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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEDIA DAYSJuly 26, 2010Matthew SignDALLAS, TEXAS PETER IRWIN: I'd like to introduce Matthew Sign, who is the chief operating officer of the National Football Foundation. Matt? MATTHEW SIGN: On behalf of our president and CEO, Steve Hatchell, our chairman, Archie Manning, our board of directors, and the more than 12,000 members of the National Football Foundation, it is an honor and privilege to be here with you today. I would like to first thank commissioner Dan Beebe, Bob Burda, Ed Stewart, and the entire Big 12 Conference staff for providing us with this opportunity today to update you on the goings on at the National Football Foundation. They have and continue to be staunch supporters of the National Football Foundation and our programs. Building leaders through football, that simple phrase has been our guiding light and mission since General Douglas MacArthur, Colonel Red Blaik, and Grantland Rice founded the organization in 1947. Border to border, coast to coast, day in and day out, the National Football Foundation is constantly working towards the betterment of football through our nationwide programs and initiatives that preserve the past, promote the present, and prepare the future. So what I'd like to do today is take a few minutes and take you through some of our programs and initiatives, giving an update on where we are. First of all, as many of you know, the College Football Hall of Fame will be moving to Atlanta, Georgia. It will provide not only the hall of fame, but college football, as a whole, a greater platform for years to come. We'll have a groundbreaking ceremony on September 4th in Atlanta, Georgia, at the location, which will be in Centennial Olympic Park, which places it near the Georgia Dome, the CNN Center, the aquarium, all places where there's much foot traffic. It will be a minimum of $50 million, 50,000-square-foot facility. And we enjoy a great family of supporters in Atlanta from Gary Stokan, Chick-Fil-A, Coca-Cola, and Home Depot. It will truly be a great home for college football for years to come. As you all know, last year we changed the Premiere Star Athlete Award from the Draddy to the William V. Campbell Trophy. Last year's winner was Tim Tebow. The Big 12 was greatly represented. They had three finalists. Keep in mind each finalist for the Campbell Trophy receives an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship. Last year Colt McCoy, Todd Reesing, and Joe Pawelek all qualified for those postgraduate scholarships. The Big 12 does a great job promoting the scholar athlete ideal, and we're very appreciative of that fact. Our board of directors continues to gain in influence across the country. As you know, Archie Manning is our chairman. The past couple of years we've added the likes of Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones; New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft; T. Boone Pickens; Clay Bennett, the owner of the Oklahoma City Thunder; hall of famers Troy Aikman and Ronnie Lott; John Mack, the chairman at Morgan Stanley; Ray Anderson, the director of football operations at the National Football League; Scott Blackmun, the head of the USOC; and the head of all four BCS bowls, including John Junker, whose Fiesta Bowl will once again host the National Hall of Fame Salute at the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl on January 1. A couple weeks ago, we mourned the loss of a longtime board member in a very strong National Football Foundation supporter in George Steinbrenner. As many of you know, George Steinbrenner obviously was a great owner for the New York Yankees but was a great fan of college football, supporting Eddie Robinson and certainly supporting the National Football Foundation by endowing two National Scholarship Athlete awards. We'll all miss George's influence with the National Football Foundation, and he will be dearly missed. The National Football Foundation will relaunch our website on September 1. It has been designed by our partners out in Silicon Valley. So look for that on September the 1st. In May we announced our 2010 Hall of Fame place, which will include three Big 12 representatives, Alfred Williams from Colorado, Ray Childress from Texas A&M, and Coach Gene Stallings from Texas A&M and Alabama. Keep in mind that College Football Hall of Fame is one of the most difficult hall of fames to get into, with only 870 players and 188 coaches that have achieved that distinction. Keep in mind that's from the close to 5 million that have played the game since 1869. At our annual awards dinner in New York City, which will take place on December 7th at the Waldorf Astoria, we will also honor Rogers Redding for the Outstanding Official Award. Many of you recognize Roger as the SEC coordinator of officials, but he was a longtime official in the Southwest Conference. The National Football Foundation's chapter system continues to grow. We are represented in 47 states, give away $1.1 million in scholarships, and with a reach of 4,800 high schools in over 4,800 -- excuse me -- over 500,000 high school football players, the chapters perform our mission locally and do a great job of it. More and more, the National Football Foundation is being asked to be the protector of the game. We're being asked to take on issues as they come up. For example, back in January, there was a story two college football programs that were dropping football. Well, a month later we put out a report that over the next five years 25 colleges will be starting football on their campuses. Not only does this prove that college football is a growth sport but it will also provide more opportunities for young men to go to college. The bowl system. The bowl attendance was up last year 1.7 million total, 52,000 average throughout the bowl system last year. We believe the bowls are healthy and continue to contribute great things to the sport of college football. In the coming weeks, months, and years, we'll be taking on new initiatives. This year we will be starting a National Coaches committee that will be headed up by former college football coaches. The co-chairmen this year will be hall of fame coach Terry Donahue, former coach from UCLA, and Don James from the University of Washington. They'll help us look into the issues that are taking hold in the sport. We'll be partnering with the United States Air Force Academy on their leadership and character development programs. Obviously, our motto, building leaders through football, we believe greatly in the power of sport and what it does for young men. We're also talking to numerous universities about concussion studies. This will be an ongoing project for the National Football Foundation. In closing, I would like to once again thank the Big 12 Conference. I would also like to thank the members of the Football Writers Association of America. We appreciate your support throughout the year. We look forward to seeing you at our annual awards dinner on December 7th at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City. Keep in mind, that morning we'll have the annual awards press conference, which all of you are invited to attend. Again, thank you for your time, and we appreciate all you do for the sport. PETER IRWIN: Thank you, Matthew. We appreciate that very much. If you have questions for Matthew, I'm sure he'll be in the back and will stick around for a few minutes. End of FastScripts |
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