My top 10 wish list for 2021 and thereafter:
1. Greater leadership credibility from our esteemed Board of Trustees and our University President. This comes in the form of strategic mission and vision and tactical dissemination of our core values of excellence. Being “True Blue” is beginning to sound cliche if we don’t commit to excellence in EVERY facet of our university and its image. If this means reorganization of the executive leadership team with a combination of resignations, firings, retirements, or new hiring by all means it should happen to make our university first class.
2. At least one new professional program such as law, dentistry, veterinary, etc. Continue to focus on NCAA APR but achieve greater opportunities in graduate programs.
3. Greater emphasis on corporate giving and sponsorships as well as building our endowment to at least $1.0 billion. We need to see $500 million yesterday. Must think beyond the $100, $250, and $1,200 gifts (but we still need those smaller gifts too).
4. New football coaches and athletics department leadership that want to be champions of our conference (at a minimum) and relevant nationally. We need to be more like Boise, Memphis, UCF, or University of Cincinnati and not emulate universities such as Louisiana Monroe or New Mexico State where budgets are low and quality of coaching and recruiting is likewise lower tier.
5. Stadium and facilities improvements: need a major overhaul in Murphy Center and Floyd Stadium. Our videoboards are woefully dated. Even Tennessee Tech has a larger and better board these days. Meanwhile, our stadium has a lot of rust and painting should be done yesterday to correct deferred maintenance.
6. Football needs an outright C-USA championship. Preferably a 12-0 season and at least a ranking of #19 in AP poll.
7. Return to the NCAAs in basketball, men’s and women’s. Women to reach Sweet 16 and men’s to win a first round game for starters. By 2023, both basketball programs should be ranked in AP and playing for single digit seeds in NCAA as a goal.
8. Baseball and softball should win a C-USA championship.
9. Golf and Olympic Sports should be or continue to be nationally competitive. Track continues to be our best sport in this area.
10. Greater visibility of our games in multiple broadcast platforms. Our presentation looks and sounds more like a D-2 university instead of FBS level. Improved branding and perhaps another look at our mascot logo should be considered.