UH wants Power 5 conferences to take notice
“We’re prepared to do that.”
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Rhoades has a confession.
“Patience is not my virtue,” he said during an interview in his office.
That would explain UH’s two-minute offense approach to playing catch-up to become more attractive in the everchanging landscape of big-time college athletics. What has been a 10-year process, if not longer, for some programs in the state like Baylor and TCU, UH is attempting to do in half the time.
Rhoades can see progress every day he drives to work.
“Within five years, we’ve grown at a really, really fast pace,” he said. “(But) we don’t have 10 years with everything changing and what’s happening in terms of the landscape (of college athletics).
“We started from way behind when you think about ticket sales, corporate sponsorships, fundraising, facilities and academics. We’ve really grown at a rapid pace, and it’s our goal to continue that pace.”
Among some of the improvements:
• $120 million for 40,000-seat TDECU Stadium, which opened last August.
• $1.54 million for football practice facilities, including two new fields.
• $25 million for a basketball development facility adjacent to Hofheinz Pavilion that is set to open in August.
• $1.4 million in upgrades to Cougar Field.
• $750,000 for the construction of the Dave Williams Golf Academy and addition of a shortgame facility that is under construction.
Some of the other projects on tap include a stateof-the-art video board for Cougar Field, a new outdoor track and widening of the soccer field for the women’s program.
“We had to start with facilities and make sure we made that commitment,” Rhoades said. “Our hope here in the next couple of years is when you look at our facilities, they are as good as anybody.”
Next to the building of TDECU Stadium, the most critical decision facing the university is the future of Hofheinz Pavilion. Asecond feasibility study is due to be completed within the next two months, which will give university officials a better idea whether to renovate the 45-yearold facility or build a new multipurpose center.
“My gut says a renovation is probably more likely, unless somehow we get a third-party partner that really wants to help us in terms of a brand-new event center instead of just a basketball arena,” Rhoades said.
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For years, UH’s preferred landing spot has been no secret: the Big 12 Conference, where it would be reunited with Texas, Baylor, TCU and Texas Tech.
“It’s out of our hands, but we keep a very close eye on the pulse of what’s happening in the Big 12,” UHpresident and system chancellor Renu Khator said last week while presenting her legislative agenda during a UHFaculty Senate meeting.
In a follow-up email, Khator said UH“is committed to being nationally competitive in everything we do, including athletics. That will always be our goal.”
But a review of data shows the UHathletic department has done more with less through the years, with a total operating budget in the low-tomid $40 million range.
The university’s financial support for the athletic department is approximately 2.7 percent — or roughly $15 million — of the total budget for UH’s central campus, according to figures in the annual NCAA financial report.
Rhoades, while not directly addressing the perceived lack of university financial support, said none of what UHis doing will matter if “we don’t become nationally relevant.”
“We have to take care of our own business,” he said. “That’s where our focus has been. We’re in the process.”
The school received one of the most lucrative naming rights deals in college athletics for the football stadium, agreeing to $15 million over 10 years with Lake Jackson-based financial cooperative Texas Dow Employees Credit Union.
Cougar Pride, the main fundraising arm for the athletic department, set a record for a fifth straight year with $4.5 million in private donations.
UHis in its second season as part of the American Athletic Conference. Commissioner Mike Aresco said the school is a “valued and important” member of the conference.
“Renu Khator and Mack Rhoades are extremely able people who have a vision for Houston and really want to win,” Aresco said. “That’s what we want in this conference. We’re looking to challenge those other five conferences, and it’s not going to be easy. On the other hand, we think we have schools well-positioned to do it.
“In Houston’s case, the
future is very bright.”
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At his introductory news conference, Herman, hired on Dec. 16 to replace Tony Levine, called UH a “sleeping giant” with a new stadium and location in one of the most fertile football recruiting states in the nation.
Rhoades is not certain UHthree years ago could have landed a head coach of Herman’s caliber — a Broyles Award winner as the nation’s top assistant and co-offensive coordinator for national champion Ohio State. Or, for that matter, Kelvin Sampson, the top assistant for the Rockets hired last April following a five-year exile from college basketball for rules violations.
