 | | Athletic director Ian McCaw will join us for an online chat Oct. 22. |
Chat With Athletic Director Ian McCaw
New AD joined us for an online chat on Oct. 22. Welcome to BaylorBears.com and OCSN.com's online chat, where Baylor athletic director Ian McCaw joined us on Wednesday, Oct. 22. McCaw is Baylor's ninth athletic director and comes to Baylor from the University of Massachusetts, where he spent the previous year as director of athletics. McCaw was responsible for a 23-sport program and helped develop and implement a five-year strategic plan for UMass athletics aimed at enhancing equity, diversity, compliance and facility improvements. McCaw came to UMass from Northeastern University, where he served as director of intercollegiate athletics and campus recreation from 1997-2002. During his five years at Northeastern, the athletic department benefited from McCaw's reorganization and the recruitment of several new key members to the Huskies' staff. McCaw went to Northeastern from Tulane University, where he served as senior associate athletic director for development and associate athletic director for external affairs from 1992-1997, being named Tulane's co-interim director of athletics in 1996. Prior to his years at Tulane, McCaw worked with virtually every aspect of athletic administration at the University of Maine from 1986 to 1992. He progressed to the roles of assistant sports information director (1986-1987), sports information director (1988-1990), assistant athletic director for external affairs (1990-1991) and associate athletic director for external affairs (1991-1992). |
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 |  | Ian McCaw: Looking forward to spending some time here and answering your questions about Baylor athletics. Let's go! |
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| Josh Passauer, Washington D.C.: I was wondering what your thoughts are about bringing the football facilities on campus. It has been rumored that you and Guy Morris are in a disagreement over this situation. |
| | Ian McCaw: Thanks for your question. The University is currently studying a concept presented by Coach Morriss to relocate our football training facilities to the campus. This idea makes very good sense in that it will bring the football program closer to the campus community and in particular the student body. In addition, it will eliminate the commuting challenges that student-athletes currently face. As with other building projects, it will be critical for us to raise private support in order to fund this initiative. Once again, thanks for your question and strong support of Baylor Athletics! |
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| George (Dallas): I am interested in your vision for growing Baylor's financial support beyond alumni and area residents. How will you implement your plan to market Baylor as the Christian university equivalent to Notre Dame as the Catholic university? |
| | Ian McCaw: It is critical that we fully develop each of our revenue streams including fundraising, corporate sponsorship, ticket sales, licensing, merchandising and broadcast properties. Clearly, there are many factors that contribute in a positive way to enhancing these revenues including competitive success, creative strategies and a great deal of hard work on the part of our staff. At the same time, we look forward to advancing our vision of positioning Baylor as the preeminent Baptist, Protestant, Christian athletic program in America and garner the same appeal among the greater Christian community that Notre Dame is afforded among the Catholic community. We want Baptist and Christian children to grow up dreaming of attending and competing for Baylor University. |
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| Steven Mackenzie (Dallas): In time I know that you will develop a strategic plan/vision for the athletic department; however in the short time that you have been here, what would you identify as your top 3 to 5 priorties that you would like to acomplish. |
| | Ian McCaw: I appreciate your excellent question. The athletic department will be developing a strategic plan over the course of the year encompassing our aspiration, mission, vision, values, goals and action items. All of our priorities will be addressed within the context of the strategic plan. Areas that we will target immediately include reviewing our compliance model and staffing levels, assessing our personnel needs and updating our athletics facilities master plan. In addition, I look forward to working with our head coaches on the needs in each of their programs as well as meeting our alumni and friends who have been so generous in their support of Baylor Athletics. Thanks for the great question. |
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| Dean (DeSoto): Please describe your management style. Are you going to be involved in the hiring of assistant coaches or do you leave that totally up to the head coach of each sport? Can BU afford to take risks in our hirings, like with Coach Tang? |
