Today marks the "one-year anniversary" of Missouri hiring Jim Sterk as AD, and during that time, Sterk has "overseen the best fundraising year in the athletic department’s history, put the Memorial Stadium south end zone project back on the table and engineered a coaching change that resulted in a surge of momentum for the men’s basketball program," according to Blake Toppmeyer of the COLUMBIA DAILY TRIBUNE. Missouri’s athletic department "experienced record fundraising" in FY '16-17, bringing in $50.7M for the Tiger Scholarship Fund. That "more than doubled the amount raised in the previous fiscal year." Sterk "hadn’t even been on the job for a month before restoring the south end zone project," which was first "proposed during the Mike Alden and Gary Pinkel days." Sterk’s predecessor, Mack Rhoades, had "scrapped the plan during his tenure in favor of his own plan, one that would instead renovate the Mizzou Athletics Training Complex." Current plans call for "construction to begin" on the south end zone after the '17 season and be completed by the summer of '19. Fundraising for the project, which has an "estimated price tag" of $96.7M, has exceeded $50M. Sterk "hopes to soon secure final approval for project" from the school's Board of Curators. Missouri is "coming off an athletic year in which its football and men’s basketball teams had a combined winning percentage of .273," and Sterk "acknowledges the need for improvement in the revenue sports." However, he noted that Missouri’s nonrevenue sports "had a historic year, which helped MU place 33rd in the Director’s Cup, the highest spot it has ever achieved" (COLUMBIA DAILY TRIBUNE, 8/7).
ONE TRACK MIND: Purdue AD Mike Bobinski also was introduced as the school’s new AD one year ago today, and in Indiana, Mike Carmin notes football has "consumed most" of Bobinski's daily schedule. Bobinski: “Pushing 75 percent, in one form or another related to the football program has absorbed a lot of my time." About $4M in new resources have been "funneled into football, trying to bring the program up to speed with its Big Ten peers." As football coach Jeff Brohm, his coaching staff and support personnel also "become comfortable with the landscape, Bobinski will shift his time elsewhere." But football needs "constant attention, and Bobinski won’t stray far from a program the athletic department -- and the university -- needs to be successful." Bobinski’s tenure at Purdue will be "tied to the success of the football program." For that reason, the "progress of Brohm in his first season remains high on his list" (Lafayette JOURNAL & COURIER, 8/9).