In both cases, UHdug deep into its wallet to land the two coaches. Herman received a five-year deal worth at least $6.75 million. The $1.35 million annual salary is the highest for a football coach at UH. Sampson, who has won more than 500 games and has made 13 NCAA Tournament appearances, received a five-year deal worth at least $4.5 million.
“Three or four years ago, I’m not sure we would have attracted the caliber of coaches we are attracting now,” Rhoades said. “(And) if we had the money and resources, would they have even been interested? TDECU Stadium did not exist. There were no plans or broken ground on a practice facility. Academically, our GPA and APR (Academic Progress Report) weren’t in good shape.”
UHis “a different place” now, Rhoades said. “There’s a reason why Tom Herman was interested.”
For UHto reach the goal of national relevancy, Rhoades knows that means the university’s programs must compete at high levels, particularly in the three major sports of football, basketball and baseball.
Football has been to a bowl two of the last three seasons. But other than a near miss for a BCS bid in 2011, the Cougars have won just two conference titles since the mid-1980s.
None of that deterred Herman when he agreed to take the job, his first as a head coach.
“I’ve been to the mountaintop,” Herman said of winning the College Football Playoff national title. “I’ve seen how it’s done. I’ve been there. It’s no longer what I’m telling you; preaching to you is not theory anymore. It’s testimony. It’s actually been done.”
Meanwhile, Sampson has endured struggles in his first season. The Cougars are 0-8 in the AAC, the worst start to league play in school history.
The school that created Phi Slama Jama has been to only one NCAA Tournament since 1992. It has been since 1984 that the Cougars won a game in it.
“I am looking forward to having an offseason and a couple of recruiting classes so we can put things together,” Sampson said. “We sell recruits on a vision. We know where we are headed. We have a clear idea where this program will be.”
In baseball, coach Todd Whitting’s squad is coming off one of the best seasons in school history, coming within two wins of reaching the College World Series for the first time in 47 years. The Cougars again are loaded and will begin with a preseason top-10 ranking and will be the favorite in the AAC.
“Our goal has been very simple from the very beginning — we want to compete at the highest level,” Rhoades said. “We certainly want our football program to be a Top 25 program every year. The same for men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, softball, golf, tennis and track and field. … I think we are on that path. It’s just a matter of time until we restore the great tradition people are used to.”
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Along the way, UHhas taken the necessary steps to adopt similar services that will be provided by schools in the Power 5 conferences.
UHannounced last September the opening of Cougar Café, which will provide food for studentathletes following the passage of legislation that allows schools to provide unlimited meals and snacks.
Rhoades said this week that UHplans to cover the full cost of attendance as part of a full scholarship for athletes.
Details are being ironed out, but Rhoades said the hope is to provide full cost of attendance to students playing in all 17 sports at UH. That means students who get athletic scholarships will have costs of attending college covered beyond the traditional tuition, housing, meals and books.
“We certainly would like to implement it across the board for all our student-athletes,” Rhoades said.
UHis estimating paying a $5,000 stipend per full scholarship each school year under the plan, which likely will take effect in August.
The plan will have between a $1 million and $1.2 million impact on UH’s athletic budget, Rhoades said.
“It speaks to investment; it speaks that we care,” he said. “We’re committed to our student-athletes. For us, we always felt it’s the right thing to do.”
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The excitement around the UHathletic program reached its apex on Jan. 2, when the Cougars rallied from a 25-point deficit in the fourth quarter for a 3534 victory over Pittsburgh in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl. It tied for the third-largest comeback in bowl history.
That was followed by UHreceiving national mention with Herman and Ohio State playing in the national title game.
After the game, amid the confetti celebration, Herman briefly posed for an on-field photo wearing a UHcap. The photo went viral, reaching more than 268,000, according to data on Facebook.
Khator said the game, along with many of the other things occurring on campus, created a “positive buzz everywhere.”
“We have built a credible national program,” she said, “and the excitement is building.”
joseph.duarte@chron.com