CASE 3 - ISU Athletics’ New Turf, New Field, & New Stadium

Ribbon cutting ceremony at the new ICCU Community Field

ISU Athletics has had its ups and downs throughout the years however the recent history of facility improvement has raised astronomically under the direction of Athletic Director Jeff Tingey. While Tingey have been at the helm there have been several large contribution and enhancement to the ISU athletics has is shown in Figure 2. When asked about all the upgrades by the ISJ Tingey stated that “Everyone knows that facilities, in many cases, are what attract recruits to a school[13].”

Figure 2

Enhancement or Addition	Year Added
Video Board in Holt Arena	2009
ICCU Basketball Courts	2011
ISU Credit Union Football Field	2011
Miller Ranch Stadium	2012
ICCU Practice Field	2013

Though the possibilities of having better facilities is important ISU athletics was plagued by bad Academic Progress Reports APR scores which is how the sanctioning body National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) measures if a sports team is worthy of competition.  Tingey commented that these bad APR scores, “really hurt the demeanor and the way the programs are looked at from the outside and the inside.” With possible suspension looming Tingey reminded the university that student-athletes are “students first and athletes second.” He and his staff worked together to change the face of ISU Athletics

Idaho State University
Athletic Director - Jeff Tingey

In order for physical changes to occur at ISU athletics changes needed to occur in the classroom amongst struggling teams. Through the selection of new head football and Men’s basketball coach’s athletics has not only improved on the field but off the field as well. In regards toward recruiting Tingey said, “We learned [good recruiting] a little bit through trial and error of what some of the best practices are with standards for recruiting, both academic standards and athletic standards.” He continued by adding, “Too often those academic standards are overlooked, and we needed to change those standards.”  Under Tingey the APR  scores were raised and allowed for ISU to have more of the community support which helped provide the funding for the facilities. At the ceremony for the ICCU practice field Major Blad stated, “This is huge for the University, something like this is going to help to get people here.”

       

When comparing the coverage of the two news medias' there was an equal amount of coverage however the ISJ gave a good spin to the article and gave high praise of ISU athletics. Without much of a difference between the two media Kalee Kopp, Director of Marketing and Promotions for ISU Athletics was asked if there had been a difference in opinion of students from the improvements she said:

       

I think overall students are happy with the changes to campus but even with the changes the majority of what I hear is the complaints...sadly. For instance "Did you see the new field outside of Holt Arena, it’s nice but too bad Holt Arena is a piece of crap." Everything they are saying is a huge contradiction.

I know for a fact that having better facilities and showing improvements on campus shows the students, faculty, staff and even community members that we are making strides to not only improve their education but also improve their experience. Aesthetics play a huge part in recruitment. Plus, it gives people an idea that change and growth is possible.

Conclusion:

The changes and improvements to the ISU Athletics facilities have been guided by the improvement in academics of ISU student-athletes. These improvements have led to greater Pocatello community support through adding in and donating to the enhancement of facilities. These improvements have not only attached better and smarter student-athletes to ISU but have improved the image of ISU athletics. Student opinion has been touched by these changes but has not changed student opinion.