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Dr. R. Bowen Loftin honored to receive distinguished alumnus award

May 7, 2020
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Key notes from R. Bowen Loftin interview

  • Being back home is awesome. We were gone for about five years, which was far too long. We're so happy to be back, but we are missing Aggie baseball and softball dearly.
     
  • It's been tough not being able to shake hands and hug people around here because that is what I love to do. I've been on meetings on Zoom and still consulting the United States Army on a few projects. I am also pondering writing a second edition of the 100 Year Decision. There were some constraints with the book. There was some legal and ethical tape that we had to work around, mainly in that Missouri was a part of the decision as well. There were a few things I couldn't talk about since I wrote the book back when I was still the acting president at A&M and Missouri.
     
  • As a member of the vulnerable population, I have to ask if we are balancing this correctly. Shutting down the country has its effect on people's health, not just in sports. I think some serious questions need to be answered, and those will be coming to a head soon.
     
  • I am not an expert by any means, but I think about the damage being done right now to our student-athletes. What are we saying to them about all of this, to the ones missing their seasons?
     
  • It's hard to replace the fan bases and the crowds because not being able to perform in front of a crowd is a massive blow to students-athletes. Athletes feed off of the fans and go as far as they do because of that support they get.
     
  • Opening back up will take a lot of work from everyone. There are so many players to handle, each conference’s leadership, the NCAA to deal with, and individual cities and states that will be making different decisions. Most are under the control of the politicians, so you might not be able to play in New York, but you might in other states like Texas. There will be a lot to figure out for sports to come back from a logistical standpoint.
     
  • Ross Bjork is someone I have watched for a while. When I went looking for an athletic director while I was the president at Missouri, Ross Bjork was on my shortlist of candidates. I thought he had a lot of the right qualities to be a great athletic director.
     
  • I have made many friends in coaching, and looking now at the coaches we have brought in, we have made some outstanding hires.
     
  • I was not prepared for the season Buzz had in basketball. I wasn't expecting much too early on, but he showed us what he is going to be doing year in and year out on the court for A&M as the head coach, and that gets me excited.
     
  • Ross's leadership has been great. But here's the problem for most: Athletic directors don't need to be out in front of everything. They are typically behind the scenes and out of the public eye making decisions, but he has stepped out a few times and talked to the media. He has done so at the proper times to convey that we are currently stable amidst everything. He has been the right person to champion this effort. We need that kind of quiet, steady leadership now more than ever before.
     
  • We could spend an entire episode on the recent issues in NCAA and name, image, likeness concerns. I'm very worried about the image and likeness rules that are being made right now by the NCAA. How many players will be able to sell their likeness? Probably only around five or ten percent. How does this play out in a locker room when a vast majority of players aren't earning off their likeness? It is a very different situation at the professional levels where everyone earns a paycheck. There is a different dynamic in college locker rooms. Looking beyond football, how many athletes that run track or play softball or tennis will have the opportunities to earn from their likeness? Very few will be able to take advantage. It could create a rift in the system for sure.
     
  • I am humbled so much to have been able to be the president of this university and continue to be talked about in such high regard. Earl Rudder was my president when I was in school, and I never dreamed of going up to President Rudder and asking for a selfie. He was not a very approachable president, and I didn't want to be that way whenever I became president. I wanted to be active in talking to students and being a big part of their collegiate years as someone they could talk to. I wouldn't trade the time I had at Texas A&M for anything in the world.
     
  • It means a great deal to me to be recognized as a distinguished alumnus. It was a very unexpected thing to hear at the time, and it was amazing to be acknowledged. I know every single person that has been honored on that list of distinguished alumni, so it means a lot to me to be in the same company as people that I hold in such high regard.
     
  • We had three reasons to move to the SEC. The first was visibility. We have the visibility that we have never had before, and it has made A&M a global brand. Secondly, we wanted to create avenues for students to realize their dreams and have the opportunities to have their degrees take them wherever they wanted to go. The third reason was all about money, and that has worked out for us. The media market hasn't been too kind over the years, but they have begun to recognize that this decision to move to the SEC has paid off in dividends.
     
  • Mike Slive and I talked a lot about the playoff when he was still with us. He always said the plan was to push past four teams and bring in more, but it gets difficult trying to push it beyond eight games. It would begin to cross into the next semester and interfere with the spring semester. If we can solve some of the issues with it, I think eventually we will see the playoff move to eight teams.
     
  • Conference realignment definitely could happen again. The idea of four 16-team conferences seems feasible and organized, so I don't think realignment is done. With the current issues that have arisen, it will be a while before we can take a strong look at that possibility. There are a lot of things that need to be solved before we can make a strong look into that in college sports.
     
  • I famously said "Anytime, any place" in 2011 regarding the rivalry with Texas. Clearly, I was concerned about their refusal to play us, and I wanted to let everyone know we were definitely for keeping the rivalry going. I wanted it to be understood that we were not the ones that were pulling away. We deal with a lot of significant games in this conference. Thinking about moving forward, putting people in the seats will become a problem soon in the college ranks, and one of the fixes in increasing attendance is to have those marquee games in place. Eventually, I can see the desire for the game boiling over, and it will be played again at some point.
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Dr. R. Bowen Loftin honored to receive distinguished alumnus award

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