Anyone read Byrne's Wednesday Weekly?

The women's NCAA performance was mentioned last, behind the following lesser-news events:

1. Pushing tickets for an upcoming baseball game

2. Softball win in a non-conference tournament

3. Spring football practice starting. Pushing tickets again.

4. Several tennis wins in non-conference matches against ranked teams.

5. Finally he mentions the women's team 6th place finish at the !@#$^% NCAA Championships and the first in history NCAA individual championships for Wilkinson and Atkinson.

I find this offensive. It is inconceivable to me that he can't promote Bultman's team more forcefully than that. I understand basketball first - those were huge events for us. But the women's swim team trounced tu, was in a tight group all contesting for the NCAA team championship, etc.

Bad Byrne.

Bill doesnt actually write the wednesday weekly...but I agree Spice, that was a HUGE deal for the program, and it does deserve more recognition from the higher powers

[This message has been edited by texagg09 (edited 3/25/2010 9:24a).]

Spicewood,

I agree completely. I heard him speak a few months ago at the Houston Aggie Club lunch and he spoke aboat all the sports. The only mention about swimming was a somewhat negative comment.

The good news is the word is he will be retiring when his contract runs out.

Annoying, but not surprising.

Swimming doesn't bring in any money. They don't need anything (have a good facility, good sized scholarship endowment). Haven't had the national visibility that softball had a few years ago (seems like they should, since swimming has such a huge youth participation, bigger than softball). Plus there's no doubt that the the Women's S&D team has been causing him quite the headache with this Title IX deal. (BTW, anyone heard any updates on this?)

Byrne is very much a "what can you do for me" type of AD, and right now, swimming can't do much for him.

Goblu - yes S&D is a money loser, but so is everything but football and men's basketball.

NCAA champion trumps any Big12 "athlete of the week" by a factor of 100.

Whipping tu means 10x more than beating someone in San Diego in softball. As much as Byrne hates tu - I'm surprised he doesn't make an "in your (Austin) face" kind of comment.

Achievement at NCAAs trump achievement at Big12s.

I am a fan of track, softball, and am happy when tennis wins.

Right, but that's not the only point I made. Read the rest of it. Remember, Bill Byrne isn't a poster on the other sports board. I'm sure most of us would've bumped it up behind selling tickets to baseball and football (because let's be realistic, selling tickets to future events is more important than rehashing past events). But he has his own agendas, such as getting facilities built (like the one tennis needs), and driving up interest in softball, who is currently playing.

Think about it this way. If he blows all of his chips pumping up the swim team, gets everyone all-excited, what's going to happen between now and next season? People who aren't avid fans like us are going to forget, anyways He needs to drive up interest in the sports that are currently playing and need the fan support RIGHT NOW.

Of course, as a fan of the swim team, I would love for him to feature it prominently. But he's not the swimming SID, he's the athletic director, so he's gotta do what's best for the AD as a whole. Just consider who his target audience is for the weekly update. It's the Batt/Eagles/AA.com's job to give priority to the most important stories. Bill Byrne is not the media, his job is to get people to keep giving money to the athletics department.

And besides, don't you remember persuasive writing from 2nd grade? The last thing you mention is what people will remember most ;-)

'Plus there's no doubt that the the Women's S&D team has been causing him quite the headache with this Title IX deal. (BTW, anyone heard any updates on this?)

Byrne is very much a "what can you do for me" type of AD, and right now, swimming can't do much for him.'

1. The women's S&D team isn't the one causing him the headache; they aren't the ones that sued anybody

2. A third Big 12 Championship in four years, torching the University of Texas twice in one month in arguably their best sport over the past 30 years despite being ranked lower than the horns, the highest team GPA in the athletic dept., the highest GPA'd athlete in the sport in the country, two of A&M's three NCAA champions so far this year, huge Director's Cup points, and potentially a performance bonus...? Sounds like women's swimming & diving is doing a lot for him.

Right. That all makes him look really good. I guess what I meant was that in the context of the Weekly Wednesday report, what can any of that do for him?

It's not as though he left them out. He certainly mentioned them. All of those reasons are a great reason to put them on the front page of AA, and on the front page of the newspaper, and at the top of a recruiting pamphlet. But not necessarily as the first bullet point in the Weekly Wednesday report. Just my opinion. If they were to beat Texas in the dual meet (although WE know that it's not necessarily that important), I feel that he would probably put it higher.

PS, I was just joking around with the Title IX deal. I realize that they're not the ones suing.

[This message has been edited by gobluwolverine (edited 3/25/2010 2:33p).]

Byrnes "blog" appears intended to highlight news for all varsity sports. I know it ain't all equal nor does every reader care about what I care about.

But if he wants to brag about A&M sports - any idiot would brag about NCAA champions, not winning a tournament in San Diego that no one saw. Swimming is vastly more popular in the US than women's softball and earns A&M more national recognition right now than anything but basketball.

