Mossman Prophecies No. 027

July 2, 2007

SoonerSports.com receives many emails from fans and we are grateful for the input. We make an attempt to acknowledge all of them and answer in more detail when we can.

Over the years, we've seen a few common themes that probably would be better addressed in a public forum for all to see. So here goes...

Reader Comment: OU's student-athletes graduate at an alarmingly low rate.
I actually addressed this in last week's column, but it's simply not true. The same people that developed the Rubik's Cube came up with graduation rate formulas. Many count transfers and early professional departures as non-graduates.

The public at-large assumes that graduation rates measure the rate of graduation among those student-athletes that complete their athletic eligibility. They don't. But if they did, you would see that Sooner student-athletes graduate very consistently at 80 percent.

If you ever get a minute, stop by the Prentice Gautt Student Life Center at the stadium. If you can walk through that facility and claim that OU is not committed to the academic success of its student athletes I'll eat the cover off the Schooner.

Reader Comment: The OU Athletics Department doesn't support its hockey (men's soccer, rugby, etc.) team.
Those sports in particular are club sports that do not operate under the auspices of the intercollegiate athletics department. OU sponsors 20 sports and those 20 are a handful. There are dozens of club sports and competitive activities on campus that function independent of the athletics department.

From a staffing and budgetary standpoint, it would be impractical for the athletics department to also take on the club sports. And for the record, the way OU's campus and athletics department handle club sports is typical of what you will find throughout Division I.

Reader Comment: The Department continues to reduce the number of student tickets to provide more for donors.
We never change the number of student tickets or their location for anything without input from student leadership groups on campus. If we do reduce student ticket availability for a specific sport, it is because the number of tickets has exceeded demand.

It is rare when an OU student is unable to purchase a student ticket for any event. And remember, OU students pay no admission charge for 18 of the school's 20 sports and they pay no fee that benefits the athletics department.

Reader Comment: OU received a check for $17 million for football's appearance in the 2007 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl.
We wish. The final bookkeeping is still being completed, but the total payout for the game was projected at $14-$17 million per participant.

In OU's case, that check goes to the Big 12 Conference for equal distribution among the conference members. Except for its travel stipend, the participating school receives the same amount as the other 11 league members.

Reader Comment: The OU Athletics compliance office should be able to keep tabs on all student-athletes.
There are 400 or so student-athletes at Oklahoma. They receive hours of tutoring, social skills training, etc. At some point, they, as adults, need to experience college minus the meddling of an athletics department.

Good compliance practices are a must. Playing Big Brother, aside from being impossible, would kill any school with future prospects.

Will a small minority embarrass themselves and the school by making mistakes? Absolutely. Young adults have been doing as much for years.

Our job is to educate and discipline when called upon to do so. Aside from that, personal responsibility still falls on each and every one of us.

Reader Comment: I didn't know about the game. The department just doesn't do enough to promote games to students.
Aside from sports talk radio stations that discuss upcoming events, television newscasts that do the same, newspaper articles that do the same, web sites, including our own, that do the same and schedule posters and cards that are distributed through various outlets, there really isn't much notice about OU sporting events.

Just so you know, the athletics media relations office bombards local outlets with thorough releases before and after EVERY sporting event. Each of those also is posted at SoonerSports.com. If you're really someone that wants to attend an event, getting the dates and times is easy.

The information age has pretty much cooked this particular excuse.

Reader Comment: The Sooner Club is exclusively for the biggest donors.
It takes a gift of just $100 to become a member of the Sooner Club and begin receiving donor benefits.

Reader Comment: Why are tickets so expensive? Haven't we already paid enough through fees and taxes?
Relative to its peers and success rate, OU's tickets are fairly average in price. The athletics department receives nothing in the way of tax or student fee support.

Reader Comment: OU's student-athletes are segregated from the student body by living in exclusive athletics dorms.
That was true several years ago, but no more. The NCAA does not permit housing that is set aside for athletes alone.

Reader Comment: Oklahoma should enlarge the football stadium to accommodate everyone on the waiting list.
A few other schools have gone on an enlargement binge, then couldn't fill all the seats. I think most successful business operators would tell you that things run best when demand is running slightly ahead of supply.

We're on a nice string of sellouts right now, but still get well into Friday or even Saturday morning sometimes when selling single game tickets that were either unclaimed by students or returned by the opponent. It appears from where we sit that the current capacity is a good fit for OU.

Reader Comment: I'm only a small retailer. I should be able to sell items with the OU logo.
Oklahoma protects its logo by requiring items to be licensed. While the licensing program does generate revenue for the department, it also provides important protection as to how the logo can be used.

That control is vital and well within the standard practices at most high-profile universities or companies. Besides, enforcing a licensing program that is inconsistent in its application is very difficult.

One thing you learn very quickly at a place like OU is that every move you make establishes a precedent.

Reader Comment: OU should release recruiting information and have message boards. Everyone else does.
The NCAA prohibits the release of recruiting information prior to signing day so our hands are tied on that front. As for the message boards, no other Division I school sanctions one. There must be a reason.

If the boards were not anonymous in nature and if the content remained always positive, e.g., the sort of thing a prospect might read and be attracted to, then maybe. But I don't see that day coming any time soon.

I always find it interesting that fans of a program could be so negative in a public forum when writing on an entity they claim to support. We're all entitled to our opinions, but to think they can always be posted in a public setting and not sometimes serve as a detriment, especially in a business so driven by recruiting and public perception, is incorrect

Mossman Prophecies Archive

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Kenny Mossman, Associate Athletics Director for Communications, provides his perspective on Oklahoma Athletics in his regular column on SoonerSports.com.

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