Loyal Cougars

BYU AD Tom Holmoe says what Loyal Cougars readers already know

Issue 4: The Question of Shutting Down BYU Ahletics

“I don’t have conversation with the Board of Trusties about athletics in general. They are supportive of athletics. I think if you look at BYU-Idaho and BYU-Hawaii and BYU, you’re looking at three different entities. Even though they’re under the same umbrella of church education I just think you can’t compare those together; they’re totally different.”

On this topic, we recently wrote: “Yes, BYU recently shut down BYU-Hawaii athletics. Last year, their entire athletics revenue was a shade over $2.5 million, according to the U.S. Department of Education. The church shut down Ricks College athletics rather than operate a second athletics program close to the one they already had. Do we really want to talk about those decisions in the same sentence as the idea of shutting down a $50-million-a-year program like what the church has at BYU?”

 

Issue 5: BYU’s Strength of Schedule as an independent

“When we went independent, that was one of the ways that we felt we have at least some control of who we play. When I say some control, because I can’t get every game I want, but we can challenge ourselves in a way we really couldn’t when we were in a conference.”

We’ve been able to show a couple of times that while BYU won’t be winning the strength of schedule national championship any time soon, independence provides BYU with better scheduling challenges than what has been available in the Mountain West Conference or American Athletic Conference so far.

 

Issue 6: Keeping up with the Joneses

For students: “People have put words in my mouth like ‘We’re going to do everything that the Power 5 conferences do.’ That’s not true. We’re not going to do everything the Power 5 conferences do, we can’t, but we’re going to do some of the things we feel are necessary for BYU to remain competitive … we have a plan in place right now to feed our student athletes. You can do whatever you want and we are in it. We are going to do what we feel from our perspective at BYU what’s best for BYU students athletes, we’re in the game.”

“Let me give you an example, like in recruiting. We hired Geoff Martzen. We didn’t have a recruiting guy before and he came from a school that had 17. And that was before autonomy. There’s always been a certain amount of competitive advantage of how you can enhance your individual school. The competitive schools are going to take it to the limit. People have been finding this competitive advantage for at least the last 30 years and now there’s not as much regulation on it.”

“If you ask me, we’re going to stay in the game, but we can’t compare ourselves to every school in every thing. But if we look and see that we’re falling behind in a certain area, we don’t have to go right to the front of the line, but we might have to get in the game. We have competitive advantages against some schools that are huge that they don’t have. Like LDS athletes. We have an advantage in that area, so we are going to do everything we can to take advantage of that competitive advantage.”

For facilities: “I think it’s ironic that a 10-year-old building is archaic. (The Student Athlete Building) is certainly adequate. I think there’s a point in time when you say enough is enough. We try at BYU Athletics to do what we can in all respects to enhance the student athlete’s experience. This was a building that we needed.”

There has been a bit of a Internet dustup over Holmoe’s saying that BYU is not going to keep up with the Joneses. Listening to the whole press conference, it sounded like Holmoe was talking about how very few people in college sports are going to be able to do everything. BYU is not keeping up with the Joneses in the same way that they aren’t taking out a third mortgage to buy a new boat because the neighbor did.

To me, what Holmoe said shows the same attitude toward spending on facilities that we shared a couple weeks ago, “Despite that financial disadvantage, the Cougars still manage to field competitive, entertaining teams. BYU will never out-Oregon Oregon with shiny new buildings, but the Cougars get what they need (and it’s getting to the point that they really need that basketball practice facility so hopefully that comes soon).”

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2 Comments

  1. Wes

    August 25, 2014 at 11:57 am

    Thanks Greg, loved what you had to say here!

    • Taylor

      August 26, 2014 at 4:39 pm

      Greg, liked your article. In your about Greg Welch section it looks like you might have an extra “in” where it says “… After growing “in” up in Provo…”