• v .
■esday, August 29, 2000
SPORTS
Page IB
THE BATTALION
college
ootnall
P O L L
Nebraska (35)
Florida St. (30)
Alabama (3)
Wisconsin (1)
Miami Fla.
Michigan
Texas (2)
Kansas St.
Florida
Georgia
Virginia Tech
use
Tennessee
Washington
Purdue
Ohio St.
Clemson
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Texas A&M
:: . tWJBEiaOB.UNA/T.,,
Uul&u
‘Championship Vision’ receives donations
Bright gives $5 million for the completion of the south end zone expansion of Kyle Field
By Blaine Dionne
The Battalion
In March the Texas A&M Athletic
Department and the 12th Man Foun
dation announced plans to overhaul all
Texas A&M athletic facilities over the
next 10 to 15 years. After only five
months the dream for Aggie athletics
is approaching reality.
The overhaul was dubbed the
“Championship Vision” and is the
Athletic Department’s answer to Vi
sion 2020, A&M’s plan to be a Top-
10 public university by the year 2020.
The announcement also kicked off
a two-year fund-raising campaign that
would raise $35 million to begin con
structing phase one of the project, a
West Campus training room and lock
er room center to be located between
the Anderson Track and Field Center
and the Aggie Soccer Complex.
The young campaign is already
within sight of its original $35 million
goal.
“We’ve been very successful so
far,” said Miles Marks, the executive
director of the 12th Man Foundation.
“We announced the campaign in
March, and we’ve gotten commit
ments from various donors totaling
$20 million — and that’s just over the
past five months.”
According to Marks, that kind of
success is exactly what the 12th Man
Foundation had hoped for.
“We’ve still got 19 months to get
to the $35 million mark,” Marks said.
“We’re not going to stop there, either.
We’re going to keep raising money
until the end of that two years. Flope-
fully, we can get to $50 million.”
Even $50 million will not fulfill the
Championship Vision. Marks said that
more than $ 100 million will eventual
ly be needed to finance all the planned
renovations.
The plan covers more than just the
“Big 3” — football, baseball and bas
ketball. There is an indoor tennis fa
cility on the horizon, plus upgrades to
the softball, soccer and track facilities.
Not all these sports are traditional
money makers, but are included in
hopes of setting a new standard for
Aggie athletics.
The Athletic Department plans to
upgrade literally every facility that has
anything to do with athletics, from the
stadiums to the residence halls.
To ensure these facilities will top
all others in the country, Marks said,
representatives from the foundation
and Athletic Department toured
schools that are widely regarded as
home to the nation’s premier sports fa
cilities.
“We went to Tennessee, Alabama,
Florida State, Texas and North Car
olina,” Marks said. “A&M’s facilities
will be better than all of them.”
On Aug. 7, the campaign received
its biggest boost from H.R. “Bum”
Bright, a 1943 graduate. Bright do
nated $5 million toward the Champi
onship Vision, specifically closing in
the south end zone, a reality in the near
future.
“[Bright] had always been a great
supporter of the program,” Marks
said. “R.C. told him [a donation]
would be important to the south end
zone expansion.”
Slocum was pleased when he and
COURTESY OF TEXAS A&M SPORTS INFORMATION/1 hk Battalion
The south end zone, part of the Championship Vision, is becoming finan
cially feasible thanks to a $5 million donation by H.R. "Bum" Bright.
Marks received the donation.
“This gift is a major step forward
for our football program,” Slocum
said. “This south end zone football
complex will be the premier facility in
the country. It will include a player’s
lounge overlooking Kyle Field, new
dressing and training rooms, coaches
offices and an academic center with a
state-of-the-art computer lab.”
Bright is the former owner of the
Dallas Cowboys and a longtime fi
nancial contributor to A&M. He has
served public education in Texas in
various capacities, most notably as
chairman of the Board of Regents of
the Texas A&M University System
and a member of the Special Com
mission on Higher Education Financ
ing in Texas.
The top is not a comfortable place for the Big 12’s elite teams
source:
AP
Florida State did it in
1999. The Seminoles com
pleted an entire season
ranked No. 1. A year earlier,
Ohio State fell short after
spending the first 10 weeks
on top. Now the Seminoles
get to be on the other side,
trying to unseat the No. 1
seed ... watch out, Nebraska.
There is little doubt that
the top spot in college football
polls is not a very comfortable
place to be. Not only is there
an overwhelming history of
failure in fulfilling preseason
NOTEBOOK
Jason
—LINCOLN
expectations, but there is also
the pressure of facing every
team’s best game as they try
to unseat the giant.
Two Big 12 teams enter
the 2000 season high on the ’
nation’s polls. Nebraska tops
the Associated Press list at
No. 1 while Texas
rides the hype of two
back-to-back top-five
recruiting classes to
earn a No. 7 national
ranking. In the
process the Long
horns have built
enough expectations
for the upcoming season to
earn a pair of first place votes;
Nebraska has 35.
Both teams will require a
season without blemishes if
they are to live up to their pre
season expectations.
For Nebraska to make it
to the national title game, it
will not only require an un
defeated season, but a string
of 12 straight wins that leave
no doubt about the Corn-
huskers’ right to be the na
tion’s top team. And that will
only get them into the Or
ange Bowl, where they be
pitted in a 60-minute show
down between the nation’s
best two teams.
The Cornhuskers last won
a national championship in
1997. That was also the year
the nation said goodbye to
Hall of Fame coach Tom Os
borne. In 1998 Nebraska as
sistant Frank Solich took over
the reins in an attempt to con
tinue the legend.
After two seasons of
shortcomings, Solich and the
’Huskers appear to be poised
for another run at the title. All
the ingredients are there.
Eric Crouch returns to
continue executing the Ne
braska option to near perfec
tion. Experience at I-back, re
ceiver and the nation’s best
offensive line leave little
room for questioning the
’Huskers’ ability to score
points.
But the adage will hold
true for Nebraska — defense
wins championships. That
means the weight of it all is
on the Blackshirts.
Inside linebacker Carlos
Polk promises to lead a de
fense worthy of champion
status. It would be hard not to
See Rankings on Page 10.
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