Ross Bjork's March Aggie Town Hall

Athletics Director Ross Bjork took questions from the 12th Man during his monthly Aggie Town Hall on Tuesday 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.

Great win yesterday, it's all about survive and advance. Gary Blair and the Aggie women on to the next round of the tournament.

Boy. I tell you what. Troy, I mean, they are athletic. They get up and down. I think their philosophy is, Hey, you know what? Just try to keep pace with us. We'll probably let you score. But let's see if you can match our pace and that style of play. It's fascinating to watch. And hey, look, we made the right kind of plays, obviously, down the stretch. There's calls and different things, and they were probably fouling us underneath most of the game, so calls are just going to kind of go both ways. But, man, our ladies, look…they battled and they were tough and they survived a very hot team, especially in that second half. So it was fun to be there and we’re going back to San Antonio.

It's a 2 vs 15 game, but we've already seen it prior to the Aggies’ tipoff, in the men's and women's tournament. Forget the seeds anymore. 

You know what? I think so. I mean, look, you're in a neutral site, you're in a gym with maybe 250 to 300 people. Pretty sterile environment. And so you've got to kind of find your own energy when it comes to these games. And I'm watching some of the men's games and they've got 25% capacity, depending on the venue. And some of those crowds were getting into it as you were watching those games over the weekend. But it was cool. Commissioner Sankey came last night, he was in San Antonio watching the other SEC teams. He came up for our game. He's watching the LSU/Michigan game on his phone. I'm watching our softball game on my phone. We're watching the game, and so it’s life as a commissioner, life as athletic director, trying to keep up with all your different sports. 

It's wild, but I will say, as of today, we've completed 90% of our scheduled athletic events. Obviously we missed some basketball games. We missed some volleyball matches. We've got to make up some tennis, but 90%. If you go back to June, July, August and you would have said that we'd be at 90% completion of our scheduled athletic events, I think we would have signed up for that. And so a credit to just lots of different people, our student-athletes in particular, and our athletic trainers, and the SEC, and University leadership. And we have fans in the stands, so lots to be thankful for. Just got to keep going on the journey to get through this. I feel like we've turned a corner. We can't lower our guard, but it feels different. I mean, you (Andrew) and I, we just got our vaccine in the last couple of days. I got mine this morning. You got yours yesterday. The University just announced access to the vaccine on Monday in the state of Texas. Every adult can now get access to it, so it's coming. So that's what we all talked about. When the vaccine starts becoming more and more available, you feel like you can start turning the corner. Still got to be cautious, still got to get through it. It's still a pandemic, but lots of lots of headway being made. So obviously very pleased and excited. 

I am sure you share in Jimbo’s belief that the athletic department is the front porch to the whole University. Now that you have been here 623 days, what is the one thing you want more people to know about this University through athletics and what is something you want to improve about this University through athletics? 

He's exactly right. In terms of that analogy, the front porch, the window in which people view the University is typically athletics. There's a lot of different analogies that you can use to describe athletics, and what I always say is we're not the most important thing that happens on this university, on this campus, but we're the most visible. So how do we utilize that platform to be fully integrated into the mission of the of the university? I love this question. He made me do some homework. I've got all this data here in terms of what do we showcase? What do we want people to know about this University through athletics? Well, let's see, we're a land, sea, space grant institution, one of only a few. As of last fall, we were the largest student body in the country. And I think we see that when we show Kyle Field at full capacity and we see 35,000 students there. But there's a whole list that I can go down. Number one best buy, the only Texas school listed. Fiske Guide to Colleges. Number one best value school in Texas. Number one best value in Texas, Money Magazine. The other one was U.S. News and World Report, number one in undergraduate degrees. Awarded Texas number one best bang for the buck, Washington Monthly. Number one best college in Texas, Money Magazine in 2020. Best college for Veterans. Number one in enrollment. Number one in transfer graduation rate. We just finished a $4 billion. With a B. Capital campaign, Lead by Example. Athletics was a part of that as well. We have more CEOs leading Fortune 500 companies than any other university. And then there's a lot of other things that we could give you. 

Essentially, we're a top 5, top 10 University. Forget athletics, university. And to me, that's what I think people want to be affiliated with. And so how do we showcase what the university is doing, using our platforms in athletics? Then people say, oh, wow, they're doing that in academics. They're doing that in engineering. They’re studying a lunar landing vehicle and they're also digging at the core of the earth, the bottom of the ocean. So they literally have every depth covered. To me, that's what you want to align yourself with. And I think that's the expectations that we have in athletics, is that we should be number one. We should be number four. We should be top 10 in all of our different sports. And so that's what we need to do. 

