Tommy Bell monthly Newsletter — August Edition
08/31/2017 | 3:10:00 | General
Greetings, Saluki Nation!
Our fall seasons are upon us and there's a buzz of excitement and optimism within Saluki Athletics! We had our first home event of the season on Tuesday night when Volleyball hosted Arkansas State, and we kick off the football season on Sept. 9 against Mississippi Valley State. Season tickets are still available, along with 3-game mini-plans. Here's a link to purchase tickets in advance. You'll want to arrive plenty early next Saturday to enjoy all of the fun pre-game activities on Saluki Row, followed by kickoff at 6 p.m. and a spectacular fireworks show after the game. And, yes, you will be able to enjoy a cold beer at Saluki Stadium for the first time.
The Eclipse is now in the rear-view mirror and I'd like to publicly thank all of the volunteers who helped us with events both in and around Saluki Stadium. We had a packed house, with many more people outside the stadium, for what was an absolutely incredible experience. I also want to thank the many department staff members who went far beyond their regular duties to ensure that everyone enjoyed the eclipse festivities. We had employees so busy that they slept in their offices in the nights leading up to the Eclipse. It was a total team effort and an extraordinary day for our University.
Our FY17 giving numbers have been finalized and I'm pleased to announce that we received nearly $3.4 million in total giving! Of that total, nearly $1.9 million were cash or gift-in-kind. We received donations from 1,823 total donors, including 954 members of the Saluki Athletic Scholarship Fund. The SASF generated $947,391 for scholarships in FY17. These are all excellent numbers and we are incredibly grateful for the generosity of our loyal supporters. If you aren't already a member, I encourage you to join the SASF and help us continue our push forward.
We held our annual Fan Fest event at the stadium last week and had a tremendous turnout for an evening of fun activities and free ice cream from Prairie Farms. The event also marked the debut of our new Brown Dawg's Kids Club and we signed up 151 kids in 90 minutes! The response was so strong we ran out of shirts in several sizes but have ordered more and expect them in time for the football home opener. If you haven't signed your child up yet, you can register online and pick up your free items at our marketing office in Lingle Hall or at the Kids Club table at any home football game or volleyball match.
My heart goes out to the people of Houston who are suffering in the aftermath of one of the worst tropical storms on record. We have a number of Houston-area student-athletes in Saluki Athletics and will do everything in our power to help them cope with this tragedy. Several of our teams have already shipped care packages of clothing items for the Hurricane Harvey relief effort. I walked into the football office this morning and the hallway is lined with plastic bags full of clothing, as our players are literally giving the shirts off their backs.
In the Ask the AD mailbox, I received several questions about football non-conference scheduling, including future matchups versus FBS opponents, the timing of our bye week, and my philosophy when it comes to scheduling non-Division I opponents.
First, football non-conference games are scheduled years in advance, so we have already booked Memphis (2017), Mississippi (2018), Arkansas State (2019), UMass (2019) and Wisconsin (2020). We are also working on a Big 12 opponent for 2021 and another Big Ten opponent for 2022. These games are important for both sides - they give FCS schools like us an opportunity to earn some much-needed revenue and the chance to measure ourselves against the big boys, and they give the FBS schools a home game against an opponent in which they will typically be favored.
Ideally we'd like to schedule one "guarantee" game against an FBS opponent each year and two games against FCS teams, preferably from our region, such as SEMO and Murray State. That helps cut down on travel costs and those teams are natural rivals. We try to avoid playing non-Division I teams, because those games do not count toward playoff eligibility. Finally, we try as much as possible to schedule our bye week on the Saturday before conference play starts, so the team enters league play rested. We were unable to accomplish that objective this season.
With Saluki Pride,
