Walters Talks Appreciation for Pollard's Quick Action, Cyclones Like OSU Hoping for Football

In case you were wondering it sure seems like Iowa State athletics director Jamie Pollard making across the board cuts at Iowa State with salaries was a popular move to balance the budget and avoid cuts.

STILLWATER -- There are a lot of similarities between Oklahoma State and Iowa State. The two schools are land grant institutions that have a history or doing more with less financially in the field of athletics. That has changed some lately with Oklahoma State as athletics director Mike Holder convinced the late Boone Pickens to come up big with donations that changed the landscape of campus and potential of Oklahoma State athletics. Iowa State has had a resurgence under their athletics director Jamie Pollard and has especially improved Jack Trice Stadium and their football program. 

Now both schools, that report an athletics budget of close to $85-million are dealing with the adverse economics from the COVID-19 pandemic and the cancellation of the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship as well as the Big 12 Basketball Tournament. There are some savings in not having to stage some non revenue spring sports and not housing and feeding student-athletes on campus.

But almost immediately after this happened Pollard made salary cuts of 10 percent across the board in the Iowa State athletic department. 

“At the end of the day, we felt as an institution, getting in front of the known costs up front on the $5 million was critical,” Pollard said of the basketball tournament losses, “so we could move forward productively and not die of a thousand cuts along the way. If you don’t get out in front of the big financial question, then every single one of those (other) questions just becomes painstakingly difficult and really kill the culture of your department because you stop thinking about the future and you start shutting down.”

Pollard also asked coaches to volunteer giving up the bonuses called for in their contracts and got complete cooperation.

"All of us in our athletic department are very grateful for his leadership," Voice of the Cyclones John Walters told me in a radio interview. "I shouldn't speak for everybody, but I can't imagine that there is anybody that doesn't feel this way. When Jamie announced that he was going to have a 10 percent pay cut across the board and the coaches bonuses, with their approval, was that Iowa State like every other athletic department across the country lost $5-million from losing the NCAA Basketball Tournament and in order to function he had to find a way to make up that money and this is what he did."

Walters said it was a compatible way to get it done and keep people from worrying about completely losing their job.

"I think everybody was on the same page, 'We don't want to see any of our co-workers lose their job and we don't want to lose our job,' Walters said. "For Jamie to be proactive and I think he was the first athletic director to do something about this. It shows the culture of the athletic department. We are all on the same team and we want to do our part."

Oklahoma State has not done anything along those lines and Mike Holder has said he is not as concerned about the losses so far and has ideas on how to make those up. The thing that gets Holder's attention and has every athletic directors attention including Pollard at Iowa State is if football is impacted.

As we know at Oklahoma State the attitudes on that range from hopeful and forceful (Mike Gundy) to hopeful (about everybody) to skeptical and Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby may be in that category judging from his comments.

“We’re probably in the phase right now that we’re in a long, hard winter,” Jamie Pollard said when he made those early cuts, “but if we can’t play football this fall, it’s Ice Age time because there’s nobody in our industry right now that could reasonably forecast a contingency play for how they would get through not playing any football games.”

I'm concerned about football," Holder said point blank in Zoom presentation put together by the Oklahoma State Alumni Association. "We need to play football this fall and if we don't play football this fall I'm not sure there is an athletic director in America that can put those financial pieces back together and come up with an athletic department.

"We have to stand up and fight as a country against this menace (coronavirus)," Holder stated sounding like he was giving a pep talk. "Every able bodied citizen needs to get back up and running. To play football, in my mind, this fall we have to be able to test our athletes, coaches, support personnel and know we have a safe group of people that are associating with one another.

"If we can get to that test then we can quarantine ourselves on campus and get ready to play the football season," Holder continued. "Everyone needs to start thinking and talking about playing football in September like it is scheduled right now. I don't think delays are the solution. Everything is predicated on the virus and our economy and getting our country back to work."

Both Oklahoma State and Iowa State have plenty of reasons to want the season played and played on time. The Cowboys and Cyclones each have teams that could wrestle away the Big 12 Championship from Oklahoma. Iowa State returns quaterback Brock Purdy, young running back Breece Hall, senational tight ends like Charlie Kolar and Chase Allen, along with a lot of defenders. The Cowboys have running back Chuba Hubbard; receiver Tylan Wallace, who the Cyclones know well; quarterback Spencer Sanders, lots of veteran offensive linemen, and 10-of-11 starters on defense. 

"No matter how we all may differ on our predictions on what could happen and when it might happen, we are all on the same page of what we want to happen and that is the season starting on time," Walters said. "That would be great news for out society and it would mean great news for the World. Lets just pray for that to happen. I know I've been praying and I think you have been praying every day for that result. Lets just hope it happens. Yes, it looks good for Iowa State and Oklahoma State. I think we all will appreciate it a lot more if when we get the games back."

That is an absolute.