He looked at the overall athletic department and evaluated from a number of perspectives, academic, competition, finances. I thought he had an interesting perspective. By and large, I think the academics are strong (department-wide) and the finances are a struggle, but that is largely out of anyone's control. The competition (and he cites Jacoby and Reese as benchmarks) needs to improve.
That being said, I don't think Christopher is doing a bad job at all. Facilities have improved, I think he took a courageous step on Coach Brandon, I believe Coach Orr was a good hire, and I think that keeping Curt Miller (whatever role he had in that) is a huge plus. Managing the finances today is a leak plugging exercise that no one would look good.
I also give him points for openness and transparency, particularly during the hockey controversy.
We still have room to grow, and we are right to expect to see progress competitively in the coming years. But I do think he is doing a good job.
Some news tidbits:
- Football season tickets are on par with last year, despite the addition of a sixth game and the attendant cost increase.
- The key to keeping old facilities usable is to keep making incremental improvements over time. This was not done with AA or the Ice Arena. He noted, to my surprise, that the video board is probably inadequate now at the Doyt. (It was too small from the beginning, in my opinion).
- Hockey season tickets are holding steady.
- Interim Coach Dennis Williams (hockey) will be evaluated at the end of the year. The interim tag is not a signal that the program is on life support and Christopher says he works on the assumption the program will exist into the future.
- In that vein, a lot of attention seems to be on the "Miami plan" in which an endowment is created for hockey that will fund it in perpetuity, removing it from the annual budget struggle. Obviously this is a fine idea which is challenged only by the ability to actually raise the endowment.
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