CONSTRAINTS TO BIG DREAMS
FROM ATHLETES FITTING IN TO MINIMAL TV REVENUE, PROGRAM FACES CHALLENGES
It’s a humble display, but a monument to Rice’s modern success. • Atop a folding table draped in a blue tablecloth sits Trevor Cobb’s 1991 Doak Walker Award, David Bailiff ’s 2013 Conference USA Coach of the Year Award, and trophies for the Owls’ division and conference titles that same year. Interspersed among them are trophies for bowl victories in 2008, 2012 and 2014, as well as national and conference academic achievement awards. • Situated against a wall across from the secretary’s desk on the second floor of the Patterson Center, the collection of mostly glass or gold mementos is almost unassuming. • With the recent hire of football coach Mike Bloomgren, Rice fans and administrators are hoping the former Stanford coordinator can add to the collection. • But what are reasonable expectations at a school like Rice, which, according to U.S. News & World Report, is considered one of the top 15 academic institutions in America?
Culture clash
At Rice, a private institution with 6,700 students, academic hurdles are compounded by social obstacles. While some football players publicly brush off their classroom demands, others privately acknowledge a culture of dismissiveness toward athletes.
Bailiff, who was fired in November after going 1-11 in his 11th season as Rice, did what he could to be an ambassador.
“Coach Bailiff is a genuinely great guy. He likes to be involved in the community, he likes to get the support of the students around him, and I think what (he) always tried to do was embrace what Rice had,” said Dr. David Berken, an offensive lineman who, after redshirting in 2004, was a four-year starter from 2005-08.
“Rice is a different environment than a lot of schools (when it comes to) athletics, and I feel like he got in there and tried to get as many people as he could to embrace the team and build bridges between the athletic and academic side of the campus. From what I can remember, that’s something that built a lot stronger relationships across the campus and gained us more support while we were there.”
Some Rice players believe they are shunned by students who don’t see them as intellectual equals. Others experience frustration trying to navigate life as a student-athlete when some professors show little interest in being flexible.
Nate Richards, a history major who was the Owls’ starting center in 2012, recalls a typical evening’s practice on the South Main campus, where it was common for a fellow lineman to be pulled from practice for classes or labs, something particularly disruptive for a unit focused on cohesion.
“That’s just the environment it is at Rice,” Richards said. “I remember some guys not being able to make meetings. … They didn’t have other options.”
Berken said any athlete at Rice must consider his professional prospects.
“From our perspective, it sort of depends on what you want to do with your life,” he said. “It’s hard to be a good student-athlete, especially when the academic rigor is so intense.”
Robert Griffin, an engineering professor, doubles as Rice’s faculty athletics representative (FAR). Through the latter he serves as a resource to student- athletes while reporting to the administration. He’s also available as a liaison between professors and coaches.
“FARs are uniquely positioned to help develop a caring and supportive campus environment that fosters student-athlete mental health and wellness,” according to the NCAA (although each institution can dictate their level of influence).
Griffin, who has served in the role for seven years, acknowledged Bailiff ’s contributions.
“Coach Bailiff bought into the Rice academic mission, no question. He really encouraged his football players to be involved on campus,” he said. “I think that’s the extent of what I would say. I don’t have any personal experiences with Coach like that … but that was definitely his reputation.”
Griffin lauded Rice studentathletes’ ambition and the school’s commitment to academics. He emphasized that their ability to balance such difficult schedules is what separates them from the stereotypical studentathlete.
Days of yore
He also said he’s unfamiliar with any widespread tension.
“I don’t know if it’s necessarily tension in the classes. I’ve never seen that. I’ve never experienced that firsthand,” he said. “If it’s happening to a significant number of kids, I’m not aware of it.”
Before the Oilers and Astros (nee Colt .45s) arrived in Houston (in 1960 and 1962, respectively) and before integration in college football, the Owls excelled on the gridiron.
“Pro football hadn’t yet come to the state,” said Steve Richardson, a college football historian and author of “The History of a Proud Texas Tradition,” a book about the Cotton Bowl. “Teams like the Oilers and Cowboys didn’t arrive until the 1960s, and schools like Rice, SMU and TCU were more reflective of pro-type teams in those big cities.
“Keep in mind, too, at that time the University of Texas had a major dip and was struggling for years in the 1950s. The private schools picked up the vacuum.”
Over a two-decade period, Rice won or shared six Southwest Conference titles (1934, 1937, 1946, 1949, 1953, 1957). In 1950, the university hastily constructed 70,000-seat Rice Stadium, based on the 1940s success of the football program, and the stadium would play host to the Super Bowl in 1974.
Rice’s success was influenced by cultural and historical differences.
The Southwest Conference didn’t begin integration of its teams until the 1960s, limiting the league to white players. At the time, college football teams utilized a platoon system; thus, players participated on offense and defense, limiting the overall talent and helping to level the playing field.
“You had all of those factors in play, but then Texas got it going again in the late 1950s under Darrell Royal, and Frank Broyles was doing the same thing at Arkansas,” Richardson said.
