Wagner and Moosbrugger in Blade

Sunday's paper contained an interesting interview that John Wagner did with AD Bob Moosbrugger.

It is very interesting and worth a read.  Check it out and come on back here for my comments.

It was sobering.  People complain about it, but the decision to have a Fundraiser/AD can't be denied.  Money literally has to be on his mind every minute of every day.  The section where he does the math on where our finances would be if we sold every ticket to every home (hint, not much farther ahead) gives you an idea of the financial pressure on our department, which is near the bottom of everything we are involved in.

Most other MAC schools make it up with additional subsidy, something which he indicates is off the table, and that's something I support.  WMU, for example, was the highest spending school in the MAC, and they had a $26M subsidy, which is literally double what BG's was.  Most of those subsidies are found in student fees and students are paying enough for their education.

He says that BG is going to need to tap its alumni base to make it work.  That's going to be interesting.  First, most people I went to school with at BG reverted to OSU fans the day they left, if they were BG fans in the first place.  Many alumni went through their entire time at BG without attending one game.

As he points out, the University also needs donors for the non-athletic parts of the university, which are (obviously) what the school exists for.  Even with that, the portion that cares about athletics needs to be engaged in this effort and I suspect that will include everything from major gifts to smaller annual gifts.

Note also the section about what to expect as it relates to new facilities....90% private funding.

Anyway, excellent interview.   This is a very difficult time to be an AD at BG and the school's ability to continue the program we know today is not for sure.