And then the next question is what is something you want to improve about this university through athletics? And here's what I would say. I think a lot of times the branding, the image, is a very narrow image of Texas A&M, if you kind of ask people. So how do we improve upon our brand? How do we show the diversity that we do have here at Texas A&M and all the great things that we're doing in those platforms? How do we just take that maybe narrow viewpoint broadly to the general public, to the masses, and say, no, no, no, this is what it is, all the things I just described. This is what Texas A&M is about. So I think that's what athletics can do. We work with our TV partners. We give them talking points, we do all those things. And I think once people come here and they visit, especially when they visit campus, they say, okay, now I see what they're talking about. Now I see what the Aggie Ring means and the Spirit of Aggieland and the traditions, and I mean all the things that we do to gather here. It's special, and so telling those stories is definitely something that I think we can improve and really just continuing that brand awareness using athletics. Because recruiting changed this past year, I have heard from a number of teams that it really got more personal, even though it wasn't in person. Our coaches and our staffs were really able to get one on one with parents or guardians, but also really sell this school. 

So what could have been a negative has really turned into a positive, hasn't it? 

Really, it's a captive audience when you're on a screen and it's just the young man or young woman and his or her family and it's the coaching staff, that's it. There are really no distractions. And so I think you're exactly right. I think you can build connections maybe in a deeper way, and you can spend a little more time. There's no time limit on Zoom. We can just keep going and going. I've talked to so many coaches about that very thing, and then we can do all the virtual tours and presentations and they get a really strong sense of what it's like. So it's been neat to see.

Do you anticipate the NCAA pushing back the recruiting deadline again? 

No, I don't. Here's where here's what I think will happen. There's been lots of conversations at the NCAA level. Fortunately, I've got a seat at one of those tables on the Student Athlete Experience Committee representing the SEC. And essentially, what that group does is really talks about all sports except football and men's and women's basketball. So we're able to really put forward a lot of things to the NCAA council who ultimately makes the decisions. To me, it's going to land in two areas. It's going to be a quiet period, which means we can have visitors that come on campus, unofficial and official visitors. We could also do camps and clinics for prospect-age student-athletes. So that's what's called a quiet period. Or, I think what you might see is it might just flip back to the normal recruiting calendars. We're looking at June 1st, either a quiet period, or it just goes back to a normal recruiting cycle, which means you can do football camps. You can have official and unofficial visitors. He's probably thinking more football I would guess, which means we can have a normal recruiting cycle where the month of June is busy. Camps, visitors, unofficial, official visits. We've already lined up a lot of official visitors, assuming that this is coming, and then if you can go back to the normal recruiting calendar, you'll have a lot of your other sports be able to travel and go watch games and evaluate talent, and you've got the basketball tournaments and baseball coaches go out, so it's going to land in one of those two areas. I don't really see there being an in between because it's pretty clear. If it's a quiet period, they can come on campus. If it's a normal cycle, people can travel, they can come on campus and obviously we'll have some protocols in place around testing and distancing and things like that. But that's what I see happening. 

This weekend, our first SEC series at home at Blue Bell Park as Georgia comes in. The remaining questions we have center around baseball. Saturday Ole Miss hosted Auburn, and I believe they listed a capacity of 10,300 at that game. If Ole Miss is at 100% capacity for baseball right now, why isn't Texas A&M?

I've been to that ballpark a few times. I've seen the 10,300 number a few times in my seven years there. Mississippi State, I think, is in the same process. I think they're close to 100%. I watched the Arkansas/Alabama game on Sunday on the SEC Network before our softball game, and it looked like they were pretty darn full. I don't know what the percentage was, but it didn't look like a whole lot of space in there. Here's what I'll say. Look, we talked about turning the corner, but we're still in the middle of a pandemic. The university, we’re working with as a university partner. We just want to ease into this. We want to ease back into this. We need to complete this semester, this academic year, these athletic seasons as safe as possible. So I can't speak to what data Ole Miss used or Mississippi State or anybody else used. I can't speak to what they used to evaluate it, but I know for us, if somebody wants to get into Blue Bell Park, they should go to the ticket window and they should look and see if we have tickets available. Most likely, they're going to be able to get in. We added bleachers for a reason, to space people out. That increased our capacity on a restricted basis. So we think we were actually very proactive in trying to accommodate as many people as possible. But I would just say, if you want a ticket, go to the ticket office, go to the ticket window, and most likely you're going to be able to get in. That's the approach we've taken. Whether that's right or wrong, that's the data that we use. That's the analysis that we used. We’re a university partner, and that's the approach. So that's why we haven't gone to an announcement of 100%. But most people have been able to get in if they want to get in.

