Texas State Ad At Odds With Message Board

MeanGreen61 · March 19, 2007

Athletic officials voice concern with Web site

By Jacob Mustafa

The University Star

Sports fans and athletic officials are not always in agreement with each other, as history can attest to. And the rift between www.BobcatFans.com and some Texas State faculty members illustrates just that point.

The Web site, devoted to Texas State athletics, gets more than 3 million hits a month and 100,000 unique IP addresses, said co-owner Rick Koch. However, the athletic department?s relationship with BobcatFans is far more complex than simply recognizing the abundance of traffic it receives.

Athletic Director Larry Teis said he has yet to visit the Web site and never will because of its negativity towards the department, while adding a much more serious charge.

?We?ve had recruits sit across here and asked about that Web site,? Teis said. ?They?ve thought about not even coming on a recruiting trip because everything?s so negative.?

Koch, who also owns the site?s companion magazine, disputed the idea that the site would try to do anything to hurt the university or the athletic department.

?I love this school and I love our athletics,? Koch said. ?But the site is the voice of the fans and they need to be willing to take that into account.?

Koch also disputed the idea that the site has in any way hurt recruiting. According to him, basketball Coach Doug Davalos and former football Coach David Bailiff both handed out copies of the magazine to recruiting prospects while they visited the campus.

Davalos said the magazine is a useful tool in projecting a good image of the program.

?Bobcat Fans have written some great articles to help recruiting,? Davalos said. ?And if a recruit was on campus and picked up a copy, he would think there were some great things happening with the program.?

Bailiff?s replacement, Coach Brad Wright, has a much different relationship with BobcatFans, which stems from comments he heard were written.

?The one thing I did hear was that I was accused of being a racist,? Wright said. ?And I am a racist in that I hate ignorant people, people who don?t know what they?re talking about.?

Koch is familiar with this particular incident and claims although it did happen, it was a comment deleted upon notification, and the site will not support any kind of libel being posted.

However, Wright?s issues with the site may boil down to whether the idea of a message board is a good one in the first place.

?I?ve never liked any type of a situation where you don?t have to sign your name,? Wright said. ?If you want to make a point and you care about it, sign your name to it.?

Not all members of the department are opposed to the site. Davalos has had a great deal of interaction with the magazine and his thoughts on the fan?s ability to criticize are a little different.

?Fans have the right to do whatever they want,? Davalos said. ?They have the right to gripe about things, but if their intentions are to help Texas State, then I think it?s a good thing. Is everything 100 percent positive? No, but I think they?re doing a good job promoting the program.?

Although Koch mostly does not post on the site, he has not seen eye-to-eye with the athletics department on multiple occasions. One of Koch?s main contentions has been what he perceives as the university shutting BobcatFans out of any sort of coverage of any of the team?s games, particularly at home.

?We have to fight tooth and nail to get any kind of credentials,? Koch said. ?They?re making special rules to keep us out.?

One of the rules was that no publication could get press credentials for games if they had a message board attached to the site. Koch countered, saying that publications like the Austin American-Statesman do have message boards and are still allowed credentials.

According to Teis, fan message boards need to contribute to the team in a quantifiable way.

?Those (message boards) don?t do anybody any good unless they?re out raising money or selling tickets or promoting,? Teis said.

Koch claimed Bobcat Fans has done exactly that, as they helped make 1,000 hamburgers for a Bobcats Fandemonium that kicks of the basketball season.

?The point of the site is to build pride for this school,? Koch said. ?We volunteered our services like that and they still continue to shut the door in our face.?

Casey O?Brien, athletic department critic and Texas State alumnus who frequents BobcatFans.com, wrote a letter to the magazine with his name attached to it. His criticisms were mostly directed at Teis.

?I think Coach Bailiff left for the same reason that many die-hard Bobcat fans are questioning their loyalty to the program,? O?Brien said. ?The Athletic Department has no vision and I have no confidence in the current AD?s ability to right the ship.?

According to O?Brien, the Web site is integral to having an athletic department that will have checks and balances.

