On Thursday afternoon, Mizzou Director of Athletics Jim Sterk held a press conference via Zoom with local media.
Sterk talked about the challenges of the past year and looked forward to the year ahead at Mizzou. Watch a full replay of the press conference below.
PowerMizzou.com will add a full written transcription later this afternoon.
Here is the full transcription of Sterk's press conference:
Opening Statement
“Starting off academically we had our eighth straight record semester of GPA over 3.0. We had a record fall semester of 3.18, second highest spring ever. Those grades are in, 3.2 overall with 14 teams over a 3.0. Then, this one is probably going to be more relevant with the transfer portal and everything else, but our exhausted graduation rate, and we have over the past five years, 97% of our student athletes that have exhausted their eligibility with us have gotten their degrees. As you know, it’s so important. You report on it, there’s only a handful of student athletes that make it each year into the pros and as they like to say the rest are going pro in things other than their sports. We want to have them leave with a great degree and we want that at 100% and we’re going to be working hard to do that.
Athletically, I think Nick has probably shared with you, we had 18 of 20 sports made postseason this year. That was a record. And six finished in the top 25 and ten overall were in the top 25 and flirted with that during their seasons with wrestling being the highest and finished seventh in the country. Also noteworthy that wrestling re-entered the Big 12 as a member and that’s going to be important for their future. Gymnastics, men’s and women’s swimming, softball and volleyball ended up all in the top 25. I’m really excited about that, but also just looking forward to this coming year because I think we have a great set of coaches, we have a lot of student athletes coming back that maybe have another year of eligibility that augment the recruiting classes that our coaches have put together. I think it could be a very, very fun and exciting year.
Something new as far as a new fact. Thanks to the amazing support of our donors and individuals and families and key individuals that have supported our program, the Tiger Scholarship program along with gifts for other projects like the indoor, we’re going to have a record year. The books haven’t officially closed on FY21 so I don’t have that exact number. That may be coming in the next week or so, but we’re going to have the highest year in history of fundraising at Mizzou. It’ll break the record that we set in 2017 and just a lot of great stories, great gifts, great work by our staff and coaches. It’s the second time in five years we’ve reset the bar on that and it couldn’t come at a better time as far as our budget goes.
We had reported our budget revenues were down because of COVID impact probably in the 30 to 35 million dollar range. I think Tim (Hickman) just gave me a number, it was 35 million. We cut expenses by 16 million during that time and then we also had as reported by the SEC, we had a supplemental revenue distribution of 23 million that gives us a shot at really balancing the budget for this year as they close the books. They’re still settling out on projects and utilities and things like that, but I’m really proud of the effort that we put together and it will be something we can report on in the future in the next week or so. The fundraising for the indoor, that’s going ahead and bids are going to be going out on that shortly, in the next week I would think and we’ll be getting a better handle on what that’s going to cost. We’ve got other projects going on, the most notable, the basketball one. No one can see, it’s down at the the bottom of the arena, but all of the student athlete area other than the weight room is in renovation stages. In fact, men’s and women’s basketball are flipping locker rooms. Their medical training area is being renovated. That should be done later in August. A lot of work to do yet, but that’s a change. Then obviously the indoor will be started later this fall, but the bids are going out. Really thankful for every dollar that we received for our scholarships. That’s our biggest need each year and it’s great support and we’re going to need to continue to grow that to provide resources for our teams to be competitive both in the conference and nationally.
Lastly, just NIL and you probably all have five questions about it and I don’t know whether I’ll be able to answer it. It was like the Christmas gift no one knew exactly what it was going to be. You had some ideas and thoughts and all that and you were hopeful, but anyway, our Missouri NIL bill is on the Governor’s desk and really appreciate the support of our legislators to pull it together. It was definitely needed because in the space of the states and Congress and Supreme Court and no one knew really what was going on, at least we had a state bill that we knew was on the books that we could look towards and plan for. That’s helping guide us as we move forward from July 1. Where that leads intercollegiate athletics in the future, I’m not sure, but I just got a report, shoot, I’ll have to look, but I think it was 30 or more student athletes had signed and recorded agreements. I’ll check that fact before we’re done.
