STILLWATER – Chad Weiberg might think about things slowing down around now. The Oklahoma State athletics director could expect June to be the start of some slowing down in the daily schedule, but it doesn’t seem to be that way. The Big 12 spring business meetings with the conference staff and Commissioner Brett Yormark meeting with the Big 12 Board of Directors consisting of school presidents and chancellors were joined by the athletic directors, senior women’s administrators, and faculty advisors at The Greenbriar in West Virginia for several days.
His teams are still competing, well track and field has finalists in both men’s and women’s events at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Austin, Texas the next two nights (June 9 and 10. The disappointment of the softball and baseball seasons coming to a close with the Cowgirls in the semifinals at the Women’s College World Series and the baseball team upset in their regional at home has some fans disappointed and frustrated. One told me he was embarrassed, but not Weiberg.
“I think I’m very happy with where we’ve been,” Weiberg said as an athletic department in a conversation with the crew on Sirius-XM’s Big 12 This Morning. “There is no doubt that we start out every season, in virtually every sport, wanting to win championships and if we don’t get all the way there then we don’t get the ultimate goal, but I think it is important we don’t lose sight of all the accomplishments that we add along the way. Nobody wants to win all of these games and all of these tournaments more than our student-athletes and coaches. I hope they are able to realize all the things they accomplish in a season.”
Weiberg cited that Oklahoma State was one of just six schools to host regionals in softball and baseball along with Alabama, Arkansas, Clemson, LSU, and Stanford.
Oklahoma State was one of just nine schools to qualify for NCAA postseason in all of its’ spring sports. For OSU that is men’s and women’s tennis, men’s and women’s golf, softball, baseball, and track and field. The other eight schools that did something similar are 1 of 9 all teams in Auburn, Duke, Florida, LSU, Stanford, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M.
Depending on how the track finishes the next two nights, Weiberg noted that Oklahoma State is up for the USTFCCCA Track Program of the Year and he feels that the athletic department on the whole will finish in the top 20-30 in Learfield Director’s Cup.
As for the spring meetings in the Big 12 Weiberg thouth it went well and the league is in a very different place than it was just a few years ago.
“From my perspective and from all of our perspectives, you have to go back a couple of years ago and recall the narrative that was around the Big 12 when the word leaked that OU and Texas were moving to the SEC and things, the narrative then was not good,” Weiberg started on SXM. “Then fast forward just a couple of short years later and it is completely different and there are several people that deserve the credit for that. We brought in the four new schools and that is really good for the addative to the league. Commissioner (Brett) Yormark when he came on and renegotiated our media contract and came up with a deal better than anybody anticipated that we would get. It puts us in a really, really good position for the future. It is completely different than where we were two years ago.”
Weiberg’s explanation would seem to credit former Commissioner Bob Bowlsby for adding BYU, Central Florida, Houston, and Cincinnati. There are others, but the conference revenue and future revenue has been in the hands of the new commissioner.
“Brett (Yormark) is really innovative and I think we all appreciate the ideas that he is bringing to the table for us to consider,” added Weiberg. “He has said that we will go through a brand refresh which I think makes sense with the new teams coming into the league. The exploration of taking our product to Mexico and different markets like that. I think those are really good ideas to explore and consider.”
At the end of the interview Weiberg was asked about this coming football season. Las Vegas has the Cowboys over/under win totals at six (Caesars) and 6.5 (most other books) and the preseason magazines are not optimistic. Former OU offensive lineman and Sooners radio sideline analyst Gabe Ikard asked Weiberg point blank if the OSU football team was going to be any good?
“I think we’re going to be good. We’ll surprise some people, I believe,” Weiberg said with a confidence in his voice, even kind of chuckling. “Coach Gundy has a tremendous track record and I don’t think he gets the credit he deserves. If people want to doubt us then I’m fine with that. We’ll see how that all plays out on the field this fall.”
He does like to be optimistic. Me too.
