PARENTS OF REDSHIRT PLAYERS
A special note to all parents of players red-shirted for the 2011 season. While it may have seemed to be a long year watching your son pace the sidelines of home games, it cannot be said enough that the roles they played during camp and practice were valuable in terms of preparing the starters for each game as well as giving the young players experience going against the speed and strength of college football players in practice.
Now with the 2011 season complete, work on the 2012 is already underway with the team lifting and conditioning in preparation of next year.
SCHEDULE
Final exams for the fall semester will be from December 12 through the 16th and graduation will be on both December 16 & 17 for those graduating. The players will be on break from completion of their exams until classes begin on January 9th so players will be headed back to school the weekend of January 7th & 8th.
Spring break officially begins Monday, March 3rd with classes resuming on Monday, March 10th. Spring practice soon thereafter begins with the team being allowed 15 practice days including scrimmages culminating with the annual Spring Game held in late April. Final exams begin the week of April 30th and will conclude May 4th. Typically the players have the time from finals until the start of the first session of summer school off. The first summer school session gets underway on Monday, May 14th.
Freshmen players typically find summer housing off-campus as rents during the summer are very inexpensive as compared with fall and spring semester costs and generally the players will need to pay their own living and housing expenses. The best way for freshmen and sophomores to find places to live is to talk with older players living off-campus who may have space available in their houses/apartments.
Juniors and seniors are permitted to live off-campus during the academic years and are provided a housing allowance in the amount of what their scholarship would cover if the player was living in university housing.
Player are permitted to hold a job during the summer but need to keep in mind the summer lifting and conditioning schedule when applying for a job. As always, it is better to look for a job sooner rather than later.
THE NCAA...NUTS TO THE ATHLETES...ALONG WITH THE SPREAD!
A couple years ago the NCAA allowed colleges to provide bagels -- but not cream cheese -- to student-athletes.
An absurd rule, for sure. And one that the NCAA apparently changed for the 2011. The NCAA released its 136-page book of proposals, and buried deep in there is Rule No. 2011-78.
Bylaw Blog tweeted: "2011-78: Permits an institution to provide spreads (e.g butter, peanut butter, jelly, cream cheese) with the bagels it provides."
(Much thanks to the Bylaw Blog for sifting through this borderline impenetrable document.)
The NCAA's rationale is that " Beginning with the 2009-10 academic year, institutions have been permitted to provide fruit, nuts and bagels to student-athletes at any time. This proposal seeks to make a reasonable accommodation in allowing an institution to provide traditional bagel spreads to student-athletes in conjunction with the bagels it is already permitted to provide."
According to USA Today...
Here is the 2009-2010 BGSU Atheletic Budget.
| Ticket sales | $1,114,805.00 |
|
| Student fees | $9,497,261.00 |
|
| Guarantees | $547,000.00 |
|
| Contributions | $2,925,651.00 |
|
| Compensation and benefits provided by a third party | $0.00 |
|
| Direct state or other government support | $0.00 |
|
| Direct institutional support | $410,337.00 |
|
| Indirect facilities and administrative support | $1,680,574.00 |
|
| NCAA/conference distributions including all tournament revenues | $1,217,476.00 |
|
| Broadcast, television, radio, and internet rights | $0.00 |
|
| Program sales, concession, novelty sales, and parking | $422,886.00 |
|
| Royalties, licensing, advertisements and sponsorships | $503,047.00 |
|
| Sports camp revenues | $232,708.00 |
|
| Endowment and investment income | $95,437.00 |
|
| Other | $203,596.00 |
|
| Subtotal operating revenue | $18,850,778.00 |
|
| EXPENSES | ||
| Athletic student aid | $5,316,661.00 |
|
| Guarantees | $476,000.00 |
|
| Coaching salaries, benefits, and bonuses paid by the university and related entities | $3,839,743.00 |
|
| Coaching other compensation and benefits paid by a third party | $0.00 |
|
| Support staff/administrative salaries, benefits and bonuses paid by the university and related entities | $2,435,600.00 |
|
| Support staff/administrative other compensation and benefits paid by a third party | $0.00 |
|
| Severance payments | $0.00 |
|
| Recruiting | $357,208.00 |
|
| Team travel | $861,156.00 |
|
| Equipment, uniforms and supplies | $524,326.00 |
|
| Game expenses | $764,980.00 |
|
| Fund raising, marketing and promotion | $193,607.00 |
|
| Sports camps expenses | $355,861.00 |
|
| Direct facilities, maintenance, and rental | $198,905.00 |
|
| Spirit groups | $0.00 |
|
| Indirect facilities and administrative support | $1,680,574.00 |
|
| Medical expenses and medical insurance | $192,330.00 |
|
| Memberships and dues | $265,874.00 |
|
| Other operating expenses | $387,415.00 |
|
| Total operating expenses | $17,850,240.00 |
|
While this is interesting to see, BG's budgets/expenses are among the lowest in the MAC. However, BG did produce a profit with its athletics of nearly $1million. By example in the same year, Ohio State's revenues were $123,174,176 but after expenses OSU had a profit of just $ 434,422.