Then, before I open it up for questions, I’d be remiss if I didn’t thank Nick (Joos) publicly in front of all of yo for all his efforts. He’s worked all hours of the day and I truly do know it’s all hours of the day on behalf of Mizzou. Sunrise to sunset and every hour in between. Really appreciate his efforts and I think he wanted to have one more of these to put me through before he headed out and give you guys all shots at me. But Jacob Bell, who’s new in the area, will be running communications in the short term, but we’re going to miss Nick a lot and I’ll have him on speed dial. With that, I’ll open it up for questions.”
Where did you fall on this name, image and likeness stuff before it passed officially and has anything happened in the first week or so that has surprised you?
“I felt like it was something we needed to get to. Where it needed to fall, I wasn’t quite sure how we would get there and we’re still not totally sure on that. But I think the ability for students to monetize their name, image and likeness in a way that other students can, I think is very beneficial. The crux of the issue comes with other students aren’t actively recruited like in intercollegiate athletics and have folks that are really interested in that. So what are those guardrails to keep us in that area that gives them the opportunity to make money if there is to be made and then but also avoid the pitfalls of things going down a road you don’t want as well. Those are the challenges. I think Miami’s agreement where someone comes out and says I’m gonna give X amount to each student athlete, I think that was something that I don’t know how many people had thought of that before. So I think that’s something you could see more of. I think people are just learning how and we’re doing education. We’ll do education with business leaders and just others as we’re allowed to do of here’s how you can be involved in this space if you want to work with our student athletes.”
I know that NIL was very important to Eli to the point he was in Jeff City and talked to some people. Can you tell us in your conversations with him why it was so important to him? Second part, do you see this something that widens the gap in college football or are there things about it that offer programs like you an opportunity to close the gap with the five programs who have been in the playoff for eight straight years or whatever it is?
“I’ll answer your second question first. I think it really allows, I don’t think it widens the gap necessarily. I think there’s going to be opportunity across the nation with different teams. I think it puts things out in the open that you can see and allow. I think there’s going to be some student athletes that are disappointed that they thought they were worth this and they’re coming to the real world and they may not be the next Patrick Mahomes and able to get deals with everyone and high level deals. I think for us and Eli, as we looked at it, there was almost a vacuum, gap if you will, of how can we go ahead with this if the NCAA’s not coming forward with legislation, it looked like Congress was not going to do it, so it was very important for us, I think to have the state involved with that and have some guidelines that were similar to other states in the SEC.”
A lot of these deals we’ve seen have been bulk package deals with a large company and groups of athletes. I know athletic departments are staying out of that. Do you ever see a day where there can be deals that roll through athletic departments and go out to student athletes or is that probably never going to happen?
“It could, but hopefully not in the near future. We obviously, and you all are in the media space, we have our media rights agreements and we do think there’s probably going to be a negative impact to that with this. How much, I don’t know. We’ll see how it all falls out in the next year or two and see. I don’t think so, but I think things would have to change and evolve even further with Congress, I would say, before that happens.”
I’m curious what the vaccination rate is among the student athletes right now and what the COVID protocols will look like for fall sports that are ready to get going here soon.
“Nick can help me out. I think generally, boy if I had to look at it, we’re probably at 50%. We need to get about 85% or higher there. Some teams are higher than others. I haven’t done the numbers as far as the rates, but we’re really having a concentrated effort. I’ve seen articles and heard about Springfield and the numbers and Arkansas, 99% of the hospitalizations are people that are not vaccinated and 99% of the people that die from COVID have not been vaccinated, so just from a personal standpoint and a person to person standpoint, I want everyone vaccinated. I want everyone safe. That’s where we’re going to continue to push. Then the SEC, if you’re not at that level then you’re subject to contact tracing and then I think the unfortunate example was NC State, what happened there and being pulled off the field basically. We don’t want that to happen with any of our sports.”
Nick Joos: “Six programs currently are over 60% threshold at this point. A lot of the student athletes are not back on campus so those numbers probably only really count for those whoa are back on campus at this time.”
Will you still have three times a week testing this year?
“If they’re vaccinated they wouldn’t be, but we will have testing going on for those that aren’t vaccinated. Hopefully it’s a small number.
