Dec. 16, 2009

It was a tough weekend for the Aggies with losses in volleyball, and men's and women's basketball. The results brought us all back down to earth. Unfortunately, having a few injuries, or playing on the road, can create challenges for teams. With that said, I am excited about the future of those programs, as well as all the other teams we have competing for us.

While those teams were on the road, our defending outdoor track and field national champions opened the indoor season with very good marks at our Reveille Invitational.

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I've been talking to some friends in SEC country, and they say we will have our hands full with Georgia at the AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl in Shreveport. The Bulldogs have several NFL draft prospects at on both offense and defense, but I know we will play hard.

I've mentioned before how important bowl games are for team development. Instead of cleaning out our lockers and taking an extended holiday break, we will have 12 practices leading to the Independence Bowl, plus the actual game. That's like having an extra spring training, which is 14 practices and a Maroon and White Game.

Ticket sales for the Independence Bowl have been terrific. We received some good news Tuesday; we sold out of our allotment of 12,000 tickets, and we sold another 1,000 acquired via consignment from Georgia. The Independence Bowl office is also sold out, but we hear Georgia has tickets remaining. Feel free to click here to purchase seats from Georgia. I don't mind trying to turn their portion of the stadium maroon. Their tickets are priced like ours were at $35 for sideline and $30 for endzone.

We have less than 12 remaining seats in our student section as of the start of business today. The bowl has set the price for these seats at $30. Students with a valid ID can buy tickets at the Kyle Field ticket office in The Zone Plaza.

The Independence Bowl will kickoff at 4 p.m. central time on Dec. 28 and will be televised by ESPN2. You can also hear the game on the Texas A&M Sports Network. Please note, due to contract restrictions, we are not able offer the radio broadcast on our website or via Sirius Satellite Radio.

Click here for more information on all things Independence Bowl.

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Our defending outdoor national champion men's and women's track teams had success in our first indoor meet of the season last Saturday at the Gilliam Indoor Track Stadium. We've already posted four marks for women which bettered the NCAA provisional standards. Overall, we had nine victories, including a 1-2-3-4 sweep in the women's 60 meters and a 1-2-3 sweep in the men's 60m hurdles.

In looking at which of our athletes scored at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field for our national championships, I'm excited we have about 90 percent of those points back. We've also added several very talented athletes to both teams, so I feel very good about our chances at the NCAA meets this season.

We will host four more indoor track meets. The next home meet will be the 16-team Texas A&M Invitational on January 16. Season tickets are available by clicking here.

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Last weekend was a big recruiting weekend for us in football. I think our fans are going to be very excited when these recruits come to play for us. Four players, which are graduating from high school early, will join us in January and will be eligible to go through spring ball. Coach Mike Sherman and his staff continue to do an outstanding job recruiting football players to College Station.

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Congratulations to coach Laurie Corbelli and our volleyball team on a terrific season. Our season ended in the NCAA Sweet 16 against our friends from the state capital last week in Omaha. I thought we really fought hard. We were playing in the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2003.

I'm disappointed the NCAA did not do a better job of spreading our league teams around the country. Instead the Omaha Regional consisted of four Big 12 teams. Among the major conferences, teams from the Big Ten, Pac 10, and SEC had their teams placed in different regions. I'm proud to say the Big 12 had a nation-leading five teams reach the Sweet 16. That speaks volumes for the strength of volleyball in our conference.

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Our final men's basketball game before the holidays will be Saturday when we host The Citadel at 8 p.m. You can purchase half-price Holiday Hoops tickets by clicking here.

Meanwhile, our next women's basketball home game is scheduled for Dec. 28 against Prairie View A&M. Due to the kickoff time for the Independence Bowl, we have changed the tip time for the women's basketball game to 8 p.m. at Reed Arena. Our women's team has won an impressive 61 of the last 66 games played at Reed Arena, including 40 consecutive non-conference home games.

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Those of you not going to Shreveport for the Independence Bowl, we have half-priced Holiday Hoops for you in College Station. See your basketball teams compete in person for half the price.

