Now Baylor's Anxious

[dweller]

In the Austin American Statesman about how concerned he is to maintain Texas traditions in football . . . now.

Read all about it ! !
http://www.statesman.com/opinion/dont-destroy-big-12-and-its-texas-rivalries-1747982.html

Don't destroy Big 12 and its Texas rivalries
Ken Starr, Special Contributor

When I assumed the presidency of Baylor University 14 months ago, I never would have guessed that one of the most significant challenges we would face as an institution would be the future health and unity of the Big 12 Conference.

. . .

Baylor, Texas and Texas A&M have been competing against one another for more than a century, while Texas Tech has been facing these foes for more than 80 years. Frankly, I can't imagine having a Baylor home football game without a Midnight Yell or an A&M game without the pageantry of the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band marching at halftime.

This is typical Baylor hypocracy. That is why I hope the big 12-3 implodes soon and The hypocrits will get a chance enjoy what we went through when the SWC blew up and nobody was worried about tradtion.
I guess the tradition Starr is refering to is the tradition of Baylor riding UT's coattails.

 

[jack the frog]

Baylor has been a running joke for awhile now. Hell, even most baylor people I know would not argue that, but this recent stuff is really something else. Cowardice, [Craig James]-kissing, sycophant, pathological, delusional. Never seen anything quite like these guys.

 

[Frognosticator]

I hope Gil Lebreton writes something about this hypocrisy tomorrow.

 

[jstrat]

To take millions they don't deserve.

And yet schools like TCU, SMU, and U of H have been able to make great improvements in their football stadiums yet the Bears have nothing to show for their money. It's a school run by incompetent morons.

 

[Mike Brooks]

Tech was/is our fat ugly sister. Baylor is/was our emaciated gay brother. Our parents figured we (us, smu, rice) could make it on our own if forced to. UH? They just wanted out. But they knew BU and TT would flounder completely if removed from the [ teat ]. Fat ugly sister has fared fairly well. Gay brother... Not so much.

 

[ftwfrog]

None of those clowns cared about it in the mid-90's. To hell with them, the sorry lot that they are.

This!!! This!!! This!!! This!!! This!!!

 

[toadallytexan]

Houston 1950-1995
SMU 1916-1995
Rice 1914-1995
TCU 1899-1995

RIP TRADITION!!

Damn you, no, God Damn you, Baylor!! Pulling the tradition card now that you're about to be forgotten like yesterdays news?

That's pretty rich.

Earn a place at the table like we did, you parasites.

Baylor and ATM...108 games this year.
Baylor and TCU...107 games this year despite NOT being in the same conference since 1995. Sixteen years ago we would have had the most number of games played of any rival.
Back then if w'de turn to Waco for support and appeal to tradition...crickets.
But now it's a critical factor. Bigtime Jaw Dislocation Case on the Brazos...Bear Talking out of Both Sides of Mouth Disease...call Center for Disease Control.

 

[gohornedfrogs]

I'm laughing at their desperation and hypocrisy, but the reality is, we need the Big 12 to stay together...preferably with aTm in it. Knowing that they will all be in a perpetual state of misery while submitting to UT's will is well worth it.

I shudder to consider a future gathering of my fellow university presidents during which conversations about the disappearance of our historic rivalries lead us to ask what we were thinking back in 2011 when we let something so valuable slip away. -- Ken Starr

Do they ever discuss what they were thinking when they destroyed 82 years of historic, valuable rivalries with SMU, Houston, Rice and TCU back in 1994?

 

[Deep Purple]

Frankly, I can't imagine having a Baylor home football game without a Midnight Yell or an A&M game without the pageantry of the Fightin' Texas Aggie Band marching at halftime.

Wow. Talk about totally prostituting yourself. They have no shame in Waco.

 

[Deep Purple]

Their last audited financial statements indicate they were in very good shape at the end of May 2010. The next set of audited financials will probably be available within a month or so.

When Sloan left Baylor in 2005, he left them with around $320 million in long-term debt on university bonds issued to cover rampant construction not underwritten by fundraising. He also left Baylor with a downgraded bond rating for financially over-extending themselves. I'm not too swift at reading financial statements, but if I read the Liabilities column correctly, in the last 6 years, Baylor has whittled that debt all the way down to $317.3 million. Boy, when it comes to liquidity, that debt service can be a real "bear," can't it? (Yes, pun intended.)

If I read this wrong, someone with better financial wits than me, please correct.

 

[asleep003]

The last person I want to hear from about anything, is Kenneth Starr.... no matter which side of the fence he's on !

