Hope as a Strategy (Part III)
[Originally posted in Fall 2003]
Almost as if on a whim, Dr. Trevor Colbourn announced at his 1978 inauguration that he was gonna change the name of our little school from FTU to the University of Central Florida, and oh-by-the-way he just might like to start up a football program. A short time later the Orlando Chamber of Commerce held a phone-a-thon that raised $40,000 in start-up money, and – voila – we had ourselves a football program! We were playing D-III football at St. Leo less than a year later.
Colbourn (aided and abetted by search committees, to be sure) made 3 critical athletic hires during his 10-year tenure as UCF’s 2nd president – Bill Peterson, Lou Saban and Gene McDowell. As an Australian he had to depend heavily upon outside athletics expertise, and leaped when the search committee selected the likeable, legendary former FSU HC Bill Peterson as AD, and later former NFL HC Lou Saban to become the program’s 3rd FB HC. The combination of the two fueled phenomenally unrealistic revenue expectations, which were offset by the fact that they were also spendthrifts. I vividly recall sitting next to CK at the 1983 annual booster meeting when Peterson announced that they fully expected to have – and implicitly they developed their budget upon – 30,000 season tickets sold, based solely upon their personal attachments to the program. The resulting >$1M debt threatened to close the entire UCF athletic program.
The Board of Regents conducted an investigation, and came to two conclusions:
Out from under BOR scrutiny and the deficit gone in 1990, Colbourn and McDowell immediately moved football up to D-IAA (with accompanying increases in salary, recruiting and scholarship expenses), while all other sports chafed against meager budget increases. UCF joined the America South Conference for all non-FB sports, which merged with the Sun Belt Conference (USF had long since departed) a year later. McDowell quickly realized that that was a very expensive decision, and had to make a choice between throttling back a planned move to D-IA football and increase other budgets, or get out of the Sun Belt. Using a legal disagreement over UCF’s contract with the Sunshine Network vs. the Sun Belt’s contract with Florida Sports Network as an excuse, UCF left the Sun Belt and joined the low-budget TAAC, which is now of course the Atlantic Sun.
Ironically, in 1995-ish USF petitioned the Board of Regents for permission to start a football program using those procedures developed by the BOR to prevent near-disasters like the one they’d previously faced with UCF. USF had NFL Hall-of-Famer Lee Roy Selmon lead that effort, and they raised $5M in start-up money.
[Originally posted in Fall 2003]
Almost as if on a whim, Dr. Trevor Colbourn announced at his 1978 inauguration that he was gonna change the name of our little school from FTU to the University of Central Florida, and oh-by-the-way he just might like to start up a football program. A short time later the Orlando Chamber of Commerce held a phone-a-thon that raised $40,000 in start-up money, and – voila – we had ourselves a football program! We were playing D-III football at St. Leo less than a year later.
Colbourn (aided and abetted by search committees, to be sure) made 3 critical athletic hires during his 10-year tenure as UCF’s 2nd president – Bill Peterson, Lou Saban and Gene McDowell. As an Australian he had to depend heavily upon outside athletics expertise, and leaped when the search committee selected the likeable, legendary former FSU HC Bill Peterson as AD, and later former NFL HC Lou Saban to become the program’s 3rd FB HC. The combination of the two fueled phenomenally unrealistic revenue expectations, which were offset by the fact that they were also spendthrifts. I vividly recall sitting next to CK at the 1983 annual booster meeting when Peterson announced that they fully expected to have – and implicitly they developed their budget upon – 30,000 season tickets sold, based solely upon their personal attachments to the program. The resulting >$1M debt threatened to close the entire UCF athletic program.
The Board of Regents conducted an investigation, and came to two conclusions:
- The UCF Athletic Program would be under their thumb for a 5-year period and that the deficit had to be zeroed in that time.
- Our “model” for the establishment of a football program was well, less-than-satisfactory, and that:
- BOR approval must be obtained before any other university started up one of their own, and
- Those universities must demonstrate sound financial and organizational foundations prior to obtaining that approval.
Out from under BOR scrutiny and the deficit gone in 1990, Colbourn and McDowell immediately moved football up to D-IAA (with accompanying increases in salary, recruiting and scholarship expenses), while all other sports chafed against meager budget increases. UCF joined the America South Conference for all non-FB sports, which merged with the Sun Belt Conference (USF had long since departed) a year later. McDowell quickly realized that that was a very expensive decision, and had to make a choice between throttling back a planned move to D-IA football and increase other budgets, or get out of the Sun Belt. Using a legal disagreement over UCF’s contract with the Sunshine Network vs. the Sun Belt’s contract with Florida Sports Network as an excuse, UCF left the Sun Belt and joined the low-budget TAAC, which is now of course the Atlantic Sun.
Ironically, in 1995-ish USF petitioned the Board of Regents for permission to start a football program using those procedures developed by the BOR to prevent near-disasters like the one they’d previously faced with UCF. USF had NFL Hall-of-Famer Lee Roy Selmon lead that effort, and they raised $5M in start-up money.
