I sat down with Temple Athletic Director, Bill Bradshaw, on Tuesday, Dec. 10 to discuss the future of the football team and what he needs to do to in order to improve the program both on and off the field.
On a list of priorities, where is finding a new conference for the football program, in 2005?
BB: Actually the conference affiliation situation may take a backseat to some other priorities, one of them being successful negotiations with the Eagles with where we’re going to play next year is a top priority.
Recruiting to fill some of the major holes that we’ve got from graduation is going to be another one for (Head Coach) Bobby [Wallace].
To build some momentum in the program, in terms of ticket sales, fundraising are all I think ahead of conference affiliation, because you have to look at conference affiliation in the sense of making Temple attractive to conferences and right now we have a lot of work to do.
Right now as we sit here now, we wouldn’t be as attractive to a conference as we could be, down the road…And I look at the conference as the final piece of the puzzle.
What sort of options if any, have you been looking at, because the Bowl Championship Series contract expires in 2005?
So that might cause some shifting of the sands, some changes in the landscape.
For example the Big Ten might want to go with 12, who they take could impact the Big East.
The Atlantic Coast Conference could be in the market for expansion.
I don’t think [finding a conference] is in our best interest right now because their are so many unknowns, their are so many teams shifting that we could try to get into a certain conference only find out that that conference changes in three years, and we’re a little trigger-happy and premature at wanting to just desperately to get into a conference, thinking that’s the end-all and be-all, where it really isn’t.
For us getting into the Eagles new stadium, getting the program to where it’s respectable, where we can draw some fans, we can make some revenue, see some real momentum and base it on the real solid job that Bobby’s done.
In terms of revenue, has this program been a success?
BB: Not as it should be.
Quite frankly I don’t believe where our revenue is in terms of our expenses, is where it should be.
We should be getting more money in ticket revenue as a result of our negotiations, our revenue for the Big East is going to be reduced in the next three years, so that’s down… Revenue is not what it should be for [Division] I-A football.
What has president Adamany said to you about the health of the football program?
BB: He has been very supportive of athletics and a lot of people ask me about the support from president Adamany and the Board of Trustees, and I say to them we have one of the biggest subsidies for inter-collegiate athletics in Division 1-A.
Meaning that the amount of money that the school puts up for inter-collegiate athletics is one of the highest.
And as a president who has a greater commitment to athletics?
The president of Michigan, who maybe makes eight or $10 million a year or the president of Temple who might lose $12 million a year…Who would have a greater commitment?
That school president that knows that he must spend that amount of school funds to support a program or that president that nets [$10 million] a year and just get’s a check every year.
I would daresay that David Adamany has a commitment on football, by what he does, which is to support the program.
Do you hold any resentment toward the Big East for ousting this program?
BB: Fortunately, I wasn’t here when it all went down, so coming in afterwards, I know all of the people involved in that and talked with some of them before I came.
But I can’t hold that.
I know how Bobby feels and I know how some of the people at Temple feel, there is some resentment, there is a sense of unfairness by some.
But I would be lying if I said that I personally had any problems because I kind of came in the middle of the card game and the cards had been dealt and there they are…I’ve talked to the AD’s and they’ve been great to me, I understand the cards we’ve been dealt, I’m a realist about that…None of that should sap my energy as I kind of at the look of the future of the program and where it should be.
Jason S. Haslam can be reached at Jasonhaslam@yahoo.com
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