| | Ian McCaw: Those who have worked with me would describe me as a delegator by nature. However, we don?t just delegate responsibilities, we delegate results. I believe in recruiting and retaining the very best possible staff members, affording them the resources necessary to achieve success and motivating them to achieve the desired goals. We are fortunate to have some outstanding coaches, administrative and support staff at Baylor. Regarding Coach Tang, everything that I have come to learn about him is that he is an outstanding person and coach. Coach Tang is committed to completing his degree at Baylor University and the testimonials that we have received from families of the students he has coached in the past suggest that he is a person of outstanding character, faith and integrity. Thank you for your question and support! |
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| Lewis,Albuquerque, N Mex: Ian, what do you plan to do to regain respectabilty to the sports programs at Baylor and also make us more competitive in sports such as football and basketball? Thanks and good luck in your new position. |
| | Ian McCaw: Baylor is very fortunate to have the strong leadership of Coach Morriss and Coach Drew in these two programs. I have had the opportunity to meet with both coaches and discuss their needs and our goals for football and basketball programs at Baylor. My role is to facilitate their success by way of providing the support and resources necessary to achieve success in the Big 12 and nationally in each of these programs. Clearly, there is much work to do on the part of all of us; however, with the continued support of Baylor fans and the University, I am confident that we will produce the winning programs that Baylor alumni and friends desire. Thank you for your good wishes. |
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| Steve (San Jose, CA): Ian,thank you for coming to Baylor. I believe you will do a wonderful job and that better days are coming for all of Baylor athletics. Question: How do you see the recovery cycle for Men's Basketball? |
| | Ian McCaw: Thank you for the generous comments. In my view, we are well on the road to recovery in men?s basketball. Coach Drew has hired an outstanding staff that has already made a tremendous impact on the student-athletes in the program. Moreover, the coaches are much further along from a recruiting standpoint that any of us could realistically expect. Clearly, our numbers and talent level leave us behind the curve in the Big 12 at this point, however, based upon Coach Drew?s track record within a couple of years we should expect to become a very competitive program in perhaps the premiere conference in the nation. We appreciate your support of Baylor Athletics! |
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| John Ferrell: I would like to see the football team schedule games against the military academies. I think I would like to see the men in action in training to defend our country. Also, how about green helmets with a gold interlocking BU? |
| | Ian McCaw: We are beginning to build our future non-conference football schedules. We are very interested in games against high quality academic institutions similar to Baylor and certainly the military academies would fit the criteria. Regarding the helmets, in my view, the current Baylor helmets with the interlocking green BU on gold are very attractive and distinctive. Thanks for your comment and question. |
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| jon (knoxville): Welcome to the Baylor family! My question is short but I realize the answer is comparable to asking a child what he/she wants for Christmas. What is next for the Athletic Dept. at Baylor? Any new sports on the horizon? |
| | Ian McCaw: Thank you for the kind words of welcome. Our family has thoroughly enjoyed our introduction to Waco and Baylor. We feel very fortunate to have the opportunity to serve this outstanding institution. At this time, we do not have a firm commitment to add any intercollegiate sport programs. However, we will be reviewing this issue within the context of the aforementioned strategic plan. My sense is that it is possible that a women?s sport will be added at a future date. Best wishes and thank you for the question. |
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| Matt Richards (Keller, TX): Congrats on a huge win against Colorado in your first game as AD. From a marketing standpoint, how does that win effect your football marketing strategy and what practical setps have you take to better market the Baylor Football team? |
| | Ian McCaw: The Colorado win was certainly a highlight and affords us an opportunity to build enthusiasm and fan support. Our first marketing priority is to build the student fan base. They afford us great enthusiasm and excitement and we need both in higher quantities at our home football games. We will also work hard to attract our alumni and the greater Waco community through aggressive sales, promotions and value-added marketing opportunities. As the program becomes more successful under Coach Morriss? leadership along with enhanced outreach efforts, we will look forward to tremendous fan support and a huge home field advantage at Floyd Casey Stadium. |
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| Rufus Watkins Class 1987: Dear Director McCaw: What do think about this year's football season? Do you get the opportunity to chat with Coach Morriss? What kind of improvements to the athletic facilities do you think, Baylor should have. |
