March 1, 2004
Student Athletics Event Fee
If you notice more students in attendance at our home athletic contests next year, it will most likely be due to the fact that students will no longer have to purchase tickets to attend home games. At their most recent meeting, the Board of Trustees approved a $25 annual student athletics event fee. All students will be charged this fee, and in return will be given free admittance to all home athletic contests. The $25 fee should provide the athletic department with approximately the same amount of revenue as we received through the sale of tickets to students. The fee was a student-led initiative. Student leaders were concerned that the cost of tickets to our home games discouraged students from attending. We think that this new fee can be a big help to us in not only improving student attendance at games, but also in improving spirit at games. Of course, the success of our teams is a key factor, but this new fee will be a big help.
Postseason Competition
As we come to the end of the winter sports season, our winter teams are heading into postseason competition. Our women's swimming and diving team finished seventh at the Big Ten Championships, while the men's team concluded a very successful Big Ten season with a third place finish. Our top swimmers from both teams will next compete in the NCAA Championships. Our men's team has several swimmers ranked among the NCAA leaders, and it will be exciting to see if they can produce some strong finishes at the NCAAs. Congratulations to Matt Grevers for being named Co-Big Ten Swimmer of the Year -- quite an accomplishment for a freshman.
Both of our basketball teams will be heading to Indianapolis to play in the Big Ten Championships in Conseco Fieldhouse. Our women's team is seeded 11th, and will play Minnesota Thursday night at 7 p.m. Our men's team will not know where they will be seeded until next Sunday, but a strong finish to the regular season (home games against Iowa and Michigan) could lead us to our highest seeding ever. Please check our website for updates on the tournament. Also, if we finish the season with a .500 record, there is a good chance that we will be invited to the National Invitational Tournament. Again, we will provide information on the NIT on the website and future Murphy's Marks. It is a real tribute to head coach Bill Carmody and his staff and players that the team has improved so much as the season has progressed, and that a postseason invitation is a legitimate possibility.
Instant Replay
The NCAA recently approved, on an experimental basis, the Big Ten's request to use instant replay in all conference football games next year. The replay system will be different than the NFL's in that there will be no coaches' challenges, and all decisions on whether to reverse a call will be made by an observer in the press box. The system is designed to correct obvious errors. I am optimistic that the system will work well. A key will be if it can be utilized without significantly lengthening the games. If it is successful, you will soon see all conferences move to a similar system.