Nick Joos: “And the SEC Medical Task Force is still working very hard. They’re going to go into their second year. They are not being disbanded. Still work to do.”
Would the Missouri NIL law going into place on August 28 change anything for you all or are your guidelines and procedures that are in place now designed as if that bill is already law?
“That’s exactly what we did. Our staff is a lot smarter than me, so they did that ahead of time, and that's where we put our guidelines and materials to our student athletes. We expect that. I haven't heard that it's not going to be signed in, so I would expect it pretty soon, within the next week or two, I would imagine.”
How does NIL change your job as an athletics department?
"Yeah, the job has changed a lot. For a while we were pandemic administrators, you know, and so we want to be sport administrators. But it has changed it. It can't consume us, it can't consume the coaches. And so I think what we've been trying to do through our partnership with OpenDorse is have that kind of education ahead of time, and so it doesn't dominate your thinking. Right now, you know, there's no games or events going on, so it's dominating thought and kids are thinking about it. But the ones that are lifting and practicing all day, they have less time for that and they'll be focusing on their sport. So I don't think it'll dominate. We want to get it into a manageable level. Obviously the past week, since July 1, it's been really busy, and the NCAA coming out the day before, okay where does that change what we had planned to do, and versus our state guidelines? And so we had a lot of that going on, and a lot of questions going on, and so I think those questions will diminish as we continue to move along. And I checked my notes, it was 50 NIL disclosures from student-athletes so far.”
Is that 50 number from all programs at Mizzou or just football and basketball?
“That's all. I don't have that broken down as far as numbers with each (sport).”
What is your level of concern about educating your student-athletes about the NIL and making sure that they stay eligible?
“Yeah, it was important. That’s why we signed with OpenDorse a while ago and really started to try to educate them and have a master's class. And so we've had it with the student athletes, with the head coaches, with the staff, and we'll continue. I think our staff plans to give weekly updates on questions and answers and things to avoid so that our student athletes are up to speed on what the latest is as far as opportunities, but also the pitfalls. You know, here's what happened and here are the issues. And so we're planning, also, in the fall to have classes on taxes and entrepreneurship and we'll have those seminars with our student athletes, and I think it's going to be a never-ending continuing education, and it'll be housed in our Mizzou Made education programs.”
Is there a blueprint for how athletes can try to build a brand around their name or is that constantly evolving?
“It's not a blueprint, per se because everyone's different and everyone has different skills and all. But we did have, we tried to start earlier in the spring with educational classes of here's how you build your brand, here's the things to avoid. You know, here's your rating, if you will, from OpenDorse. Here is where you are and here might be trouble, some trouble areas that you need to clean up. And so, some of that do's and don'ts, but it's going to continue to be educating our student athletes. And obviously a new group coming in each year, so it'll be a continuation of our educational process.”
Are you concerned about the possibility that the money that had previously been donated to athletics departments is now going to go straight to players?
“I don't know if it's to a level of concern, but I think it could impact our financial bottom line in some areas. And so we've tried to look at that and plan for an impact, if you will, in those areas that could be impacted. So I don’t think so. I guess, intercollegiate athletics and the difference and why I got into it the first place is the educational side of things, and we're gonna continue to stress that, you know, our number one, as crazy and as important as athletics is and the competitions and the wins and losses and those things, it's way more important for them to get their degree. And we need to really stay focused on that, and that's where our fundraising core has been, of raising money for scholarships, and we need to continue to point that out, and yeah, some people make may make that choice, but I think most understand what we're trying to do and believe in what we're trying to do.”
You also mentioned a negative impact, potentially, with media rights deals. Can you explain what you meant by that?
“Just that it could impact negatively our revenues. Whether it's media rights or donations, trying to guess, it's a guesstimate of what we might have. And I'm not going to give you a number to throw out there.”
Nick Joos: “Probably more so with Learfield right?”
Sterk: “Yeah, probably more so with marketing deals. And maybe somebody decides that they’re not going to do one of the smaller deals with Learfield and advertising. They may try to go straight to a student athlete and make that decision. So it could impact some of the deals that they have. I don't know. You'd have to ask the folks at Learfield that question.”
