Bjork Holds Final Aggie Town Hall of 2020

Athletics Director Ross Bjork once again answered questions from the 12th Man as he held his monthly Aggie Town Hall on Thursday afternoon. You can watch the event below, and we've have select quotes from the session posted below.

Have a question for Ross? Use the form at the bottom to submit for future shows.

'If you would have told me back in especially like middle of August that we would have played eight games already, we have one more, knock on wood. We’ve got to get through our testing today and get the results back before we get on the on the plane, but 7-1, ranked No. 5 in the playoff conversation. And people were mad at me on Twitter for about 48 hours for not playing Ohio State when the Ole Miss game got canceled and their game against Michigan got canceled. If you would have said all those things were going to happen, including people getting mad at me on Twitter, we would have signed up for that in August. Just think about that. 

"But this was the building block, right? When Coach Fisher was hired here, this was the step. Get in the conversation, be on the dance floor. Recruiting is going really well. The class the guys that signed yesterday, a tremendous class. There's more coming. Probably a top 10, 8, even 6 class when it all kind of shakes out based on some of the silent commitments. Just a ton of momentum. And we would have taken all these things. So I'm just pleased. Somebody asked me if I was going to reflect after Saturday's game, and I said I wish we could, but I know we have a bowl game and hopefully the playoff, so we can't really let our guard down. We can't celebrate per se at this point in time, because we're dealing with Covid and we need to get through the protocols. But it's exciting. People should be fired up about the week, because they've been in the conversation week after week after week, fed into the excitement of these kids signing and wanting to be a part of this recruiting class. Watching Jimbo’s press conference last night, you guys probably watched it, too, he’s recruiting kids that love football. And I see that with our current team. You see that in the in sort of mental toughness approach to it. You see it in the style of player that we are recruiting, especially along the line of scrimmage, which in this league you have to dominate the offensive line and defensive line. So that mentality is what's really cool, to see that manifesting itself. 

"By all accounts, it's only going to get better. So if our floor is No. 5 right now, it's only going to get better recruiting, building the program. And so that's what's exciting about if you just look, you don't want to look too far ahead to the future because you've got to keep going and it is a process. It is step by step. There's games to be played. Obviously, we've got to win against Tennessee and go up there and play really well. And then you just let things fall where they may. But we're in position and we’re being talked about. And that's what's great about building this program.

Let's start with questions from the 12th Man. 

Even in a pandemic, people have a Christmas wish list. What are your top two capital projects you wish you had money for in which to help the football program? 

“There were some conversations before I got here about the needs of not just football, but the entire athletic program. Really the next things that we have to look at for football is our operations area. Meaning our recruiting rooms. Right now we have people stuffed in conference rooms. We have people kind of in closets and nooks and crannies around the Bright Complex. With staffs growing the way they have, we're really out of space. So you look at that piece of it, and then you look at our indoor football facility. We're really at the end of the useful life of the outside, the exterior, the fabric, of both the track facility and the indoor practice facility. And so how do we really look at that whole area? That's what we're studying right now. I would say those two things, the indoor facility and then the Bright building itself. But then that has a ripple effect. What happens to academics? Because academics is bursting at the seams. So can you move academics around and increase the size of the football space? It's what I say about facilities. It's time and it's money. And unfortunately we had to hit the pause button because we had a lot of these concepts going. We were getting ready to to talk about a fundraising campaign, so we had to hit the pause button. But in 2021 we'll roll these things back out. We'll start having conversations at the university level from a planning standpoint and then from a donor standpoint in 2021.”

Is there a possibility of adding an additional home game in 2021 to maybe make up for some of the lost revenue from the Ole Miss cancelation? 

“No, there's not. However, what we are talking about, we have the Colorado situation. They obviously didn't come here this year, but we owe them a game, if you will. So we're looking at, does that game become a neutral-site game so there could be a boost in terms of revenue around that particular game? And then, frankly, the Arkansas game. The Arkansas game really has kind of underperformed from a ticket sales standpoint the last three or four years, right? Partly our fault, partly their fault. So the way that game works is the more tickets you sell, the more revenue. So we need to really maximize the Arkansas game, and then we'll see what happens with our Colorado conversations. But as far as adding a home game, we're locked in with our seven home games. The SEC slate is locked in, so we can't really add a game in this third time."

What should we expect to see this upcoming postseason with Covid restrictions limiting bowl games from some potentially hosting fans? 

“Well, the New Year’s Six games and the CFP Games, besides the Rose Bowl…no fans allowed at the Rose Bowl. Sugar Bowl I think right now is restricted. The other games, we don't have a clear picture on the capacity. The Orange Bowl, we've seen what's happened with the Dolphins and the University of Miami, so we kind of have an idea there. But right now there are some games that have absolutely said no fans. Cotton Bowl looks like they'll have some fans. Looks like the Peach Bowl will have some fans. Looks like the Orange Bowl will have some fans. After that, it's pretty restrictive. So it all depends on locale. We've already sent emails out to our donors and our season ticket holders, and then once we know exactly what game we're going to, then we'll put out more detailed information but expect it to be limited. And again, it depends on the locale.” 

As a sitting Director of Athletics, do you or can you have any conversations with your colleagues on the CFP committee? 

“Two layers to that. Can you? The answer is no, and it's really more on their end, where they have policies and procedures that govern those conversations. So can I still talk to the A.D. at Colorado? Sure, but I can't say Hey Rick, what about this or have you seen this? Can't do that. He would shut me down because that that's how the protocol works. And then the SEC, they have a weekly call with our reps. So they have two people on the committee that are assigned to the SEC that monitor all the SEC teams. The SEC can have a conference call with those two reps where they give data, they give statistics, they talk about injuries, etc. So they have a lot more intel that they can share. But there's no lobbying. Can't hire a lobbying firm. You can't hire a PR firm. Once they close the doors in that room, it's just the committee. And it's the data and the metrics and the games. And so there's really nothing I could do to sway their opinion. It's a great question because I think people think that there's some behind the scenes lobbying.”

Your feedback so far on the basketball seasons?

“I think the protocols have been great. It's obviously it's not the crowd, the atmosphere. The first game that I went to in Reed this year, I think people are trying to figure out Do I cheer? Do I not yell? Do I clap? Like what do I do? It was kind of surreal, like, what am I supposed to do? But people have been spaced. Our staff did a great job of keeping all the protocols in place where we're spraying down certain things. Being indoors is different than outdoors. I mean, all the science tells us that the temperature…we raised the temperature up to around 74 degrees. So if people feel a little warmer inside Reed Arena, it's because we raised the temperature and that was based on science and what experts were telling us around the virus. But I think it's gone great. It's not what we want. It's not full capacity by any means, but the people that are there, they're enjoying it. They're seeing high quality basketball with both teams. Excited to see what we're going to do in conference play.”

Do you know when we may expect to see schedules for baseball and softball? 

“I hope soon, because we really need some clarity and actually were. We just finalized volleyball and soccer formats because we're playing in the spring. But for baseball and softball, I hope soon because we need to get season ticket information out there. We need to get the capacity limitations for Davis Diamond and Blue Bell Park. We need to get those soon. I hope that right after the first of the year, we can have some clarity on the scheduling for softball and baseball. The conversation right now is really how many games do we want to play? Do we just schedule a full season, and then if games get canceled or moved around, it's sort of like a rain out? So that's the conversation right now. Do we put out just a normal full season and just see what happens? Or do you limit it to say 50 games in baseball, 44 in softball? So all those conversations are taking place right now, and I hope right after the first of the year, we can have some clarity.”