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The AD was upset about the concession stands opening late, he was excited to see our student-athletes supporting each other.

I wouldn't say a home and home with DePaul will never happen but they have said no every time we have asked to this point.  We will ask again for the coming season.  The last time we played them in men's basketball, 1980.  They have said no to quite a few Valpo coaches.

Three of those schools will never schedule a home and home series with us, regardless of any ARC improvements.  Three others have at best a 5% chance of happening as 2 for 1s, although all three continue to say no.  Two could happen.

When I was at NC State we built what is now the RBC Center, home of NC State basketball and The Carolina Hurricanes.  75% of the funding came from the State of North Carolina and Wake County.

Indiana State's renovation of the Hulman Center will be funded primarily with a state appropriation.

http://www.tribstar.com/news/hulman-center-renovation-receives-final-state-approval/article_d9179c7e-b5a5-11e7-a03e-634744136008.html

Illinois State's renovations to Redbird Arena will be paid for with funds from a sinking fund that covered the bond payments on the building.  Student fees make up that sinking fund.

State schools use state, and other governmental entities, appropriations and student fee revenue on a regular basis to build athletics and recreational facilities.  The bigger schools like NC State and Purdue will then supplement those with donations or revenue from their conference TV networks.  Student fee revenue at state schools like Illinois State with 21,000+ students can be significant.

Schools like Valpo have really only have access one of those revenue sources, donations.

The MVC's agreement with ESPN requires broadcasting events to a higher standard than the Horizon League.  We have invested in all new state of the art equipment that will be housed in a new, permanent control room in the ARC.  The process of ordering that equipment started in late May right after we accepted the invitation to join the MVC.  The equipment is scheduled to be delivered and the control room completed by early October.  We needed to take the old system down to build out the new system.  We are on track to have everything completed in time to start streaming events the weekend of October 13/14. 

The SIUE game was scheduled well before the opportunity for membership in the MVC.  Being in St Louis annually for Arch Madness is a significant benefit for us as members of the Valley. 

We have a list of schools every year we would like to schedule, the question every year is do they want to play us.  Many years the answer is no, they don't.  I believe you will find that our non-conference schedules the past 5 years or so are similar to other quality mid-majors.

The parking situation has gotten more difficult since the construction of the track.  We understand that it needs to be addressed and have begun reviewing it and looking for answers that can be implemented for the coming season.  Some solutions that seem simple are complicated by city and IDEM regulations and rules regarding storm water management.  We need to be good neighbors.  The change on McIntyre was driven by the inability for two way traffic on game nights when parked cars filled both sides.  Many patrons have been clear that parking has become a frustration, we are looking for ways to address these frustrations.

Wanted to play in the St Louis area.  We look to play some games in areas where there are a large number of Valpo alumni and friends.  Our overall non-conference schedule is good.

Couldn't be prouder. Blessed to have Rowdy, you, and the entire family as part of the Valpo Athletics family. GO LOKO!   

Always interesting to read what people know for "a fact" and what they believe has and has not been done for or invested in men's basketball.

While we do need to continue to improve I believe we have been making progress in both those areas.

Since Coach Cecchini has arrived we have renovated and expanded the football weight room and completely renovated the football locker room.

The Alumni Association had events at both the Butler and Jacksonville games.  The tailgating event at Butler was very well attended and I believe the Jacksonville event sold out.  The Alumni Association has been instrumental in changing the way that Homecoming is organized so that most of Saturday's activity is adjacent to Brown Field.  This includes a beer garden.  This year there was a hospitality area adjacent to the east endzone during the Homecoming game.  VUPD is much more thoughtful about the way that alcohol consumption is monitored.  The University's Student Affairs staff has been proactive in helping engage fraternities and sororities in football games.

The challenge at this point is putting a team on the field that is not only competitive but wins games.  Students, like all fans, want to see their team win.  The best plan for growing attendance is to win games.

The University is committed to having a successful football program.  Appreciate your support for Coach Cecchini and his staff.  Thanks for your continuing interest.     

Genuinely interested, what do you believe a commitment for success in football looks like?

The level of competition in the PFL has risen significantly over the past 10 years.  The skill level of the players and of the coaches has risen.  When we reviewed recruiting, what was working and what was not working, we found that our schedule was a factor.  The PFL is classified by the NCAA as Division I, FCS.  The better recruits want to see a schedule that is more representative of that level.

I have had a number of conversations with the members of the football team over my tenure here at Valpo.  One message has been clear over the past 5 to 6 years, the players want to play the tougher schools.  They prefer having Western Illinois or North Dakota on the schedule instead of a DIII game.  They understand the chances of winning are lower against the FCS scholarship programs but many of them had aspirations of playing at one of those schools.  They want to see what that level of competition is like.

Over the course of my 10 years here my thinking on scheduling has changed.  I now firmly believe these games better prepare us for success in PFL play instead of playing DIII games.  We want to be best prepared for the 8 PFL games each year.  That is the championship we are after.

The guarantees from those games have also allowed us to do more of the things that DI programs do.  The days are now gone when the players had to buy their own workout gear.  We now stay in nice hotels instead of off brand hotels where the logistics of rest and meals were more difficult.  So far we have not had any worse injuries in a guarantee game than the other 10 on the schedule.

Is it possible a DIII school may show up on a future schedule, yes.  As of right now we don't have any scheduled in the near future, although we still need a game to complete next year's schedule.  We have future games already scheduled with Missouri Valley, Ohio Valley, and Northeast Conference schools as well as a local NAIA team.  We are trying to schedule games with Ivy League schools.  We will likely schedule Midwest DII teams like St Joe's or William Jewell.         