Other SEC schools have great outfield picnic seating areas, we do not. Is that in the plans for the future? Are there plans to renovate and/or add more general admission seating to Blue Bell Park to catch up with other SEC West schools in terms of atmosphere, seating options, et cetera? Are the outfield stands here to stay at Blue Bell and any chance more will be added? 

Three questions. I would say yes, yes and yes to all three. Yes, yes and yes. So the outfield. We all watched the Florida series. And what a great job they did with their ballpark, right? The berms, right field, left field, the see-through outfield fence. You could be on ground level and they had some Adirondack chairs and picnic areas, whatever they had out there. I know they had, like, a food court area, kind of a beer garden behind the batter's eye, and so that that's something absolutely that we are looking at. Obviously, we're a little bit restricted in the outfield with a fire lane between the Rec Center and the ballpark. And then we have a pretty big train track that runs right through our vicinity there that we have to work around. So there is some space. It's something that we're looking at. We're studying everything related to the outfield area, and then that goes into the other question about renovate and/or add more seating to catch up to the rest of the SEC West. And I think we could add more seats. I really do. I know there's a waiting list. I know there's demand. Tuesday/Wednesday night games will kind of ebb and flow, but big SEC series? People love baseball. I know people love baseball here at A&M, so we’re looking at a whole master plan for Blue Bell Park that relates to an increase in seating. An increase in premium area as well, because we know there there's demand for that. An increase in outfield seating area. And then we've also got to do some things for the players. Our indoor hitting facility is not air conditioned. It actually needs some more elbow room. We need to renovate our locker room, freshen it up a little bit. I think the spacing is good. The bones are good. The size and scale are good. It just needs a refresh. So we're looking at all of that right now. It's part of our master plan for all capital projects. We're busy honing in on a lot of those details. I think I said it on here a while back. Facilities are about time and money. How much patience can we have? And then can we generate the resources to build it? And that's really what it comes down to. The outfield stands…we're going to keep something in place for next year. What that looks like, and is it the same system? Is it modified? Is it the permanent solution? Probably not, not quite yet, but we would like to keep something, especially in that right field area. I think people have really enjoyed it. The berms will probably go back to berms in the grass for 2022, but I want to look at keeping something out there in right field for an ongoing basis, and then we'll figure out what's the permanent solution. Is it a picnic area? Is it berms? Is it other seating? But I think there's a demand. I think people are hungry for a baseball product where you can come and just hang out. I mean, that's what baseball's all about. 

Will the NCAA ever increase baseball scholarship numbers or the number of paid assistant coaches? 

It's been a topic. I've been an AD, gosh, this is my 11th academic year. It's been a topic every year. We were this close to adding the third assistant, taking the volunteer assistant coach that we have now in making that a full time. It was this close, and it got defeated by just a few votes at the council level. So I think once we get through the pandemic and everything kind of resets, I think those type of conversations need to happen. And also the scholarships. The 11.7 was really put in place as a sort of a Title IX balance. You look at some others, even on the women's side. there's some numbers that don't make a lot of sense. And so how do we get back to more balance? I think baseball has to be part of that equation, but it's not going to be a standalone conversation. It would be coupled with how do we look at all the other sports from a comprehensive standpoint and try to create more balance?

Gymnastics related, so many of the gymnasts at other SEC schools are from Texas. From the Title IX perspective this would also give the ladies more sports options…

It's a great sport, and obviously in the SEC, it's really a thriving sport. I worked at UCLA. Gymnastics is premier. I worked at Missouri as well, so I've been around several gymnastics programs. Honestly, my answer is, I wish we would have added it 40 years ago. Right now, we need to fund the sports that we have. We’re in line with Title IX. So we're balanced out in terms of meeting the criteria of Title IX. And then you look at what's the interest and ability of the student body, not just in the state of Texas, but here at Texas A&M? Is there a gymnastics environment? So those are all the things that you look at. Right now, we don't have any plans to add any sports, but you're always keeping an eye on what the landscape is.