Folks:
Here is the transcript of the interview I did with Jon on Saturday. It is very long so I'm dividing it up into four parts...each part dealing with a specific issue. Here is part 1 talking about the possible future for the Big Sky Conference men's and women's post season basketball tournaments:
ML: Jon we’re being told that the conference is supposed to decide by early March on the future of the post season tournaments for men’s and women’s basketball. Can you update us on where things stand right now?
JK: “We’ve gotten bids in from seven cities and there was a conference call on Friday where the committee that we put together reviewed them, kind of went through them to see what the next step is. We’ll be taking some site visits to at least some of the cities that have submitted bids, once we get through with that then I think we’ll be closer to having our decision. Our plan is to have a decision made by the time we have this year’s post season tournament in March.”
ML: You mention a committee Jon; can you tell us who is on it?
JK: “There are school presidents, there’s a faculty athletic representative, there are athletic directors and there are senior women’s administrators. I think the three things they are looking at are… what were the bids from the cities; the presidents are most concerned about the costs. Athletic directors are also concerned about the costs and the travel costs and coaches are worried about neutrality. So that’s basically the three areas that we’re looking at in trying to decide where we’d have it and if the men’s and women’s tournaments would be at the same place.”
ML: It goes to the school president’s for a final vote correct?
JK: “Yes and they can say, ‘you know what, we don’t like any of these so we’ll just leave it the way it is’ and everyone knows that Commissioner Fullerton is a big proponent of the way we do it now, however the costs of travel has become a major issue because you just can’t plan ahead of time. You look at Idaho State and last year they had to bus from Pocatello, Idaho to Grand Forks, North Dakota and those are things that just aren’t good for the student-athlete or the competitive nature of the tournament.”
ML: Well I know your associate at the conference office, Ron Loghry, was quoted in the Billings, Montana newspaper as saying that in some cases schools are spending 30 to 40 thousand dollars to try to get someplace as well as having to feed teams and get hotel rooms.
JK: “Absolutely, and it’s not just the hotels being an issue but when you talk about sending basketball teams to Missoula, Bozeman or Grand Forks on a week’s notice, they only have 50 seat jets to get into those cities and finding 20-25 seats for one team is difficult enough on a week’s notice but trying to find seats for eight teams to get there that can be very difficult.”
ML: Well I know Sacramento State ran into that problem last year at the women’s tournament in North Dakota. They were eliminated the first day Thursday and I was told by Andrew Tomsky, their sports information person that some of the team members couldn’t get out until Sunday.
JK: “Yes and that’s part of the problem of what we do. That’s one of the reasons that the athletic directors and coaches want us to take a look at a predetermined site.
ML: When the presidents’ vote Jon, for any kind of a decision, does it take a simple majority to pass the recommendation, or is it a two-thirds majority or a unanimous vote?
JK: “It’s not necessarily a unanimous vote; I think its two-thirds so it will be interesting to see what happens because obviously they are very concerned about the cost. This is something we haven’t done in a long time and there’s a concern about ticket sales. You know one of the good things when the tournaments were held in Pocatello or Missoula, you got good teams playing in those cities and the fans are interested and they come out. Are we going to get people to travel to Reno or Billings? Don’t know."
PBP
