On Monday, the University of Missouri unveiled its long-discussed new plan for members of the Tiger Scholarship Fund. The TSF is Mizzou's organization of donors for athletic fundraising.

Last week, Associate Athletic Director Tim Stedman met with select media members to discuss the upcoming changes to the system. First and foremost, Mizzou is revamping the way it assigns donor benefits in the system. It is appropriately deemed a Donor Level first system.

In the past, donors were assigned benefits (and seating and parking priority, plus access to tickets for road, neutral site and post-season games) primarily based on the total dollar amount they had contributed to the annual scholarship fund only. While that will still be a factor, the overall amount donated to the athletic department will take on added priority in the new system as will the annual amount of donations. Mizzou has added seven new donor levels, dividing individual donors into 13 groups. These range from the Booster level ($50-99 annually) up to the Flagship level ($100,000 plus annually). Donors will now be given seating and parking priority within each group.

For example, a new donor who gave $100,000 or more in year one would vault any donor at the 12 lower levels, regardless of lifetime donations. Donors within each group will be assigned priority based on accumulated TSF points, which are assigned based on total lifetime contributions and years as a TSF member and/or donor to the athletic department.

Mizzou has 8,930 donors to the TSF at this time. Each of those donors will be assigned a rank. The top donor at the Flagship level would be No. 1. Stedman said there are approximately 25 donors at that level. So the top donor at the Hall of Fame level ($50,000-99,999 annually) would be No. 26 in the ranking system. Donors will be able to select seats for football and men's basketball, as well as parking, based on their order of rank.

A key factor, however, is that no donor will be forced out of seats he or she currently has. All existing donors will have the option to maintain their current seats, though parking will be assigned/chosen based on the donor ranks. Stedman said Mizzou chose to go that route to eliminate donors having to move seats. New donors will be able to choose their seat location from those available based on individual donor rank.

"You are guaranteed to keep your seats if you want to," Stedman said.

Stedman said Mizzou will be the seventh SEC school to move to this type of system for donors. Most of the other league schools require a donation annually simply to get a seat in the stadium (Stedman cited Texas A&M's midfield seat at Kyle Field costing approximately a $1,000 annual donation plus the ticket price--about twice the price for a similar seat at Faurot Field--and lower bowl seats at Rupp Arena for Kentucky basketball drawing a $5,000 donation). He said the driving force in the change was transparency for donors to more easily be able to understand how seats and parking spots were chosen or assigned. Stedman said the athletic department understands there will be questions and some complaints about the switch.

"It's going to be that it's all about money," he said when asked the top complaint he expects to hear this week. "I don't want to come across too strong here, but it is. Our competitors are not apologizing for that. Our competitors are more aggressive in how they're going about securing funding. We have to be too."

The new system is part of a larger drive by Mizzou to increase both overall donor numbers and funding to the TSF. Missouri currently has 8,930 TSF donors. That is up from approximately 6,100 when the Tigers joined the Southeastern Conference three years ago, but still lags behind most of the league. Mizzou lists total donations at approximately $22 million annually. That ranks 13th in the conference, ahead of only Vanderbilt.


Stedman would not commit to saying where Missouri hopes to rank among its league peers, but identified Kentucky, Ole Miss, Mississippi and Arkansas as the schools immediately ahead of Missouri and South Carolina, Tennessee, LSU and Georgia as the next step beyond that group. Values in the table below illustrating current donations are approximated, but the order of the schools is directly from info provided by Mizzou.

"We have a few programs in our sights," he said. "We are at $22 million now. We are certainly appreciative of the support of our donors, but we know we can do better. I don't want to lock myself into a number."

Other changes to the system include a combination of points from football and men's basketball, which have been kept separate in the past. In addition, donation levels will now reflect all giving by a donor. That includes money given for facility upgrades, sport specific donations and donations to the Total Person Program, which Stedman said Missouri will become much more aggressive in promoting.

"It is a balance between rewarding loyalties and generating resources at the highest level," Stedman said.

The new system will take effect beginning with the fiscal year on July 1st. Seating and parking for football in 2015 and men's basketball in 2015-16 will still be assigned under the old system. Changes due to the new system will take effect the following year.