Fifty years ago, Rice was only a bit smaller than its current undergraduate enrollment (almost 4,000 students as of this fall). It’s the second-smallest FBS school behind Tulsa.
While Rice saw a championship drought from 1958 through 1993 — it shared an SWC title in 1994 — the school has stuck to its ideals, providing personal professor-student relationships, even at the cost of additional revenues (and perhaps victories).
Dollar deficit
Rice resists comparisons to other prestigious academic institutions.
Unlike Stanford or Duke, the school doesn’t receive big conference payouts. As an FBS school, it doesn’t adhere to the same standards of Ivy League programs, which don’t offer athletic scholarships.
But Rice’s commonalities with those schools led its board of trustees to tap a management consulting firm to explore potential cost-saving options in 2004, according to ESPN.
The report from McKinsey & Co. identified four feasible options: to remain in Division I and work to improve fundraising and athletic performance; to move to Division II and drop football scholarships; to transfer to Division III and end football altogether; or switch to Division III and eliminate all athletic scholarships.
By dropping football, McKinsey said, Rice could cut $3.4 million from its athletics budget deficit, which was $10 million at the time.
That idea didn’t fly, but disadvantages have been exacerbated by Rice’s presence in a conference outside the Power Five.
Last season, the average league payout per team in the Atlantic Coast Conference was $26.3 million, according to ESPN. Compare that to Conference USA, the athletic home of the Owls.
C-USA’s previous $15.4 million annual television deal saw a massive 82 percent drop to $2.8 million in 2016-17, according to the Virginian-Pilot. That comes out to about $200,000 in TV revenue per school, down from about $1.1 million in 2016. C-USA is second to last among the “Group of Five” mid-major leagues when it comes to TV money, ahead of just the Sun Belt.
“We recognize the challenges of coaching football at an FBS school in our circumstances, but there are smaller private schools and strong academic schools out there doing it well,” Wake Forest athletic director Ron Wellman said, citing athletic success at schools like Northwestern and Vanderbilt in the last decade.
“You look at the private institutions doing well, there may be more today doing well than any other time,” he added.
But Wellman acknowledged the challenge small private institutions face in generating revenue from a small alumni base.
“I feel like our fans are just as passionate as any other fan base,” he said. “The challenge is we don’t have as many of them.”
If someone is looking for the big stadium, “we don’t have it,” said Wellman, whose school must sell recruits on the benefits of small classes and various academic opportunities.
“The athletic director is the one who’s closer to the program than anyone else and is best to make the decision whether that coach is the right one to realize the potential of that particular program,” Wellman said. “And I think it’s important to determine what that potential is and how to live up to that potential.”
Juco help rare
In 2017, Rice played five CUSA teams that were either inactive or playing in another conference — or even a lower division — at some point between 2012 and 2015. All five (Florida International, Louisiana Tech, Old Dominion, UAB and UTSA) defeated Rice and had better records than the Owls this year.
Their success points to another disadvantage for Rice: the Owls’ relative inability to mine the junior college ranks to replenish talent.
Bailiff saw two junior college players come to Rice in his 11 years: Richards, the center from 2012, and defensive tackle Stuart Mouchantaf, who also arrived in 2012.
UAB replenished its program with more than 40 junior college players after a two-year hiatus. Every C-USA roster except Rice’s currently has at least four junior college transfers, with some schools well over that.
Bailiff compared finding qualified junior college players to fishing in the Dead Sea.
Furthermore, Rice fails to attract talented graduate studentathletes on a regular basis, something those around the program attribute to the limited number of Rice’s graduate offerings and the time commitments they require.
The NCAA adopted the graduate transfer rule in 2006, granting immediate eligibility to a player who has earned a degree and seeks a grad degree at another school — assuming he meets several other qualifications.
In 2011, a smallish quarterback from North Carolina State utilized the rule to transfer to Wisconsin. Within a year, Russell Wilson (already an All-ACC performer) took the Badgers to the Rose Bowl, earned All-Big Ten honors and finished ninth in the Heisman Trophy voting.
Rice, for its part, has bled talent.
Nate German played three seasons at quarterback and receiver for Rice before transferring to West Virginia for his final year of eligibility. He would have been a fifth-year senior for the Owls this season.
Behind him might have been Jeremy Jones, a similarly dynamic athlete who saw more time on the basketball court than on the football field for the Owls. The redshirt junior is currently a forward at Gonzaga.
Finally, Rice has made a habit of scheduling some imposing Power Five opponents, a curious pattern for a school that often has concerns with injuries and depth.
In 2008, the Owls played a Texas team that finished 12-1 and beat Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl. They lost at Texas Tech and Oklahoma State the following year by a combined 96-34.
Since 2010, they have played and lost to Notre Dame, Texas A&M (twice) and Texas (three times). And of course, there was the 62-7 drubbing in Australia to Bloomgren’s Stanford team in August.
Looking ahead, Bloomgren may have his hands full.
The Owls are tentatively scheduled to play the Longhorns in 2019. They also play LSU twice in the coming three years.