Q&A: 2017 Wrap with Jim Sterk

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Sterk: "A lot of change. Obviously with men's basketball being the biggest one as far as changing staffs and all. Just the positive momentum overall with the department. I think we're on a, we have good momentum, we're moving the program forward. I feel like the culture, obviously I'm more comfortable, understand things a little bit better. Yesterday I met with women's basketball and I said I'd been an AD longer than some of them had been alive, which was scary as I thought about it. But I can still learn things. They're a great group of kids that are helping build the culture of our program and leaders in that area. I'm excited about it. It's amazing that this year has gone so fast. But that's a good thing. There's positive things going on."

"What's great to see, and I noticed it last year with my first season, is we have educated basketball fans so they appreciate good basketball, whether it's defensive or offensive side of the ball. I think this team really lends itself without Michael to be crowd favorites because they compete so hard and have a coach that, you know, I don't know if I've ever seen one pace the sidelines like Cuonzo. I call it a panther on the sidelines. He doesn't stop. He's going back and forth. Then he's so mild-mannered with you guys, you can barely hear him when you interview him. He's so into it. Obviously they all know it and I think they're responding positively with that. I love where we're at. He jokes about going to Utah. I wouldn't have scheduled that one, but it was probably good for the development of our program. But you rarely are able to win at BYU or Utah when you go there and play altitude, especially if you're not used to it. It's very hard to do if you've never done it before. But that's all good, I think it helps bring us where we are today. It brings us to, I think, being really prepared for a great Braggin' Rights game."

"Yeah. Yeah. It got fun at times last year, the Kentucky game and things where our guys were really competing well. But having the additional talent on the team really helps. I think that people are enjoying that. We've got to work on, I think in the holidays, being more prepared and encouraging people if they can't make it on a weeknight game at 8 o'clock at night, which I don't blame them, but get those in the hands of somebody so that we can keep our atmosphere really strong even during the non-conference games."

"I heard some number today...I think it's going from like two million revenue in tickets, two million and something, to four million in revenue. Over four is at least a projection. I think it's something like that. It's a huge increase. Obviously it's fun for the fans, fun for the kids, fun for the students, all of those things. I'm looking forward to the SEC games coming here. That will be fun."

"Yeah. When I was hired Commissioner (Greg) Sankey said, 'You know, we're coming to St. Louis and hopefully your basketball is strong by that time.' I had hoped that would be the case, but it's even stronger than what I think I had dared to admit at that time. I think it should be a heck of a tournament there. What do we have, six in the top 25 in the RPI or something like that?"

"I think what I was impressed with watching them, last year she was devastated by some injuries, some knee injuries and stuff. So she wasn't as deep. I was even asking her are you going to have to change your offense and what are you going to do? Because, boy, she took a couple tough hits at the start of the year. But they really finished strong and I think they expected to pick up where they left off and I think they have and done a really good job. They're a fun team to watch too and I think the crowds really like them."

"I think from the standpoint, one from the recruiting as people look and compare and try to throw darts and negatively recruit against you, if you have anyone that some might feel would be a lame duck or whatever, they're gonna try to influence kids not to go there. Then you may lose those kids that you may really like to have. Not that something can't happen, and actually the ones that are throwing the darts are the ones that usually are where it happens. They have a coaching change, 'We're going to be here' and then the next minute they're gone. I think we've tried to recruit positively and I wanted to make sure that parents and student-athletes knew the direction of where we intend to go with our program. Obviously being able to do that, get the support of the Board and the Chancellor and the President was important. Important for the program I think to continue. I think it wasn't a time for any wavering of support because it was an opportunity for us to elevate and for us to position ourselves next year and the year after and down the road so I wanted to do that."

"No, I think it's probably where things are. And when you hire really good people like a Josh (Heupel) that after a couple years if we are leading the conference (in offense) then he's going to be an attractive candidate for somebody to hire as a head coach. He had talked to Barry before and I had talked to him during the season he ultimately wanted to be a head coach and have an opportunity. He turned one down and then he's wondering if he was going to, I told him that was going to happen. He didn't need to take a bad job and I think Central Florida is a good job for him to land. I think that speaks volumes to your program that you have people that are hiring your offensive coordinator as a head coach."

"He's been good about and Brian White works more with him on day to day, but with us, keeping us informed who he's thinking. He's trying to be thoughtful and thorough. It's an important position for us, so he has taken time. I think in normal circumstances, before the early signing period, people wouldn't think that we're taking time. It would be a normal type of evolution. But with the signing period being so early, I think he didn't want to rush into a position where he is gonna hire somebody just because of the signing date. I think they were able to keep the players that wanted to come here and I think he really reassured them that we were going to keep the same style of offense, so I think it didn't impact us negatively that way too much. I think overall he's handled it really well and I think they're going to be well-prepared for the bowl too."

"I think with any coach we're going to evaluate ourselves. Actually it's an SEC rule that you're going to have assistants or head coaches that you run by them, the NCAA. There's a broad range of information that you get to make decisions on assistant coaches. And that's just speaking in general terms. That's where I'll keep it."