?I think without a site like (BobcatFans), the department would run with whatever ideas they had, without anyone telling them when bad ideas are bad,? O?Brien said.

Davalos said the site should be allowed to host whatever it wants, but that does not mean he or other people in the athletic department need to read it.

?If you spend a lot of time reading a lot of that stuff, you?re going to be an unhappy individual,? Davalos said.

That kind of speech, which does not always speak favorably of the teams and administrative figures, is what hurts the department, Teis said.

?The only things I get from them are student-athletes showing me stuff they saw written about them or recruits saying they thought about not even coming here because they think no one likes this university,? Teis said.

According to Koch, BobcatFans is a meritocracy and what is said on the board is a reflection of how the fans feel about the department.

?They don?t have to worry what we have to say about them, unless they?re doing a bad job,? Koch said.

The entire issue boils down to intent, according to Davalos.

?I think it comes down to what the main motivation is for the people who are posting and starting these sites,? Davalos said. ?If they?re interested in supporting their school and helping it being the best it can be, then it?s a great resource for the school.?

LINK TO THREAD

http://www.bobcatfans.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11930

MeanGreen61 · March 19, 2007

The University Star take on the 'cat fight'.

The Main Point - FANATICAL CAT FIGHT

Pat Stark/Star illustration

Members of the athletic department aired their opinions about the Web site www.BobcatFans.com in Thursday’s University Star.

The athletic department showed they are split on their opinion of the site and the publication associated with it.

The article also opened up discussion, on and off the site, about BobcatFans.com and BobcatFans magazine in the Texas State community.

Members of The Associated Student Government have written a resolution titled “In Support of BobcatFans.com.” As of this writing, ASG has refused to supply The Star with a copy of the resolution.

An important issue brought to light in the article is BobcatFans’ Rick Koch claiming those associated with the site have been denied media credentials because the site hosts a message board.

In fact, Ron Mears, director of sports information, said BobcatFans magazine requested and was granted media passes to home games during the 2006 football season. Mears said the athletic department supplied the magazine with two passes, one for a reporter and one for a photographer, upon request at Texas State home games. Mears said only one of those passes was used.

This casts both the publication and the Web site in a bad light. It also lends credence to some officials’ claims that the site is overly negative and harmful to the program. If those who run the site and the magazine aren’t willing to take advantage of opportunities offered by the athletic department, then go complaining to The Star, they don’t have much of a leg to stand on.

On the other hand, the athletic department needs to come to terms with the Web site. Schools with major athletic programs have fan-based sites where students and alumni go to complain about the program. They don’t all have a companion magazine claiming girls with bare midriffs are the school’s greatest resource, but they exist.

Football Coach Brad Wright made a good point in Thursday’s article, saying he doesn’t like the concept of anonymous postings. That’s a reasonable gripe, and some on the site responded by signing their names when they posted.

The long and short of it is the athletic department needs to deal with the fact BobcatFans exists. Trying to ignore those involved with the site is not constructive. Embracing what constitutes a large portion of Texas State’s loyal fan base can only stand to help them.

BobcatFans isn’t helping anything by making it their No. 1 goal to bash Athletic Director Larry Teis. That won’t get them any of the respect they think they deserve.

UNIVERSITY STAR ARTICLE

http://star.txstate.edu/content/view/2820/

Green to the Bone · March 19, 2007

Lord knows, we don't want to give fans and alumni a voice. They'll just say naughty things.

Thing is, there's not a college board in America that doesn't fit this description. Find me one where everybody writes like an athletic department flack, where everything is wonderful, and I'll take that back. But there ain't one.

I also doubt that there's a decent high school coach anywhere who doesn't tell his kids to laugh off 99 percent of what they read on the board of a school that's recruiting them. If a kid told a school that he turned down a scholarship because of what was on a board, what that kid really meant was that he didn't want to go to their hick school.

College athletics is like a high school cafeteria. You could have one where Stephan Pyles and Dean Fearing were serving up 5-star, 4-course meals and kids would still complain. It's the fun part. It's what we do.

PlummMeanGreen · March 19, 2007

Man oh man oh Chavez, Bobcatters...

