Temple University Athletics
Read Comments From Thursday's Press Conference Addressing Temple University Football
3.2.01 | Football
Temple University Chairman of the Board of Trustees Howard Gittis and University President David Adamany held a press conference on Thursday afternoon to discuss the future of the Temple football program.
Gittis: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, I am Howard Gittis, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Temple University. At my right is Dr. David Adamany, the President of Temple University. I am going to read a short statement and take a few short questions, and I hope that will suffice for today. On behalf of Temple University and its Board of Trustees, I want to assure you that we are committed to playing Division I-A football. We fully expect to play the 2001 season as a football member of the Big East Conference as previously scheduled. We look forward to the continuing success of Coach Wallace and his staff in building our football program both on and off the field, and we anticipate an outstanding competitive season in the fall of 2001. Any questions?
Question: What was the vote in the Big East regarding the future beyond 2001?
Gittis: We do not know because we have never received any official response from the Big East. We have made clear both in letters from Dr. Adamany to the Presidents of those institutions and letters by myself to the Chairmen of the respective Boards of Trustees that Temple University will meet all of its commitments and will meet the requirements of the Big East in a timely fashion.
Question: Are you saying that this vote that most people are saying happened won't materially affect you after the 2001 season?
Gittis: I can't say that at all. I don't know what vote if any was taken. We certainly have not had any official notice of anything from the Big East.
Question: What has happened that you can be assured of playing in 2001?
Gittis: Because the season is scheduled, the schedule has been set, we will be on the fields we are supposed to be, and we expect that we will not be playing to an empty house. We expect that our competitors will be there, hopefully not in victory, but in defeat.
Question: Is that the same thing the Big East is expecting?
Gittis: I think the Big East is expecting that as well.
Question: Will you be applying to Conference USA or another conference?
Gittis: I think we have to take that one step at a time. I'm sure you recognize what the Big East's competitive requirements are. We believe we will meet their competitive requirements. As most of you know, we have been in extended discussions with both the state legislature and the Philadelphia Eagles to play in the new Eagles Stadium in 2003, and I pledge to you and to the students and student-athletes at Temple University that we will in fact sell 25,000 season tickets for our games. The Big East requirement is 25,000 seats sold per game. We expect to do that in season tickets.
Question: How are you going to change that from the current average of 18,000 or so?
Gittis: Because I think a concerted effort by our Board of Trustees, by the members of our Owl Club, which is the organization of our alumni association committed to the improvement of Temple sports, and other friends of the University will see to it that that occurs.
Question: So as far as you understand, despite what the Big East is saying, you believe the Big East will change its mind and decide to keep you?
Gittis: I can't say whether they're going to change their mind or not change their mind since I have not received any official notification from them if anything. I believe that the Big East is an honorable organization, and when they see that Temple is meeting its commitments, they will meet their commitments to us.
Question: Should you actually have to leave the Big East, what impact would that potentially have on the University's finances, recruitment of students, and fundraising efforts?
Gittis: We've always believed that Temple is a highly competitive national institution, and as such we will continue to meet out obligations to our students and to our student-athletes. Our fundraising will continue. We believe if anything this will enhance it, not diminish our fundraising activities. And we believe we will be able to put on the football field a nationally competitive team with student-athletes who achieve scholastic results far superior to those found in most institutions.
Question: Is there any circumstance by which you would not be a member of the Big East Conference?
Gittis: No.
Question: Did you threaten to sue the Big East for breach of contract?
Gittis: As most of you who know me for many years, I never threaten to sue anybody, and we did not threaten to sue them. Threats are not what moves people along. What moves people along is performance, and we intend to perform.
Question: But if indeed you didn't get the two votes among the other Big East schools to continue beyond the 2001 season, what are your options?
Gittis: I cannot believe that we cannot achieve those two votes and more. We as always keep all of our options open, but I never anticipate the requirement that we're going to be litigating.
Question: What was the purpose of today's meeting?
Gittis: First, today's meeting was to mobilize our Board of Directors and those members who were able to get here on such short notice to support and continue to support our football program. And, to be perfectly frank, also to take the temperature of our board, to see just how deep their commitments run in support of this institution and its football program. And I am very proud to tell you that our Board and the members who were able to be here today and those people on the telephone and those people who I've spoken to from my office earlier today are unanimous in their support for Temple remaining in a competitive Division I football conference.
Question: You could not have been happy with the story coming out of Boston indicating the 2001 season would be your last season in the Big East?
Gittis: That's a fair comment.
Question: Have you communicated with the Big East about that?
Gittis: We have begun those communications.
Question: Are you saying that if you draw 25,000 people a game next season and with the plans for the new Eagles Stadium that that's going to satisfy their criteria?
Gittis: I hope that it will satisfy their criteria. Those are the criteria which they have set forth for a number of years. Those are the criteria with which all of our sister institutions have to meet. And those are the criteria which we should be able to meet as well.
Question: The reports though are that this is a done deal and it's too late. Are you saying that is in fact not the case?
Gittis: I don't ever think anything is too late. No one could have anticipated that we were going to have a stadium before 2003. No one expected us to build our own stadium. If you were to start today you couldn't build a stadium any sooner than that. I think they have a right to expect that our team is competitive. I believe that our team will prove to be competitive in 2001. I think we were far more competitive in 2000 than we had ever been before. I think the role of Coach Wallace and his staff in the recruitment and the retention of student-athletes is absolutely outstanding. We are retaining, since Coach Wallace and his staff have come here, over 80 percent of our student-athletes. That is a record that is unparalleled in the Big East or any other major conference. And we're able to do that and still play competitive football. I think you will all be proud, and I expect to see each and every one of you, particularly you guys with cameras, out there at all of the games this fall.
Question: For years faculty has talked about this football program being a financial drain. The Mellon Foundation just came out with a report and a book about how big-time football and college sports really have not much of an impact on a campus and its ability to raise money and for academics. So is it really a big deal if Temple doesn't stay in the Big East?
Gittis: I think that it is very difficult for us to represent to the students that we wish to attract here that this is a first-rate, nationally competitive University without providing to our students what is provided for them elsewhere. We give them a different experience than they might get going to an Ivy League school. But it's an equally good experience. If you look now at what we've accomplished in terms of the residential students that we have today and the residential students that we will have in the future, we have more than quadrupled the number of students living on campus. All of that goes to the building of a great University, be it a good football team, a great basketball team, a wonderful dance program, a magnificent student orchestra. Those are the experiences we want to give to the student that comes to Temple University. Our students are entitled to it and we're going to provide it to them.
Question: Have you been or will you be in contact with the Mid-American Conference or Conference USA officials about after the 2001 season?
Gittis: I fully expect we will resolve our problems with the Big East, so I don't think it will be necessary for that to happen.
Question: What is your next step in relation to the Big East?
Gittis: My next step is to end this press conference and to go back to my office. I think that is really enough questions for today. Thank you all very much.
President Adamany steps to the podium.
Question: Do you support the football program?
Adamany: Absolutely. And I think you heard Mr. Gittis and he speaks for all of us who are members of the Board. And I think his statement of the vision of the University as a national university that recruits students broadly and supports a full range of extracurricular activities including sports is the vision we all share.
Question: What specific things can you do to fill these seats? How will you boost the numbers?
Adamany: We should sell all of you some tickets. That's step number one. Why don't we just leave it at this -- you'll see 25,000 people buying tickets for every one of the conference games.
