Penn State AD Sandy Barbour has downplayed the school's interest in extravagant facility upgrades despite several colleges recently having "grabbed headlines by taking the facilities arms race to a new level," according to Josh Moyer of the CENTRE DAILY TIMES. UCF plans to "build a lazy river to lure recruits," while Clemson's new $55M facility "includes laser tag and mini golf." PSU's 20-year Facilities Master Plan "includes plans for 11 new facilities while renovating eight others" but does not have "new Putt-Putt courses or a sand volleyball court." Barbour said, "That's not who we are. That's not how we do things." Barbour "agreed that, even if those additions might help with recruiting, they simply take the facilities arms race too far" (CENTRE DAILY TIMES, 5/9). ESPN’s Paul Finebaum said he respected Barbour and PSU "wanting to be old-school, but unfortunately, things are changing." Finebaum: "Young people don’t understand anything but bells and whistles, and what’s college sports trying to attract? It’s trying to attract 17-year-olds. So I think without having the bells and whistles, they will miss out. That’s what excites young people trying to choose a school, other than tradition.” Finebaum added, "You can be stubborn and you can be old-school, but I think it will hurt. Even at Penn State, where they haven’t changed the look of the uniform in about 100 years” (“SportsCenter,” ESPN, 5/9).
FRANKLIN WANTS FOOTBALL UPGRADES: In Allentown, Mark Wogenrich noted PSU has "made upgrades to the lobby, auditorium and locker room of the Lasch Football Building, but other spaces have been untouched for more than a decade." PSU football coach James Franklin estimated that 60% of Lasch "remains the same as it was when he arrived" in '14. Franklin: "The fact that we hadn't done anything for 15 years ... we had fallen behind. That's why I had been pounding the table so much when I got here, because I knew how far behind we'd fallen" (MCALL.com, 5/9).
