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Frog football to be televised on Fox Sports Net, ESPN
By Rusty Simmons
FOX Sports Net has already guaranteed TCU three nationally televised games and two regionally broadcast contests. ESPN Regional has also picked up three of the Frogs’ regular-season games to be televised in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. The Fresno State game on Nov. 11, considered by most analysts the biggest challenge on TCU’s schedule, may also be televised, ESPN Regional general manager Rick Thompson said. A third consecutive bowl game appearance would also add to the Frogs’ television contracts. “This is the most exposure TCU has ever gotten,” Athletics Director Eric Hyman said. “Spending $100 million in media exposure in the Metroplex is equivalent to a week’s worth of advertising. “So we couldn’t have paid enough money for the exposure we’re going to get.” TCU was part of the first nationally televised college football game ever, when the Frogs played Kansas on Sept. 20, 1952. Almost 50 years since that match up, TCU has been televised only 68 times. Provost William Koehler said it is important to remember that the attention on the athletics program could affect the school’s academic image. “People equate the quality of the university with the quality of its athletics teams,” he said. “Only the most elite academic institutions can be sorry in sports and still remain highly ranked academically.” Hyman said he understands the important role athletics play in the university’s overall image. “When an athletic program gets heightened attention, it is important that it can transfer the attention to the academic side,” he said. “That is something Chancellor (Michael) Ferrari wanted, and we are trying to live up to the aspirations of the university. “There is an important balance to maintain between athletics and academics.” Thompson said ESPN Regional has had its own issues with balancing the increased interest from FOX in the Frogs’ athletics program. “I can’t blame FOX for wanting to pick up the Frogs’ games, because they’re the best in the league,” he said. “Because of an exclusive deal with the Western Athletic Conference, FOX has the first right to air any conference competitions, including any out of conference games on a WAC team’s home field.” But Thompson is satisfied with the games ESPN Regional is getting to broadcast as well. “We wanted to get games that people in Fort Worth might not travel
to see in person, so we’re happy we got the Nevada and Tulsa games,”
he said. “We also wanted to be able to showcase Amon Carter Stadium
for at least one game, and the Rice game will allow us to do that.” Rusty Simmons Commission to release reports at October luncheon By Tyson Trice The master plan for TCU is one step closer to being announced. Suggestions ranging from new construction to a change in student curriculum from the 17 task forces of the Commission on the Future of TCU will be released in a printed report at a luncheon Oct. 9 in the Student Center Ballroom. The 450 members of the commission, consisting of faculty, staff, students and community members, will be invited. Bob Schieffer, commission chairman and an award-winning CBS News broadcaster, presided over the kick-off event last November and will preside over the final report luncheon. He was involved in selecting the commission’s topics, defining their issues and planning the agenda. The task forces were formed to make recommendations on how to take TCU to a new and higher level of distinction. Vice Chancellor for Marketing and Communication Larry Lauer said no official results will be discussed prior to the final report. “It is true that some overall priorities may be emerging as a result of analyzing the total project,” Lauer said. “These will be discussed at that final report luncheon.” Melissa Nabors, a sophomore political science major, said she is concerned the findings may create a financial burden on the students. “If they dream big, which means dream as big as you want, well, to me that means dollar signs,” Nabors said. “I don’t want the reports to hurt the community or programs we have now or hurt what they could become, especially if it will affect the university financially. A higher tuition could keep a more diverse community from attending TCU.” Lauer, also the executive director of the commission, said the suggestions will be determined as a part of the program and budgeting processes of the university. “Some will require no new money and will be considered in program planning,” Lauer said. “Others will be incorporated into budget planning as feasible. Still others will require new funding and will be considered as a part of future fund-raising planning.” According to the commission’s Web site, the anticipated outcomes of the commission’s work are:
“I would hope the commission would fix the problems before it became a student concern,” Nabors said. Hopefully the commission has troubleshooted the problems we already have and will fix them and continue to dream big.”
Brite Divinity School picked to receive $300,000 grant By Yvette Herrera The Brite Divinity School is one of 40 theological schools to receive
a $300,000 grant from an Indianapolis-based company, Lilly Endowment Inc.,
to improve technology for teaching in the classroom by next spring. He said the Endowment based their selection on the quality of the grant
proposals and need. The money will be used for education on campus and in the classrooms
of the Brite Divinity School. The endowment will also be used to train
Brite’s faculty, staff and students in the use of information-technology.
Once the new technology becomes available, professors will be able to put their classroom material on the Internet for students and online discussions. Faculty members will now have their own computer lab, so that they can
work on specific projects for class. Endowment Gretchen Wolfram said schools are selected to receive grants based on the proposal’s feasibility, creativity and the school’s ability to implement the project. Wolfram also said the Endowment concentrates on three particular areas when allocating their funds — education, community and religion — with religion as the emphasis of national grant making. Money for the Endowment, created in 1937, comes from stock in the pharmaceutical
Eli Lilly Company. Yvette Herrera Going Global By Michael Davis Kevin Prigel, the TCU alumnus who founded StreetAdvisor.com in his residence
hall room in 1998, sold the company July 24 to IDEAglobal, an international
financial market and macroeconomic research company. IDEAglobal will gain 100 percent ownership of StreetAdvisor. In return, Prigel and his partners will receive 5 percent ownership in IDEAglobal. Prigel will become IDEAglobal’s chief technology visionary, heading development of individual investor stock research. Although he will no longer run the company, he will be responsible for the development of IDEAglobal’s retail-focused stock research. Prigel, who graduated Summa Cum Laude last year with a bachelor’s degree in business administration finance and accounting, said he looks forward to figuring out how to deliver thousands of pieces of financial information around the world everyday. “This gives me the opportunity to pursue entrepreneurial ideas without having to worry about financing,” he said. “My vision has always been to give individual investors the same advantages that institutional investors have. To take this idea and make it a global reality is very exciting and important.” The new site will continue to have free information, Prigel said. “We were reaching close to 1 million individual users, but by combining forces with (IDEAglobal), we can reach the global audience of e-finance users much more quickly,” Prigel said. Prigel founded the company two years ago as a weekly unbiased newsletter on technology companies. He gained national attention last year when he reported America Online and AT&T were in talks to buy part of Excite@Home. AT&T later confirmed interest in a deal. In June, StreetAdvisor ranked seventh among financial news Web sites, according to PC Data, a market research firm. IDEAglobal chief executive Shandi Modi said the purchase of StreetAdvisor will help provide more financial information to individual investors. The company has been adding analysts and increasing the number of stocks it covers, recently purchasing a bond information Web site. “Our goal is to become the de facto global supplier of information around the world,” Modi said. “We [IDEAglobal and StreetAdvisor] both believe in the democratization of investment research empowering individuals to access unbiased, high quality research and the combined entity will truly be a prominent player in this space.” Modi said he heard about StreetAdvisor from Summit Partners, a technology venture capital firm that has provided $25 million to IDEAglobal. At the time, StreetAdvisor was looking for a second round of financial backers. The companies began negotiations in March and found their vision of providing financial research was similar. StreetAdvisor, which has 40 employees, will maintain its office in downtown Fort Worth. StreetAdvisor.com will become IDEAadvisor.com in late August. IDEAglobal is an 11-year-old Singapore-based company that provides about 2,000 daily pieces of financial analysis to more than 750 financial institutions. It employs about 200 people at offices in Miami, New York, San Francisco, London and Singapore. Michael Davis |
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