-TLHBrd_06-28-2014_Democrat_1_D001~~2014~06~27~IMG_Kellen_Winslow_speak_1_1_.jpgBuy Photo


FAMU Athletics Director Kellen Winslow says a Collegiate Consulting report mirrors the issues he is correcting. (Photo: St. Clair Murraine/Democrat ) Buy Photo



5 CONNECT LINKEDINEMAILMORE

cA report by Collegiate Consulting, which recognizes several inefficiencies in Florida A&M University’s athletic department, doesn’t contain “earth-shattering” information, according to Rattlers athletics director Kellen Winslow.


But Winslow said Saturday that the report is valuable in his push to turn around the athletic department, which he said was “a problem department,” before his arrival in May. Winslow said the report merely mirrors the issues.


“Yes, it’s something we can use as a guide (and) a tool to communicate, but there is nothing earth-shattering in there,” Winslow said.


“It’s best practices that everyone else is doing and the strategies that everyone else has used to help their university grow in using athletic as a tool.”


The 149-page report, which was prepared last fall for former interim AD Michael Smith, details many of the obvious problems that plague FAMU’s athletic department.


It compared FAMU’s athletic operations – from the budget to personnel – to schools in the MEAC and several other Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) programs, specifically the 10-team Southwestern Athletic Conference.


Winslow has already addressed several of the recommendations – within his staff and cutting cost, which includes cutting the football coaching staff. He’s also hired a new compliance officer, changed some staff tittles and changed their responsibilities.


“It’s pretty simple; you work inside out,” Winslow said.


“Get your inside house in order; personnel, structural innovation and you work from there. That tells you where you have to go next. But if you don’t have your internal house in order; don’t have your process and procedure down its hard to have structure to get things completed.”


Winslow said he considers the consulting report a mirror of FAMU’s situation. Everything in it is spelled out in diagram and statistical information.


On average, the report said, Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference schools are 700 miles from Tallahassee compared to the average of 518 miles for schools in the SWAC.


Further illustrating its point, the consulting group noted the difference in budgets between the 10-team SWAC programs and the 11 schools in the MEAC.


SWAC programs average an athletic budget of $6.96 million, compared to the average of $8.6 in the MEAC.


FAMU’s athletic budget at the time the report was being prepared was $11 million.


It also recommends that FAMU consider changing conference to the SWAC, suggesting that such a move would reduce the cost of travel. The recommendations in the Collegiate Consulting Report have been mentioned by Winslow several times but never discussed publicly in detail.


Among the other recommendations are the use of an outbound ticket agent to increase revenues, increasing the number of games that football plays for guaranteed money from one to two, with basketball playing six money games.


As for staffing, the report suggested that FAMU increased its coaching staff in softball and volleyball. It also recommended that FAMU restructure its administrative staff.


“Extreme consideration” should be given to Bragg Stadium, where the football team plays, and baseball’s Moore-Kittles Field.


Significant renovations have been made at Moore-Kittles Field in the last year. However, Bragg Stadium, which was built in 1957, hasn’t been renovated since the 1980s.


Winslow said the report is very telling, although he said the reference to Bragg is obvious.


“It really is a mirror; a reflection telling us where we are in comparison to where everyone else is,” Winslow said. “It raises the question for us of where do we want to be.


“You have to look in the mirror and say this is me or this is not me or this is me. Or, you can throw away the whole thing.”


FAMU is having to undergo major Restructuring, Winslow said, because “some of the things that have been done in the past just didn’t line up,” he said.


“We are moving along and we are doing things in the best interest of the student-athletes.”


Recommendations made to FAMU in the Collegiate Consulting Report.


• Commence conversation with Division I conference such as the Southwestern Athletic Conference and other peer institutions.


• • Restructure the athletic organization to be more efficient and effective.


• Change marketing title to Associate Athletic Director for External Relations.


• Sports information deport reports to marking department.


• House grounds and transportation staff report to the senior-most maintenance position


• Volleyball operation report to Assistant Athletic Director for Marketing.


• Appoint head athletic advisor.


• Hire volleyball graduate assistant, transitioning to full-time assistant coach within three years


• Hire softball graduate assistant.


• Hire sports information graduate assistant, transitioning to full-time assistant sports information director in three years.


• Hire compliance coordinator.


• Hire athletic advisor graduate assistant.


5 CONNECT LINKEDINEMAILMORE

Read or Share this story: http://on.tdo.com/1tOVGR6