| | Ian McCaw: We are in a rebuilding program in football and I am very encouraged by everything that I have observed about Coach Morriss and his staff. Clearly, recruiting is a priority at this point in the evolution of the program and from all accounts this coaching staff has been well received by Texas high school coaches, prospective student-athletes and parents. We are developing an athletics facilities master plan that will identify the needs that Baylor will have as we move towards 2012. Many outstanding facilities are already in place. As we complete the remaining project, the Baylor community can look forward to having a comprehensive set of outstanding athletics facilities that will rival the best programs in the Big 12 and nation. |
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| James (Waco): How confident do you feel about our athletic media relations department, and the wonderful job they are known for? |
| | Ian McCaw: James, Thanks for the question. We have recently hired Nick Joos as Associate Athletic Director for Media Relations who will lead this area. Interacting with the media and developing open and honest relationships with the media who cover Baylor Athletics is a high priority for us. We appreciate your support! |
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| Jim (Dallas): In the Waco Trib Q&A, you were vague about the timetable for facility improvements at FCS, the on-campus practice facility and the indoor tennis center? How soon can we have these completed and where are we in terms of fundraising? |
| | Ian McCaw: Jim, We are in the process of developing an athletics master plan that includes all of the athletic facilities projects that we intend to pursue as we move towards 2012. As we develop this plan, we will develop a proposed timeline, cost estimates and fundraising requirements for each project. Thanks for your question and support! |
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| Matt (Waco): Does the Athletic Department plan to do anything about the lack of Baylor merchandise outside Waco? I know merchandising doesn't fall squarely under the AD, but I believe it is important in marketing Baylor athletics. Thanks |
| | Ian McCaw: Matt, Thanks for your observation and question. Baylor has a relationship with Collegiate Licensing Company to manage its licensing relationship. We intend to work with University officials and local retail establishments on a "retailers program" to offer incentives to merchants for carrying Baylor merchandise. Based upon my preliminary observations, I agree that there is room for improvement in this regard. Matt, thanks for your support! |
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| Jim (Dallas): I've noticed a lot of programs have designated websites for their coaches...MackBrown.com, etc. Why haven't we done that for Coach Morriss, Drew, Mulkey & Smith? |
| | Ian McCaw: Right now, we do not have separate websites for each coach because we feel that BaylorBears.com covers everything you might find on a coach's website. We do have most of our coaches' names reserved as URLs for their use; for example, CoachSteveSmith.com links directly to the baseball page at BaylorBears.com. However, separate coaches' sites is an idea we can look at. |
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| James (Dallas): Please take control of our image, meaning the myriad of ridculous logos that we have in the media and in the public. Please seriously consider a return to the classic BU and similar Bear logos. The "Fuzzy" logos and the cartoonish bears must go. |
| | Ian McCaw: James, As you may know, the University has developed a new identity system and graphic standards manual. The "fuzzy bear" is no longer permissable to utilize. We will use the classy looking Baylor script and the interlocking BU most heavily. You can expect to see less usage of bear graphics in our publications and other materials. I appreciate your comments. |
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| Jim (Dallas): Did you have any input to the decision to ditch our tradition of having a bear at the football games? Also, if we have to abide by that rule at home, shouldn't our visitors? |
| | Ian McCaw: Jim, The decision regarding no longer having the Baylor Bears at football games preceeded my appointment. I am interested in revisiting this situation and working with the appropriate parties to determine if arrangements can be made to afford a suitable environment for the Bears at the stadium and attempt to renew this tradition. Thank you for the question. |
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| | Ian McCaw: Thank you for visiting with us during today's chat. Also, I deeply appreciate the warm welcome that our family has received from the Waco and Baylor communities. In the coming days, we will begin regularly posting a letter from the athletic director on BaylorBears.com highlighting important developments in Baylor Athletics. In addition, we will be creating a link for feedback from Baylor fans. We want to hear from you regarding your ideas and comments about Baylor Athletics. Thanks again for your strong support of Baylor Athletics! |
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