Much to Read

I didn't begin to read blogs until the beginning of this year, but I continue to find new and informative ones on a daily basis. I find some blogs more informative than reading the newspapers. Many bloggers spend way too much time to keep theirs up to date with daily information. Today I stumbled upon a couple of different college football sites with links to more local university blogs. I found the following interesting. http://badgercentric.blogspot.com/search/label/john%20chadima.

Prior to 1990, the University of Wisconsin Athletic Department was on hard times. The football program was unable to fill it's 76,000+ stadium unless it was for a border game with Minnesota or Iowa. The basketball team continued its mediocrity and the Olympic Sports weren't excelling. Times were so tough the department decided to drop baseball. Then the President of the University became involved and put the right people in place to build the program up again. In less than 15 years the Badgers won three Rose Bowls, attended a couple of Final Fours and numerous other honors ensued.

Jamie Pollard is now the AD at Iowa State. As a Hawkeye fan and a long-time resident of the State of Iowa, I was not a fan of how he treated the price per ticket for the 2007 Iowa - Iowa State football game. But I do respect the job he has done in Ames. In 2006, coming off a year where the Cyclones won the Cy-Hawk trophy, he purchased a popular billboard in Cedar Rapids claiming victory. Then in 2007 he increased the price of the game ticket for the annual football showdown in Ames from $50 to $95 and the only way you could gain entrance for that game was to buy a season ticket. Following the 2006 season, he fired popular head football coach Dan McCarney and replaced him with the Defensive Coordinator at Auburn and Texas, Gene Chizek.

Pollard is trying to make Cyclone backers proud of the program again and inject it with enthusiasm needed to contend in the Hawkeye State. He has worked hard and I admire him for making some very difficult decisions for the best of the Iowa State program. Although I admire him doesn't mean I like him.

The linked article is from February, but worth reading.