This is the third in a three part series of an exclusive conversation with Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour. You can read the first two stories here and here.
Penn State athletic director Sandy Barbour has a lot on her plate. Balancing the department’s financials, finding the resources to run a 31 team athletic program and continue to keep the ship above water.
She also has to work with James Franklin.
While there is nothing about Franklin that makes him inherently a bad counterpart, a head football coach and an athletic director might not always see things eye to eye. Their priorities are similar in many cases, but an athletic director has to look at the big picture, a football coach has to focus on his program.
So being able to cultivate a relationship where both are on the same page isn’t an automatic.
Talking inside her office earlier this week, Barbour dished out how she and Franklin work together, and how he is a little different than other coaches she has worked with.
“I think we’re very much on the same page,” Barbour said. “I think we’re two different people whose values and wants and desires mesh very well and I’m seven months into this and we’ve had a lot of interaction. I wouldn’t said on a daily basis but close to it during the football season.”
“They’re off recruiting and are gone and the last three weeks or so I’ve been immersed in our two basketball teams’ conference tournaments. But we communicate and talk by phone or text or whenever we need to. I just got back in town late Monday night but I’m looking to getting over to spring practice here so we’ll certainly pick that back up.”
The biggest aspect of their relationship in the immediate future is the ability to appeal to both of their needs. Barbour has to ensure the stability of the department, Franklin has to figure out ways to make the program relevant in the college football arm’s race.
It’s a balance that isn’t easily defined. And sometimes it means saying no to Penn State’s $4 million dollar man.
“We’ve got limited dollars,” Barbour noted. “Now saying that we’ve got more than a lot of people, but it’s not a limitless pot. So how do we make sure that we’re being really really smart and being good stewards for our resources. Whether they’re created by ticket sales or created by TV dollars or philanthropy. We need to be great stewards to our resources and I think James is really good at that. And he does see that and he’s not looking for a blank checkbook.”
Even so, there is an understanding that money has to be spent. Penn State can’t be a top college football program on middle of the road spending. Right or wrong in a larger list of the world’s priority. Winning costs money. That’s something Barbour understandings. The key is just spending money on the right things, and not spending it just to spend.
“We’re in a highly, highly completive environment and there is some of that unlimited checkbook with some of our competitors, but this is Penn State. But maybe because of who we are, and because of our reputation and our quality of our academics that we offer, that we don’t have to do it the exact same way as somebody else. Maybe that somebody else is that all they have is a high tech really nice locker. But we’re gonna have a really nice locker room but we also have a world class education to offer and a tradition and a fan base that is second to none and all those things add up.”
“I feel that James is very comfortable knowing that he has got an advocate in me and not only a personal advocate for him but the football program and it’s success. He’s charged with taking a look at the football program and plotting a course for success of the football program and I’m charged with taking a look at that even bigger picture. So that’s what I bring to our relationship and I’ve got to inject that bigger picture sometimes although I’ve got to say he is probably one of a very small of football coaches I’ve dealt with in 35 years who does have a bit of a wider angle lens.”
“Are we making the investments needed to be successful, and admittedly, yes we have to pay attention to the arms race. Because to the degree that the arms race allows us to recruit we’ve got to stay in that game. But I also think that there are things that we have as a university that you can’t put a price tag on.”
But the challenge still exists, finding the place where Penn State can feel confident about spending money but not feeling like the athletic department has to lead the way in spending to lead the way no the field.
All of that comes back to the biggest theme of a half hour long conversation with Barbour. The money is the tool used to improve the experience of a student athlete. So if Penn State feels like athletes are getting the most out of their time in Happy Valley, then spending more money won’t automatically make it any better.
“I think the sweet spot is student athlete experience,” Barbour said. “What is it that our investment allows them or creates for their experience here. So as it relates to make investments in our facilities; what gives them the best opportunities to train, the best opportunity to study and learn, the best opportunity from a nutritional standpoint. We keep talking about the unlimited meals, to me that sounds like a 24 hour all you can eat, drive up unlimited buffet. That was never the intention of that rule, the rule was for us to be able to provide all the proper nutrition without being weighed down by all the ticky-tac rules about whether or not you can put cream cheese on a bagel.”
“So it’s about nutrition, access to academic support. It’s about creating facilities that are the wisest use of our student athlete’s time. Do our facilities make sense from a flow standpoint so we don’t have students going to one place to eat and one faculties to lift weights and another to do academics. So that is how we invest resources to better their experience. I do think that the impact on student athlete on student athlete experience is that sweet spot.”
It all sounds good on paper, but like all plans, only time will tell how successful it truly is.
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