It is also the last chance to recruit undecided high school seniors.

Bultman should prepare a coaching seminar on how Julia Wilkinson was trained from a fast but not superstar fast swimmer to Olympian and NCAA champion.

BTW - I would much rather argue with Byrne than anyone here.

Dare I note that...

A) Going into the Big 12 championships, the title and first topic of it was swimming (and indoor track).

B) After the championships, again, the title and first topic were about the team winning the championship.


Anyhow, I think you're reading too much into the order of topics in the WW in the first place.

quote:

---

I think you're reading too much into the order of topics in the WW in the first place.

---

Respectfully disagree. NCAA champions should be carried through campus and have flowers thrown at them in a parade.

Hey Beretta - I'm sending in my entries for Zones today. They are in Conroe. Gonna swim?

Swimming is nothing more than a track meet in the water and....WHO CARES? IT'S SWIMMING!

More than you think. Moron.

"Plus there's no doubt that the the Women's S&D team has been causing him quite the headache with this Title IX deal."

"1. The women's S&D team isn't the one causing him the headache; they aren't the ones that sued anybody."

"PS, I was just joking around with the Title IX deal."

Really? My mama always said, "When you're really joking, both sides are laughing."

"But not necessarily as the first bullet point in the Weekly Wednesday report." - no one asked for the first bullet for history making double barrel NCAA golds...3rd or 4th might serve his purpose in spreading the word that some of the AGGIE athletes were winners last week-end.

"And besides, don't you remember persuasive writing from 2nd grade? The last thing you mention is what people will remember most "

Hey - remember the inverted triangle from Journalism 101? People never read the newspaper from beginning to end, front to back: if you want to make some PR points for recruiting, or just plain "we got it all in AGGIEland" you gotta hit them with the wins early, not with the garage sales at the bottom.

"... anyways He needs to drive up interest in the sports that are currently playing and need the fan support RIGHT NOW."

I gotta agree with you there: the WW really pumped up interest in the swimming all through the swim season, especially after Big 12's and before NCAA - now that it's over, why waste words and prime journalism real estate that was used for swimming during the season?

Congrats to the coaches, the support staff and the entire team, all underrated by collegeswimming, and apparently in their own backyard, too.

I'm with you, Spice.

Most of your responses are based on the fact that Bill Byrne is a journalist, when in fact he is an athletic director. And do you think that any serious recruit would read the weekly Wednesday and have that be the dealbreaker? Recruits know how A&M finished at NCAA's. If someone is a swimming recruit, all they're going to do is go through and look for the swimming part anyways. I still highly doubt they even read it. And it's not like they were stuffed below losses. Our tennis teams and softball teams both had really good weekends. They have recruits, too. This alone doesn't give them the priority, but to me it seems as though this + timing in the season is what pushed those sports higher.

Really think that you guys are taking it more personally than it was intended, but to each their own opinion.

PS, your mama has no standing on this board, unless she gets her own handle. (Again, Kidding!)

"Most of your responses are based on the fact that Bill Byrne is a journalist" - NO - ..you're the one who brought up 2nd grade persuasive writing - I never implied BB was a journalist - specifically used WW instead of BB, since it was explained he didn't write the article himself, and I think one can reasonably agree, without saying we're "reading too much into", or "being too sensitive" that swimming is simply not that important...and that's just the way it is...if it were, announcing 2 NCAA wins would have seemed important enough to write about earlier in the article, regardless of trying to fundraise or pump up current sports.

Spicewood,

Unfortunaely I've been nursing an injury. Back in the water now after a 6 week layoff. I think I may be headed your way that weekend to come look at the Nitro Swimming pools. We are trying to get our own built and they seem to have the best operation in the State.

Hope you swim fast!

Beretta - Nitro is planning a 2nd pool now. They have land, and hope to open it some time in 2011. They are steadily moving up in the Austin swimming community as TXLA loses some of its luster. It's about damned time.

I'm sure this has been discussed on this board before, but hasn't Byrne cut the Swimming programs at his past 2 schools?

Byrne cut mens swimming at Nebraska. I don't know what he did before that.

The NU mens program was apparently in major trouble including recruiting violations. Even if true - it seems like a more courageous move would have been to remedy it instead of killing it.

NU did not have the money. Cutting men's swimming was the right answer based on their budget.

No excuse for the swimming team not getting more coverage. They have done a great job. I often wonder what Byrne thinks about? Who is writing or advising him. Obvious problems.

Agree that Byrne cutting the program at Nebraska doesn't put our program in danger. I recall hearing rumors swirl about our men's team getting the axe before he got here, and since Byrne was hired those seem to have subsided.

Men's swimming is safe as long as Byrne gets a hefty bonus for their performance when they finish in the top twenty at nationals.