Missouri has become sort of a COVID-19 hot spot over the past weeks or months. Is there any concern that if this continues to trend the wrong direction you might have to limit crowd size in the fall, and if so what are you looking at to make that decision?
“No, it's a concern, as I said. On our call with the SEC, you know, Arkansas, what is the difference and how do we encourage people? And we're all going to be encouraging people to get vaccinated so we don't have that kind of situation. You know, if we have to pivot we know how to do that, but it would be terrible to have to do that again if we did. So I think we're full steam ahead, but it's really going to be a point of emphasis with the SEC, with each of our member schools and dialing down to each team, where they are. And, you know, people still have a choice, but there are consequences to your choices. And so, unfortunately we saw that with NC State.”
Are you looking at vaccination rate? Are you looking at cases? What’s guiding your decision-making or could guide your decision-making?
“Well one, I'm not the ultimate decision-maker. We've got a host of medical folks, including Dr. Witt, who's an immunologist on that, that leads to the university and and our COVID leadership team that we had 20 people on that met weekly for the past year. We haven't been meeting and that group hasn't restarted, if you will. So we're not there. I think we're planning on full classes and full stadiums and want to have the atmosphere that we had for for that softball game, the regional softball games, where it was packed and excitement, and we want to continue to do that. So we'll do everything in our power to educate and encourage.”
Has there been any talk about an SEC-wide NIL standard if the NCAA rules are not made permanent?
“Right now, we haven't had that. And we're gonna have probably a couple in-person meetings over the next couple months, I think, just because of everything going on. But I don't see that, the NIL, getting into the conference level. Now the Alston decision allows for the conferences to set guidelines, if you will, and so we will be talking about that.”
I know last year isn’t a good barometer for this year, but do you have a sense of where football season ticket sales stand this year compared to past years?
“Yeah, our new ticket sales are up significantly. And we're leaving last year aside, but up significantly over — I've heard percentages, I don't know numbers — but we're 150 percent in new ticket sales from 2019. And so, just the general excitement, I think there is pent-up demand, and you guys mentioned, the thing that could impact that is the variants, and so that's why I think we all need to work on the vaccination rates and getting those up. But, overall, really, a lot of excitement. I know Nick can probably tell you from a social media, the accounts, we were up significantly in those areas, and those are always a good barometer of interest, and doesn't always translate into ticket sales, but it's a good number.”
How much have you guys raised for the new indoor facility, and do you expect that to be pretty close to what it’s going to cost at this point?
“Yes and yes. So, I’ve got to look at the number, I think we're over 33, 34 million, somewhere around there. And I really want to see those bids come in. All of you have seen it, if you've paid attention to construction prices, you know, they're up. I think they estimated those in our estimates, but I want to make sure that we can cover it. We've got alternates on the project so that we can reduce it some or we can increase it more based on how the bids come in, but we want to expand some parking lots, the Lot G area, and move some TV trucks and things like that. And all those are dependent on how the bids come in. But, overall, our fundraising absolutely covers the project itself, and then we're trying to make sure we can cover the way the bids come in as well.”
Is the start date and completion date still the same?
Nick Joos: “October 17 right now is the target date to start the project and put shovels in the ground. That allows us to use that parking lot for the first five games of this season, and then we’ll just have to be impacted for two games this fall.”
Sterk: “Actually, Nick, we had an update on that. We won’t have any parking impacted during this season. That was yesterday, an update. But yeah, we wanted to minimize the impact as much as we could to that Lot C. But a lot of the prep work and all on the other area, the site preparation, will be going before they start on that parking lot.”
Nick Joos: “So if they start in October, hopefully be done by the following November, roughly. That’s the timeline.”
Did you say 150 percent from 2019 in new ticket sales?
“Yes, new ticket sales. So it just shows a significant increase in interest, so I think that’s exciting for us, obviously. I think I shared, budget-wise, the differences — fundraising-wise, we're near the average of the SEC, but ticket sales are where we're not near the average of the SEC in ticket sales. And so that's our biggest area and room for growth. And so it's obviously a point of emphasis, but I think also the coaching staff and student athletes are getting our fans excited about coming back. But you'll see that as a point of emphasis the rest of the summer and through the games that we have.”
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