For more information and to see all the schools, click here
NOT TO EARLY FOR BUFFALO PLANS
A random search of flights showed that flying on Thanksgiving Day to Buffalo rather than a day or two before offered the lowest prices (with a return flight on Saturday). If you are planning to attend the final game of the regular season in Buffalo, consider flying in on Thanksgiving Day.
THE COOKIE JAR
It used to be a tradition that cookies were sent to the team from time to time, something the players and coaches all appreciated. For whatever reason this had been discontinued for a while but the Cookie Jar still delivers to BG students with a wonderful variety of homemade cookies. If you talk with your son about the Cookie Jar, chances are excellent that they know about them.
Send a little love to your son with a cookie! There is a minimum of a $10 order for free delivery to the campus. For more information, the link for The Cookie Jar is here.
TICKET QUESTIONS
Each player is allotted four (4) tickets for use by family and friends. The players know that they must have the names of every person who is to use each ticket into the ticket office by this Thursday. Everyone over the age of 18 must show proper identification in order to receive their ticket. As a reminder, tickets are available only when you are ready to enter the stadium. You cannot get a ticket ahead of time. The will-call gate for player tickets is located on the northeast corner of the stadium just to the left of the Sebo Center.
For complete ticket information scroll down to the bottom of this page.
REDSHIRT QUESTION
We have been asked by some parents about their sons being redshirted and exactly what that means and how the redshirting process works. Here is the explanation from the NCAA:
The term "redshirt" is used to describe a student-athlete who does not participate in competition in a sport for an entire academic year. If you do not compete in a sport the entire academic year, you have not used a season of competition. For example, if you are a qualifier, and you attend a four-year college your freshman year, and you practice but do not compete against outside competition, you would still have the next four years to play four seasons of competition.
Each student is allowed no more than four seasons of competition per sport. If you were not a qualifier, you may have fewer seasons of competition available to you. You should know that NCAA rules indicate that any competition, regardless of time, during a season counts as one of your seasons of competition in that sport. It does not matter how long you were involved in a particular competition (for example, one play in a football game, one point in a volleyball match); you will be charged with one season of competition.
It does not matter if your son dresses for a home game or makes the travel squad for the away game. The trigger to being redshirted or not solely rests upon if he plays in a game or not. So Saturday you will see all the BG players in uniform on the field during warmups and on the sideline during the game. This does not affect their status as far as playing. Schools keep records of who participates and this information is listed on the Box Score of each game. For example, the BG at Idaho game Box Score has a Game Participation page listing the starters and each player who was involved in the game. (To view this click here)
HANG IN THERE
If you are a parent of a first year player how awesome was it to see him on the field in pre-game warm-ups then come running out with the team just before the kickoff! It is one of those moments…the first time to see your son in a college uniform and on the sideline of a college field. As parents we also know how tough it is to not see your son playing in the game. After all, he was recruited because he is an outstanding football player right? And it is a little rough to think that as a player your son may not play for this season.
Make no mistake about this…your son is an integral part of the team and his contributions in practice have allowed his team to get off to a fast start. If you were at the game you saw the difference in the speed, quickness and sheer strength of the collegiate game as compared with high school. Perhaps the best evidence was displayed as BG being a Division 1 team and Morgan State is in a lesser classification. Take nothing away from Morgan State as they played hard but you could clearly see the difference between the two teams in terms of size, skill, conditioning, quickness and more.
The older players on the team do work with the younger players on the practice field and are also there to offer advice and friendship off the field. This is a single team and perhaps one of the closest student organization on campus. Every player on the team has been a freshman and knows the feelings of this year’s freshman class. You will hear the older players talk about the freshman class, about how good they are and how they are working hard.