It does warm my soul to know that all GoMeanGreen.com posters have been nothing but Sushine, Lollipops & Rainbows in all discussions relating to our alma mater; even when NT Exes and even the school whose name graces most of our degrees was catching some semblance of hell for about 4 yrs running on post football game radio shows. :blink:

Nevertheless, I suppose the trusted, tried and proved best barometer of any NCAA D1 athletic program (especially in Texas) will always be how many seats are filled OR................how many empty seats there are during both the good and the bad times. Such criteria as attendance should be toward the top of most AD's criteria list as far as how to evaluate his entire staff from top to bottom, because once all the off season ("we're going to win it all this next season?") talk runs its course, isn't it still all about turnstile numbers?

Even the President of the United States of America has periodic opinion polls posted all over our national media, so I guess when it comes to public officials in our country, there will always be some kind of evaluation going on from the general public.

Edited March 19, 2007 by PlummMeanGreen

FirefightnRick · March 20, 2007

http://www.gomeangreen.com/forums/index.ph...;hl=Texas+State

As I posted a few weeks ago, this riff between BF.com and the AD has been going on for quite some time. I have kept up with TxSt a bit trying to gauge how far they are from finally going 1-A in football and I have to again say, we are damn lucky to have RV and Dr. B running this show. Their A.D. seems to have zero ability to communicate with and motivate their fan and alumni base. If anything else, he doesn't seem to have any plan to improve things for the future. He and their president was at the healm when that nutjob Matsakis was running their program into the ground and let it go too far before finally being forced to put hteir foot down about him. The Bailiff hire was great and I thought they made a great move but if you go by their insiders, their leadership ran him off as quick as they hired him, forcing him to look elsewhere and take the Rice job, even though many claimed he wanted to stay and take them to the next level. Then their A.D. put very little effort in trying to find Bailiff's replacement as football coach and ended up hiring from within. I have been hoping TxSt would move up and end up joining the Belt with us. It makes too much sense and that was always a great road trip down there, and they always brought up a lot of people to Denton back in the SLC days. It was a good rivalry back then and would be good for both schools today. When they got the name change, and then started to market it and their new logos, and then Bailiff getting them into the playoffs I had hoped they were on their way. But I'm just not convinced now because their leadership is in a rut, or so it seems.

Rick

Eagle1855 · March 20, 2007

http://www.gomeangreen.com/forums/index.ph...;hl=Texas+State
As I posted a few weeks ago, this riff between BF.com and the AD has been going on for quite some time. I have kept up with TxSt a bit trying to gauge how far they are from finally going 1-A in football and I have to again say, we are damn lucky to have RV and Dr. B running this show. Their A.D. seems to have zero ability to communicate with and motivate their fan and alumni base. If anything else, he doesn't seem to have any plan to improve things for the future. He and their president was at the healm when that nutjob Matsakis was running their program into the ground and let it go too far before finally being forced to put hteir foot down about him. The Bailiff hire was great and I thought they made a great move but if you go by their insiders, their leadership ran him off as quick as they hired him, forcing him to look elsewhere and take the Rice job, even though many claimed he wanted to stay and take them to the next level. Then their A.D. put very little effort in trying to find Bailiff's replacement as football coach and ended up hiring from within. I have been hoping TxSt would move up and end up joining the Belt with us. It makes too much sense and that was always a great road trip down there, and they always brought up a lot of people to Denton back in the SLC days. It was a good rivalry back then and would be good for both schools today. When they got the name change, and then started to market it and their new logos, and then Bailiff getting them into the playoffs I had hoped they were on their way. But I'm just not convinced now because their leadership is in a rut, or so it seems.
Rick

You know I kinda agree with you on this. We've played Texas State more than any other school and they are in our state. It's a natural rival. If they could make the move to D-1 into whatever conference we end up in, it would be nice to have them on our schedule every year.

I have a good friend that graduated from TSUSM, and he is continually frustrated that they have a student body that wants a Div 1A athletics program to support and cant seem to get one no matter how many motions they "pass" in the student government. Says half the kids that go there are UT fans as well because it's Div 1A, which is "real" college football.