 

[FrogAbroad]

When Sloan left Baylor in 2005, he left them with around $320 million in long-term debt on university bonds issued to cover rampant construction not underwritten by fundraising. He also left Baylor with a downgraded bond rating for financially over-extending themselves. I'm not too swift at reading financial statements, but if I read the Liabilities column correctly, in the last 6 years, Baylor has whittled that debt all the way down to $317.3 million. Boy, when it comes to liquidity, that debt service can be a real "bear," can't it? (Yes, pun intended.)

If I read this wrong, someone with better financial wits than me, please correct.

I know zilch about the history of BU's indebtedness, but your reading of the financials seems accurate.

Their notes and bonds payable have varying maturities, some are interest-bearing and some are not. A significant portion (about a third) are not scheduled for principal reduction until 2019 and later. But currently debt service takes about $18 million or so of their cash flow, roughly $13 million for interest and $5 million for debt retirement.

Revenues from intercollegiate athletics was $22 million in 2010, but there's no line item that states the program expenses. This could be an area of vulnerability if revenues were to drop significantly and quickly, but it's a vulnerability shared by all universities to some degree or another. Their revenue exceeds expenses by about $27 million so they have a decent cushion, it would seem.

 

[Frog89]

I know zilch about the history of BU's indebtedness, but your reading of the financials seems accurate.

Their notes and bonds payable have varying maturities, some are interest-bearing and some are not. A significant portion (about a third) are not scheduled for principal reduction until 2019 and later. But currently debt service takes about $18 million or so of their cash flow, roughly $13 million for interest and $5 million for debt retirement.

Revenues from intercollegiate athletics was $22 million in 2010, but there's no line item that states the program expenses. This could be an area of vulnerability if revenues were to drop significantly and quickly, but it's a vulnerability shared by all universities to some degree or another. Their revenue exceeds expenses by about $27 million so they have a decent cushion, it would seem.

Money probably won't be a problem between the Baptist church and the $680M Uncle Drayton is about to have from his sale of the Astros. But that still doesn't guarantee them a soft landing if the Big XII breaks up. Somebody still has to want Baylor in their BCS conference.

 

[An-Cap Frog]

You can't spell butt, without BU and TT!

 

[froginaustin]

Money probably won't be a problem between the Baptist church and the $680M Uncle Drayton is about to have from his sale of the Astros. But that still doesn't guarantee them a soft landing if the Big XII breaks up. Somebody still has to want Baylor in their BCS conference.

Reading bf.com, it appears that Uncle Drayton was denied an anticipated chairmanship of their board of regents during a purge carried on by then-president Sloan and his partisans, and he left in a huff. Since he left, he has publicly given more money to Mary Hardin-Baylor than to Baylor University, and quite a bit more money to M.D. Anderson than to either. While there is speculation on that board that Drayton will build them a new football house, there is also speculation that his big money gift(s) will go elsewhere.

The Baptist General Convention is also being squeezed out of the Baylor BOR, or so it seems from posts on bf.com, mainly the "religion & politics" board.

Their "religion & politics" board is full of threads where posters (some of them claiming to be, and likely are, BU faculty members) tear into each other over BU academic politics and BU financial questions. Some of the posts are entertaining; some astonishing. Quite a few are just dull, but that's what a scroll feature is for.

Jeez I'm glad that neither TCU nor any of the other universities I care about are in Baylor's shoes, financially, academically or athleticly (although I do admire their women's bball program).

 

[frogbyproxy]

My favorite readings the last few days has been about conference USA taking the left overs of the big 12-2. There have been about 10 articles and if you add bleacher reports the numbers go up.

 

[HoustonHornedFrog]

The way Baylor plays with the numbers I wouldn't put much faith in their audit. Remember this is the school that payed freshmen to retake the SAT so they could use the higher scores to boost their SAT average.

I know you guys love to take shots at Baylor, and they certainly deserve it here, but the point of an Independent Audit is that someone else looks at the books. It isn't Baylor's audit. So unless the Baylor accountants are really good at being crooked, or they have paid off Deloitte & Touche (one of the big 4 accounting firms) to lie about their audit results, Baylor isn't on the verge of being bankrupt.

 

[Opintel]

You can't spell butt, without BU and TT!

Very nice. :tongue:

 

[mtmedlin]

So if they came, on bended knee and kissed the Frog ring of supremacy in a ritual of self deprication, announce to the world that they were and are tools, shout from the rafters that they arent worthy and they forever will be the Frogs [Rod Gilmore], would TCU allow them into the Big East?

 

[Frog89]

So if they came, on bended knee and kissed the Frog ring of supremacy in a ritual of self deprication, announce to the world that they were and are tools, shout from the rafters that they arent worthy and they forever will be the Frogs [Rod Gilmore], would TCU allow them into the Big East?

Getting TCU's input is probably not necessary for the Big East to see what a sponge they've been to the Big XII. Just look at the results compared to the money they've taken from the conference. That would make it a pretty easy decision for everyone, hopefully.