Understand everyone's frustrations with this year's home schedule.  We also would have preferred a different home schedule.  Scheduling requires two teams that want to play.  We received many "not interested"s this year.  We eventually reached a point in time where we needed to finish the schedule and we needed it to have more than 11 home games.

Scheduling basketball games has changed significantly over the past 5 years.  The BCS schools play each other more, play each other more on neutral courts, and have become more selective in what mid-majors they play.  Mid-majors and low-majors have become more selective as the pressure to win sooner moves to the lower RPI conferences.  Guarantees  have gotten to the point where paying schools is financially unfeasible for schools outside the BCS.  ESPN controls many of the early season tournaments.  Many of their tournaments are already scheduled out two or more years.  Outside promoters now require the payment of high guarantees to participate in their early season tournaments.

We are working now on ideas for developing a better schedule for next season.  This has been a topic of conversation with the Horizon League staff and with all of the Horizon League coaches as a group.     

The non-conference schedule for next year has us at Western Illinois and William Jewell, at home against St Joe's. 

Only the top 8 teams get seeded.  The remaining teams are then paired geographically as much as possible.  Teams must submit a bid to host in advance of the pairings announcement.  The PFL set aside funds to assist our AQ in submitting a host bid.  It is very possible that Tennessee St did not submit a host bid.

We have resumed active fund raising for the track.  This is the result of Athletics once again having an Associate Athletics Director for Development and identifying new potential donors.

The track when built will be around Brown Field.  No portion of it will be on the Porter Hospital property.

The response to the announcement that the position would be open was very quick.  There is a very strong interest in the position.  The candidates for all of our open head coaching positions are similar.  They range from high school coaches to DI assistants and everything in between.  They come from all college levels, DI, DII, DIII, and NAIA.  They come from all over the country and sometimes beyond.

Here is a very good story from the St Paul, MN paper about Tanner and his being drafted by the Twins.

http://www.twincities.com/sports/ci_23430317/minnesota-twins-tanner-vavra-proves-uncle-tommy-right

Tanner is great representative of of Valpo and our baseball program.  It is a pleasure to have him as part of our Athletics family.

"Glory to God in the highest, and on the earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."

A blessed Christmas to all.

It has been the Athletics Department's tradition to hang all of the championship banners from the most recently completed year in the front lobby of the ARC together.  This is done to reinforce Valpo's tradition of strong athletics across the department.   

It was because of this tradition that we rearranged the ARC lobby a couple of years back to more prominently display all of our championship trophies.  It is also why we started displaying banners for our All-Americans, head shots of all of our league-wide and national honors winners and the team pictures for all of our conference championship teams.

Most of our coaches meet their recruits in the front lobby of the ARC when they visit.  We are looking to start the conversation about the long term quality of Valpo Athletics by the statement made when people walk through the front door of our house.       

The quality and volume of the sound depends on the location of your seat.  There have been games where we have people complaining that they can't hear from one section and people complaining that it is too loud from another.  When we installed the new video scoreboard last year we spent $15,000 on new sound components.  We were told by the sound contractor that this would correct many of our problems.  It clearly has not. 

I believe that the problem lies with the number and positioning of the speakers.  This is really the only part of the system not yet addressed.  We are going to have this looked at but we will not be able to address it before the end of the season.  In the mean time we are keeping a closer eye on the level of the volume.

The last time the track project was priced the estimate was $1.8 million.  The track surface is only part of the cost.  The asphalt base needs to be built, there is a significant amount of site work (eg: removing the old tennis courts) and drainage needed plus landscaping.  Our plan also includes jump areas and the equipment needed for staging track meets.  We still need to raise the majority of those funds.

The NCAA covers the travel expenses for teams in the softball, baseball, and all other team championships.  There are no additional revenue distributions to teams in those championships.

We are very proud of our baseball tradition.  Last year we created the "Hall of Champions" in the ARC.  There is a team picture of every one of our conference championship teams all the way back to the 1945 ICC football team.  It includes everyone of the baseball championship teams mentioned in this thread.  We also have hung pictures of teams that played in the NCAA post season (regardless of classification) that were not conference championships.  This also includes a number of baseball teams from the 60's and 70's. 

Over the last few years we have inducted 6 baseball players and the 1968 team into the Hall of Fame.  The 2012 class included Russ Steinbeck an All-American in baseball from the Class of 1967.

If Coach Bauer's number was retired we were not aware.  I am going to talk with Bill Steinbrecher regarding that matter, if it is true we will stop using #8.

Coach Woodson & I have discussed recognizing our championships and All-Americans with signs in the outfield.  To this point in time we have had other priorities connected with the condition of the playing field and the clubhouse.  It is our sincere hope to raise the money at some point in the future to enable that recognition to happen.

Coach Woodson and I have been talking since his first day on campus of restoring baseball to the levels established by the program under Coach Bauer in the 50's 60's and 70's.  We have been making steady progress and are excited to have taken a significant step this year.

We have a great baseball tradition, we want to honor it by adding to it. 

The NCAA distributes money in 3 separate pools.  The first 2 go directly to the schools.  These distributions are based on the number of NCAA sports a school sponsors and the number of athletics scholarships it awards in those sports.

The funds from the third pool are distributed to the conferences.  This distribution is determined by the number of games each conference's schools play in the NCAA tournament over a number of years.  These funds stay with the conferences regardless of membership changes.  Each conference determines its own internal distribution model for the funds.

The terms under which a school leaves the Horizon League are not something that I can discuss, sorry.