Ask The AD - October edition
11/03/2015 | 12:00:00 | General
E-Mail a question to Tommy Bell
The volleyball broadcasts on ESPN3 have been very impressive and I can't wait to see the basketball games. Thank you so much for doing this! I am curious as to why the Missouri State game was not broadcast on ESPN3, but instead was shown on All-Access? The video quality of that game was not as good.
I'm happy to hear you're enjoying these broadcasts and the credit goes to our entire video crew, led by video coordinator Shane Gibbons and his staff, but also including producer Dennis Galloway and his class of video-production students, and our announcers. This has been an enormous undertaking. We chose not to do the Missouri State football game with our ESPN3 equipment for logistical reasons. We're not quite ready to produce an ESPN-caliber football game. That's why we elected to show the game on CBS using our existing video board equipment. It's not high-definition, which is why you noticed a lesser quality.
What factors are you looking at as you evaluate the performance of the football program and that of the head coach? For example, do you factor in close losses in your evaluation or do you just go by the win-loss record?
I won't comment on a specific program while their season is on-going, but in general, there are a multitude of factors that are part of a coach's evaluation. While the general public sees on-field performance as a leading indicator, a university administrator must also take into consideration items such as the overall direction of the program, and the competitive nature of the schedule and conference. Injuries can be a big factor in certain sports. You also have to look at graduation rates, APR, budget, internal operational support, just to name a few.
In men's basketball, we used to schedule at least one game against a BCS opponent, but Coach Hinson seems to not want to play big-name opponents. Is this what we can expect to see going forward, and what is your philosophy with regards to scheduling up? It would seem to be imperative that we improve our schedule if we ever want to get back to post-season.
The President's cabinet adopted scheduling guidelines two years ago that require schools to play tougher schedules. The goal was to improve the likelihood of NCAA at-large bids, which are a major revenue source for our league. At the same time, the league discourages schools from playing a single guarantee game on the road against a BCS opponent, because the likelihood of winning on the road is not high. Ideally, we'd like to play BCS teams at an exempt tournament on a neutral floor. In general, our goal should be to schedule quality opponents (strong RPIs) that prepare us for the rigorous MVC season, and give us a chance at an at-large bid to the NCAA or NIT tournaments.