"I think because it's a change. Football coaches are just regimentation, this and that, I don't know how many years it's been the way it's been. I think the dust has to settle and get through the other signing period before you make a thumbs up or thumbs down from a coach. I kind of like it from the standpoint of we work really hard to find kids with character and maybe have a huge upside. I think we got cherry-picked at the end last year with some kids that our coaches did a really good job of evaluating and then suddenly someone maybe grabbed them at the end. I like it from that standpoint of we've got these guys that are committed to Mizzou that there's not anything that's gonna change it in February. I like it from that standpoint, especially when you have someone like AJ Ofodile bringing people to Mizzou with character and talent. We like that combination because they have that upside. I think that helps us. Barry may have other opinions and probably grumbling about it now because it's right in the middle of bowl practices and preparation so I totally understand that. But after going through it maybe a couple times they might have a better evaluation of it."

"I expect it to be a hostile environment for us. I think that's what the players expect...I think they sell a lot of tickets ahead of time before whoever's in there. It's one of the better attended games, I think, usually as far as numbers go." (Note: Missouri got 8,000 tickets and expects to use between 4,000 and 5,000).

"They're tearing things out of there inside, saving what they can from it. It doesn't go down until, which surprised me, it doesn't go down until the end of February, first of March is the timeline. They've got a timeline of things. As far as being that visual where it's going down, it doesn't happen until then. Which kind of surprised me because I'd think they'd want to get it done and out of there. I don't care when they start, but I want to be done in August of 2019 in time. That's all I care about."

"Our guys are still kind of working through all that. And we'll start to be coming up in January I think. We want to start to be able to market sales. We're talking to some people already of interest in suites and club seats and things like that. That stuff, I think toward the end of January, we'll probably have more information."

Nick Joos, Sterk's communications advisor: "For the people that are in the south end zone now, they have started to contact them. We have a plan now that they can be grandfathered in on the east or the west for five years or three years, based on how long that they've held their tickets. We put together what we think was a really fair offer for them to move.

Sterk: "That was important. I always want to have the ability someone to get in at the ground level, someone that wants to come to a game that it's not as expensive and affordable. We want to make sure we're sensitive to that so I think that our staff put together a really good plan that can help those folks."

Joos: "I checked the other day. It's been well-received so far. I think there's been maybe 100 tickets that have maybe not gotten renewed. But everybody has been grateful, thinks it's a fair plan and they've been happy."

"First I can say talk to your tax accountant. I'm not a tax attorney or accountant. We're still trying to feel out the impact and some schools have done some projections and things. It might not be as impactful as people were worried about at the start. But it does impact people that we give donations and those are very important for us, those annual donations for tickets go into our Tiger Scholarship Fund and that pays for our $11 million of scholarships that we have to pay every year. So it's a very important resource, so people were very nervous about how it's gonna impact. I think it probably won't impact for a year and a half probably as far as whether people decide to buy in a certain area. From what I understand, the donation, you could deduct up to 80% of a donation that was related to tickets and that exemption has gone away."

"Down to zero from what I understand. Ryan Alpert has been talking to his counterparts across the country and they've had evaluations and we'll have to have someone from Missouri weigh in on how it impacts Missouri taxes and things like that. We'll eventually have a chart where, okay if your donation was $400, it might impact you $60 or something like that, I don't know. Depending on your tax bracket and where you are. It's complicated and that's why people weren't sure, but we did know it's going away. Can you tie donations to parking or donations to, obviously we have donations for our capital projects. There are opportunities, I think, still for people to be involved and for us not to lose our support for scholarships. That was the biggest impact.

"Now the University overall, I've heard some concern because tax revenues for the state will go down and then that impacts obviously the overall institutional budget. That will have a haircut from the state budget. I think that's probably even more impactful than on the athletic side. So I'm concerned about that and how that impacts the University."

"My middle daughter is an accounting major, but I can't get her to interpret it so far."

"I'm more excited about our student-athletes. We had a number of them graduate. Barry at a team meeting, I think, had the graduates stand up. It's really neat to get that done. Because in athletics we get consumed with the athletic portion of it, but the academic degree is so important for them long term. So that's been really positive. I'm looking forward to finishing strong. Right now we have five teams in the top 25. For us, I think our program, to finish the year in the Learfield Cup in the top 25, I think that's a really good goal for us. Compete for championships, go to postseason, graduate our kids. Those are the things that I get excited about. More having them finish and having their sash day and those types of things are really important."

"I don't know where that's at. I've got to get an update. I think they were trying to get that before the season on the infield. I don't say we are because I've had some previous experience at Washington State. When we put field turf down, when they were excavating, it was like an old landfill and suddenly we had to pour like a half a million of gravel down to stabilize it. The most important part of those fields is the four feet of substructure and the drainage and all of that. Our guys want to get it done and so I'm holding my breath that we're ready for baseball season."