with that jerkwater place IMO. Now we've hired an AD that worked in and obviously was in the scheduling loop with them.

The old Einstein quote applies here IMO - The definition of idiocy - doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.

BTW, its always been obvious to me that the media will always push these unfair series' with OU/OU/AU because it allows them to get the perks that come with it. A short trip to cover two teams in the area with their press buddies they rub shoulders with and they are treated like kings because of where they come from - Tulsa. It allows them to increase their readership/vewership and protect their cushy jobs. And if they have an allie in the AD's office at 11th and Harvard, they see an easy "mark".

goldens right. We need the marketing director - anyway to improve attendence during this time of expansion. And we need a thread on how to do it. :)

To be honest with you - I would rather not play OU or OSU in our stadium... It just turns into a home field advantage for those schools with a 50/50 split in fans. I think if we could ever get UA here in Tulsa, it would be 70/30 ot 60/40 in favor of TU.

Anywho - like I said, we are better off scheduling regional Big 12 teams like Texas Tech, Kansas, Baylor and Iowa St. teams that people around here know and have heard of... that they will come out to cheer for TU against a big name opponent. Shoot - even stretch it out a little to Big 10 country or SEC - Kentucky, Northwestern, Tennessee, Iowa, Vandy or even schools like North Carolina, Duke, Georgia Tech etc etc. We shouldn't just pin ourselves to 4-1 deals with OU over and over and over again.

Perception is reality when it comes to opponents, so even though Rice may have beaten KU in football last year, we would have probably sold out for a game against KU and we only ended up with like 22k (on homecoming) for our game with Rice.

Absolutely golden. Most of the fans forget that Rice has been pretty good lately and can handle a Big 12 team.

What I'm concerned with right now is that a new guy will make some strategic mistakes because he's just not familiar with the TU program and its history of accomplishments as well as mistakes. AD's are infamous for making their mistakes seem minor and their accomplisments seem monumental. In effect, they are just too nice to themselves IMO.

I think an easy way out of TU's money deficit (according to some) is for some new AD to take the short term money game-gain because these AD's just don't stay here long enough to realize the mistakes they make that us fans who've been with the program for many years have to suffer through.

And I also agree that if we are going to play a one and done contract, do it with a national power we would never recruit against. On that thought, it just makes me feel good that in recent history, we beat Notre Dame and the Sooners didn't/couldn't. Ha! Ha! That's why we need to be wary of how we schedule - get a gain/game, but never a lose/lose proposition by scheuling very strategiclly and WISELY.

IMO.

Admittedly, Kruger supposedly initiated contact to restart the series, but Gragg's first local series is a home & home basketball series with OU.

Not a bad start for the new AD !

One of the things I'm leery of are the bait and switch scheduling tactics in contracts. They will schedule a game and if it looks eventually "unpromising" for them to win, they buy out or reschedule until they think we're weaker. That is one of the reasons I just want out of this stuff altogether and deal with teams that want to genuinely compete without all the system gaming going on. They are never ever interested with a level playing field. Its like everything is fixed. Their stadium, their crowd, their refs.

They always want to put us in our place, but occasionally that tactic backfires like when TCU beat them (OU)at home (a game that TCU used to launch their program to the Big 12 later on).

I'm not impressed with anyone who signs a quick deal with Ark, OU or OSU that becomes a money game that puts our kids and our coaches in a situation that just makes the AD look good by scheduling that money game but can be a season destroyer for the kids/coaches.

I am not impressed with the new AD yet. I am in wait and see mode. Any AD who oversaw a program that averaged less than 4,000 fans at home last year needs to be viewed with extreme caution. IMO he was just protecting the FB coach he'd hired and wouldn't fire because that would make him look bad and maybe the main reason he is HERE. I certainly hope I'm wrong. But our track record with AD's hasn't been very good lately.

I want an AD that will raise money wo putting the program and coaches in jeopardy. What I would ask him is this. Dr Gragg, would you schedule a future game with Arkansas and if they were down and we were good, would you allow them to buy out that game at any cost? Personally, I think he'd do it in a heartbeat which means to me that he isn't on our side as much as he's on HIS side.

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If this is a contract with no strings attached, (like playing our game in the BOK instead of the Don), then I "might" view this contract as fair (if our home game is in the Don) and especially if Kruger is behind it and not Castiglione. But if this were to lead to unfair contracts in the future, I'd view it as just a tactic, not a contract. I hope its the former, not the latter.

IMO for what its worth.

Rabid, I understand your concerns, especially with his previous AD job at EMU.
However, I've also read EMU's stadium is 6 miles from Michigan's Stadium & there is almost zero local support. (Picture TU's campus 6 miles from Norman). Also, I didn't like Bubba's MAC-attitude, so another MAC AD wasn't encouraging.

Anyway, you may be right, but I'd rather give him the benefit of the doubt for now.
I'm going to wait a year or two to see if this was a good AD hire.

Fair enough. I had to clean up my earlier post a bit. I'm not a big fan of AD's who I view as people involved in athletics but are not really players/coaches confronting the problems of what a coach goes through. What was Bubba, a golfer? That doesn't impress me much. A 70 year old can do that. Ha!

As the refs say - "upon further revue" - This is evidently a good contract from what I can tell. A game in Norman and a game in Tulsa (if it really IS played) would be a good thing and one I can support. For that reason, I'd even support a third at the BOK. That would be an excellent contract in the future IMO, one in Norman, one at the Don and one at the BOK if added to the TU home schedule.

I'm suspicious that Castiglione might back out of the second game however. Just my suspicious nature.

Whatever AD that is hired needs to be able to run his department like a business and put a detailed business plan in place.

Katie Thompson was hired. She is currently holding a similar position at the University of Maryland and before that was at Eastern Michigan. With that track record, I'm not impressed -------------yet.

EMU has the worst attendence figures I can remember in all CFB. Maryland has a 54,000 seat stadium and averaged only 34,000 last year and has 27,000 undergrad students.

This is actually about what I thought would happen. He kept on an obvioulsy bad FB coach as the EMU FB program imploded. Now he hires a MD with no track record of success. My warning bells are sounding. Did Dr Gragg open up the hiring process or was this just a way of promoting a friend and coworker?

My question. Who was called to interview? Who was interviewed? Who was offered and turned down the job?

I think the idea of TU hiring a Director of Marketing is a great idea... but this does seem a little less than stellar. I'm not impressed with this hire at all. If this is the route they were going to choose - why not just outsource everything to one of our great local advertising agencies?? We have several that do sports advertising across the country... Littlefield Brand Development, Walsh Branding, Brothers and Co. and there are several others that would be able to get the job done... This is the route we should have gone if we were just going to hire someone from EMU. Obviously her marketing skills didn't pay off too well for them.... if you really only got 1500 fans to a D-1 game, you should be fired and they should probably close up shop on that football program. But we're going to take that person??? Doesn't really add up.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Well, just think.....in another 3 or 4 years we can be just like EMU!!!