College football is an all-star team made up of fabulous high school players that have trained and practiced and conditioned themselves into Division 1 football players able to compete at the highest level. And while there are a handful of first year players who do play throughout the collegiate football world, this is an exception rather than the rule. Take heart knowing that your son is growing and changing and learning about what it takes to compete in the highest level of collegiate football and has a brotherhood of 104 others who are working with him.
BURSAR BILL ITEMS
There are some expenses that are not covered by the players’ football scholarships and the player will receive a bill from the Bursar, which must be paid. The bill generally is for certain fees and services and will be in the neighborhood of $250 per semester. So don’t be surprised when you receive a call from your son or the Bursar’s office asking for payment. The folks are the Bursar’s office is very understanding and great to work with.
If your son provides you with his account information with regard to his BG on-line account you will be able to view his Bursar bill. The office does not send out paper invoices so it may be wise to communicate with your son on this issue.
NEW HOME JERSEYS
New for the 2011 season will be the Falcons home jerseys. Modeled after the new away game jerseys the team wore last year, the home jerseys will worn by the team. For all of you who would like to wear a replica of the new style jersey, SBX Bookstore has ordered them and they should be available by the first of September. The replica jerseys will be available blank or with numbers similar in style to what the Falcons use. The cost for a jersey with the numbers (front and back) will be around $96.00. SBX cannot per NCAA regulations sell a jersey with a player’s name on it. However, they can direct you to a company that may be able to do this or, if you have a business in your home town that does sports apparel you should be able to have them put the name on the jersey.
TICKETS
Many new families want to know about the ticket policy for games. The NCAA allows a player to receive up to four (4) complimentary tickets for home and away games. As we have seen in the past, this some of the venues to which BG travels reduces that number from four to two. However, this year this should not be the case as we are told that all away games players will be allotted four complimentary tickets.
For all Bowling Green home games, the NCAA allows all 105 players, the maximum any Division 1 team may have on its roster, to dress, thus each player will be allotted four complimentary tickets. For away games, the NCAA limits the number of players who travel to 65 and the MAC has an agreement that for all conference games that number will be reduced to 60. Therefore, only players who travel and will dress at away games are eligible to receive complimentary tickets for those games.
The system in place for getting the comp tickets relies on each player submitting the name of each person to receive one of the four complimentary tickets. The player must submit these names on his computer to the ticket office no less than three days prior to the game. So, make sure that by Thursday of a Saturday game, your player has the names of the four individuals to receive a ticket. It is not permissible to provide the ticket manager with, for example, “the Jones family of four.” It must include the first and last name of each person.
At the game, both home and on the road, there will be a specified gate for Home or Visitor Player Will Call. The person who is getting the ticket must present a valid ID and sign their name next to the printed name on the page. (Please note that children under the age of 18 do not need to present ID.) After this you will handed a ticket and must immediately enter the gate. Tickets are not made available prior to the day of the game and are not distributed either. This is a privilege and abuse of the system can jeopardize the receipt of future tickets. So please make sure that your son has all the names of who is coming to each upcoming game the week of the game.
A couple of items to consider. Not every player will normally use his allotment of tickets. Players who need more tickets usually will be able to find players who have extras and be allowed to use those in addition to the four. The other item to give serious consideration is to purchase season tickets. The cost of season tickets is very reasonable and it assures you of great seats for every home game. And you will be able to purchase a parking pass as well that you will want to have. It is a great way to support the team and if you have a lot of family & friends wanting to attend, it only makes sense.
Speaking of parking, there is a new arrangement this year as well as expanding THE WALK. We will have more on the a little later on. Keep checking back and we will have camp reports and updates on picture and media day.
A new feature this year is our GAME DAY page. This is designed to make your planning for the next upcoming game easier and assist in events surrounding the day of the game.
TRAVEL & HOTELS
BUFFALO – Friday, November 25; Kickoff NOON
Buffalo Niagra Marriott
1340 Millersport Highway
Amherst, NY 14221
A block of rooms is set aside for BG parents at a rate of $96 plus tax for Thursday night. Friday night will be a little higher due to the holiday weekend.
716-689-6900 We will be working with the coaching staff to determine the team’s schedule on Thanksgiving to see how much time might be available to spend with the players on Thursday and shall post it here.