Now through January 13, tickets for all men's and women's home games are half-price. You can get a ticket to a women's game for as little as $2.50 and to the men's games for $5. No other school with two teams in the top 20 offers pricing like this. I hope you take advantage of the offer and join us at Reed Arena this holiday season. Click here to purchase.

The half-price tickets also help give us a better home court advantage while most of our students are out of town for the semester break.

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Don't forget to take advantage of the Old Army Spirit section $5 seats for home men's basketball games. That's right, $5 seats to every men's basketball home game, except Kansas and with our friends from the state capital. During the holidays, these tickets are two-for-one. This was made possible through a sponsorship by the Old Army Spirit Company on Harvey Road in College Station. Just stop by the store beginning the first business day after our last home game to purchase these special $5 seats for sections 201-203. The tickets must be picked up at the Old Army Spirit Co. store, but you can also make your purchase via their website.

We will not offer this ticketing level via our ticket office or at the Reed Arena box office.

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Our six pack ticket options for men's basketball home games are still available. There are three six packs to choose from. We have the Coke Zero Conference Six Pack, the Sprite Saturday Six Pack, and the Pick Your Six option. Click here for more information and to purchase six packs.

The six packs will likely only be offered through early next week, because individual game tickets for Big 12 games go on sale this Saturday via our website. We are expecting a couple of those games to sell out right away. In-person sales and telephone sales for individual game tickets will begin on Monday.

Plus, we are offering pro-rated pricing on season tickets for men's and women's basketball. You can get a pro-rated season ticket for the remaining women's games starting at $70. The pro-rated season ticket for the men's games starts at $200.

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Over the years, I've shared many details in this column about the dollars and sense of running a Division I athletic department.

Today, I want to talk a little bit about our business operations. We have just been through an internal audit performed by the Texas A&M University System auditors, which covered the period from September 1, 2007 through December 31, 2008. Their report will be released soon. These audits are commonplace for Athletics, Texas A&M and other state entities, all of which deal with financial aid, large contracts and external funding sources.

Most of the recommendations in the audit report cover improvements that can be made to every day processes in areas such as purchasing procedures, receivables management and cash advances for team travel. Almost any company or operation of any size that goes through an audit will receive recommendations of this sort.

The auditors also made one very serious observation. During the period under audit, they believed that we had limited monitoring of, and limited accountability for, daily financial operations. And during that time, the auditors were correct. I had come to this same conclusion in the fall of 2008 and had begun taking steps to change the leadership of our Business Office and to expand and strengthen the staff to address this weakness. These changes are complete, and I am confident that our business operations are being conducted effectively and efficiently today. Many of the other audit recommendations have already been implemented, and the others will be in place shortly.

Overall, in spite of the hardships imposed on our fans by the economy, the financial picture for the athletic department is healthy. We have begun repaying the $16 million loan from the University and intend to adhere to its terms.

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We learned recently that our State Farm Lone Star Showdown football game this past Thanksgiving Night was the most viewed Thursday night college football game in ESPN history. ESPN says the game was seen in 4,220,000 households and by 6,691,000 viewers, based on a 4.3 rating.

When I first arrived here, one of the things I heard most from fans was the desire to move our football game back to Thanksgiving Night. We worked with our Big 12 television partners to make it a reality, and I hope our fans enjoyed having the game back on Thanksgiving.

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Here are two last-minute gift giving ideas.

Throughout the year we receive many requests to purchase our used football helmets. For the first time in several years, we have some to offer to the general public. You can purchase a used maroon Texas A&M football helmet for $375 by clicking here. We have a limited supply. When the allotment is sold out, the sale will end.

Our Bonfire documentary DVD entitled, "The Burning Desire," continues to receive rave reviews. This documentary brings everything into perspective about our history and traditions, and why Bonfire was such a large part of our school's history. You can order your copy now by clicking here. You can also purchase the DVD at the MSC Bookstore located at G. Rollie White Coliseum, and at all Aggie Locker locations.

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School is shutting down here for the holidays, and we will be back with this column when school resumes in January.

Have a wonderful holiday season, a partridge in your pear tree, and a Happy New Year!