More from Mike Holder on Coronavirus Cancellations and Disruptions

Mike Holder was on the OSU Alumni Association Friday with Family Zoom presentation and hit on a variety of topics. His biggest point was on finances and football, but he hit some others.

STILLWATER -- The Vice-President for Athletics and athletics director at Oklahoma State Mile Holder had a lot to say as he shared the virtual meeting screen with host Julia Benbrook of OState-TV. Holder spent close to 20 minutes detailing the events from March 10-12 in Kansas City, Missouri where the college sports world went from preparing for conference basketball tournaments like the Big 12 to thinking about games with no fans to cancelling the conference tournaments. Then in another matter of 24 hours there was no longer any March Madness to look forward to or any spring sports whatsoever. 

"It all looked a little premature at the time, but I think today everybody realizes it wasn't a knee jerk reaction, but it was the right thing to do," Holder surmised even though throughout his telling of the events, he seemed amazed as each step was taken. "It wasn't what we were expecting to get, but it was fascinating as far as I was concerned. It will be two days of my life that I will never forget."

Holder's major push in the presentation was the need for football season to be held, and in his opinion, be held on time next fall. You can read more about that here. 

Of course, the most monumental cancellation was the opening of the new baseball stadium in O'Brate Stadium. It was to be a grand event with President George W. Bush, a friend of Cecil O'Brate there to throw out the first pitch. Holder confirmed that the expected crowd was going to test the fire marshal with some 8-9,000 tickets sold.

"Who would have ever thought the fire marshal would be involved in a baseball game? We were looking at a crowd of 8,000, maybe 9,000 whatever we could get a sign from out of the fire marshal," Holder said. "Wow, everything coming together , the stadium is so magnificent, and I think that crowd would have been so energetic. I think it would have done a lot for Francis and Cecil O'Brate. They have done so much for our baseball program."

Holder said it was a huge, huge disappointment, and he said he won't let the baseball program move into the stadium, offices, training facilities, any of it until the stadium has a fitting opening. 

Holder confirmed what head baseball coach Josh Holliday had told Pokes Report that it could happen this fall.

"Lets get everybody back to work, get this virus on it's heels and show it who's boss," Holder started. Then we get a crowd together and I'm think in the fall and then let's schedule an exhibition game. It might be against Matt Holliday's friends in major league baseball or it could be with a Big 12 or an SEC school and then see if President Bush can make it, get Cecil and Francis O'Brate up here and lets do it." 

That event will be easier to get together than it seems bringing back the NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Tennis Championships will be. Oklahoma State and the Michael and Anne Greenwood Tennis Center were going to host the event in May and getting it back is not automatic.

"I have a lot of confidence in the NCAA because of what they did for all the spring sport athletes, they gave them an extension of their eligibility clock, which I think was the right thing to do. As an athletic director I have to figure out the financial piece of that because it is the right thing to do," Holder said of the action this week that the NCAA Division I Council took. 

The eligibility is there, but they left it up to the individual schools as to how much scholarship they would pay to those athletes in their extra year of eligibility.

Again, as for getting the tennis back ...

"I have confidence we will get the tennis national championships back in the future," he said. "I think the next logical year would be 2023 or 2024 and I have my fingers crossed that we will get one of those years.

"I think it will be because of Chris Young, an outstanding coach that got it done with hard work and not giving up on his dreams," Holder said of his director of tennis and women's tennis head coach. "Then when we get it we will set a standard that will be hard for anybody to achieve in the future because he is pretty innovative and he will come up even bigger and better things for when we do host the championship." 

Holder was positive, but he was most adamant about America fighting for the future past the pandemic and getting football going in order to preserve college athletics the way it is today at Oklahoma State and across the country.