Athletics director prepared for new challenges

Editor’s note: On July 17th, sports editor Joe Marchilena sat down with new athletics… Editor’s note: On July 17th, sports editor Joe Marchilena sat down with new athletics director Jeff Long to discuss the future of the program. The following is a selection of excerpts of the first half of the interview.

The Pitt News: What made you want to come to Pitt?

Jeff Long: We all have goals and aspirations, and I had a goal to be an athletic director at the Division I level. When the opportunity presented itself to come to an institution with the history and tradition and prestige of the University of Pittsburgh, I just felt it was one I needed to take a look at. I knew that it was a prestigious institution from my days in the Big Ten, and I knew that it was a tremendously well-respected educational institution, and that’s always been important to me as I’ve worked in intercollegiate athletics.

When this opportunity came, I saw it as a real chance to come to an exciting city, come to a program that was going to begin to be reestablished, and I really thought there was bright future and a great upside to the athletic program here.

TPN: How will your experience working at other schools and other conferences help Pitt?

JL: I’m very proud of every aspect of collegiate athletics I’ve worked in. I feel like I have an appreciation and understanding for every area of the department and what their challenges are.

I think, as the leader of the program, I can have a direct, firsthand knowledge of what my staff people are dealing with in those areas. I think that’s a great asset to me and I think it’s one of my strengths – the fact that I have traveled to a number of institutions, seen a number of different ways to do things and approach things, and seen success in a number of different ways. Every institution is different.

Certainly, I’m a product of my experiences, and I bring those experiences to the University of Pittsburgh, and now I have to mold those to this culture, this environment, this market, and that’s where I think the strength is.

TPN: With the recent success that Pitt has had, is there any specific way that you can continue that success?

JL: There is a lot of building left to do. We’ve taken care of some great things as far as facilities and such for basketball, as well as football. We have some more work to do in facilities on our campus for our total athletic program.

We need to build upon the attendance at football. That is something that we are focused on. Not just for the fact of putting more butts in the seats and generating revenue, but enhancing the experience for our fans and our student athletes. Student athletes will tell you it makes a difference when those stands are full and that partisan crowd is supporting them.

TPN: What are your plans for trying to get sports like soccer, track and tennis back on campus?

JL: Those are all things that we are very much aware of, and we are very interested in improving that situation. It is not an ideal situation where we have to travel that far off campus.

One of the most challenging things is land, and the opportunity to secure land and have land in proximity in a city. We’re going to continue to work with that, and we’ve identified that as something we want to improve, and we’ll put our efforts into doing that. With my newness, I’m not even sure I’m aware of all the options for the future, but it’s certainly something we’re going to focus on.

TPN: Why should people believe that Pitt is still a good up-and-coming program?

JL: It starts with the University of Pittsburgh as an institution. Then it comes to the progress we’ve made to our facilities, the progress we’ve made in our football and basketball programs. I think we’re also going to see a lot of progress in our women’s basketball program, because [head coach] Agnus Berenato is going to do a wonderful job for us. I think that our recent success should be very, very encouraging to our fans and supporters that we have here.

There has been confusion about the Bowl Championship Series, and with changes in the Big East, and if it will change our participation. It is not; we are secure. Our football-playing institutions are assured access to the BCS through this current contract, which runs through the 2005 season. At that point, the whole BCS is open for discussion.

We are certainly a major player and we are committed to that. As I looked at this situation, I came from a number of high-level institutions, and I came to Pittsburgh to compete at that level and be at that level. There’s no question in my mind and no doubt in my mind that Pittsburgh’s going to remain a major player in collegiate athletics and the NCAA.

TPN: Would you be in favor of keeping the BCS the way it is or switching to a playoff system?

JL: My position at this point in time, with the information I have, I’m not sure that a playoff is in the best interest of intercollegiate athletics. I think there will be some tweaking to the BCS. I certainly think that the addition of another BCS game, to provide a little more access to other institutions in other conferences, I think that will certainly be discussed.

There is some discussion about having one more game after the bowls. Seed everybody in bowl games, and then take two teams after the winners of the bowls games to another game, and that will be discussed. To be honest, I’m not sure how I feel about that. I think there is going to be some tweaking of the system. I do not think we’re at the point where a real playoff system will be implemented.

TPN: Why do you feel that wouldn’t be as beneficial as the bowl system?

JL: I don’t like the idea. You have to take into account that we’re at 85 scholarships and we have redshirted [players], so we don’t have a full 85 players to play each year, which is difficult. If you look at professional football, they’re playing 16 games a year and they basically average 81 players on their rosters [during the course of a season]. They have the advantage of practice squads and injured reserves, and they can call up players. Intercollegiate athletics, we don’t have that, and, if we’re going now to 12 games, plus a play-off system, we’re putting real pressure on our student athletes and the ability to withstand the pounding and the pressure and the physical drain of a long football season.

I don’t know if that’s in their best interest. I feel strongly about the bowl system. I think it’s served college football for a long time very well. I think we are different than the NFL and I think that’s part of our uniqueness, and that’s why college football is as strong as it is, because it’s not professional football. I think [that], every time we inch towards professional football, we may be hurting the college game.

TPN: The NFL doesn’t have to worry about finals that time of year, either

JL: Exactly. You have the whole educational piece. Finals and, if this play-off system were to go forward, you’re going into the beginning of the next academic semester. Some of the most important time is the beginning of the next term. All those factors lead me to believe that a playoff system isn’t in the best interests of our student athletes and college football.

TPN: With Miami and Virginia Tech still in the Big East this season, getting a BCS bowl bid would mean a lot. Would getting one the following year make it any less satisfying?

JL: No, I don’t think there’d be any less shine on that apple. That’s a great prize, and to be a BCS team is an outstanding accomplishment. Going forward, we’ll still have a conference – we’ll still have a group of teams still trying to get there and win that BCS berth. By no means do I think it’s going to be any less significant.

TPN: Why did the Big East decide to wait until after 2005 to begin discussing expansion?

JL: If you analyze the way conferences are set up, typically June 30th is the date that a school needs to notify its conference that they are going to leave following that year, or even two years. To be honest, it was really a no-choice, because once we were past that June 30th deadline and we knew that Miami and Virginia Tech were leaving the conference, there was really nothing we could do sooner than that because the institutions that we may be talking to – well, actually, I should rephrase that – that have been talking to us about joining us, because we’ve had a number of institutions approaching us. We have not gone out and recruited and tried to convince schools to join us. They are coming to us, and that’s a significant difference between the way we’re going about our process as opposed to the ACC.

At that point, you really have no choice, because the schools that would be interested in joining you would have to pay a fee to get out of their league. Really, the option was to begin our process to look at adding schools for the 2005 season. I think the misunderstanding was that it was communicated that we weren’t going to look at institutions until 2005. The process is beginning now, we just don’t have the window of opportunity to add someone until the 2005 season.