In speaking to the QBC, Dr.Mueh said he really welcomed being “among longtime friends”.
He mentioned that 2 days ago, he was summoned to a meeting with the Superintendent – the Scientific Advisory Board was investigating sexual assault at the service academies with the objective of finding a way to identify sexual predators and prevent them from being appointed to an academy. When they stated, “If the Academy didn’t have a Division I football team, we wouldn’t be here,” he knew why the Superintendent asked him to attend the meeting!
Last year – 2013 – was not a good year. Sequestration hit Air Force athletics hard. Army and Navy resisted cuts to their athletic programs. Air Force was cut 40 personnel and 13 sports, and $1.7M (40%) was taken out of their O&M budget. Dr. Mueh and his staff have fought hard for over a year to retain all sports teams, and cut 30 positions (click here to see article on position cuts).
Air Force teams are doing quite well this year. The Lacross team is the best that AFA has ever had – may get into the NCAA Division Playoffs. Baseball swept #20-ranked UNLV recently, and Women’s Tennis is doing quite well, especially considering that they play against foreign teams (Russia, Czechoslovakia, etc.). Men’s outdoor track are favorites for this years’ championship.
On 1 Jul 2013, the non-profit AFA Athletic Corporation finally began operations after working on the concept since 2006 – a major milestone. However, lawyers in DC pointed out that under the Miscellaneous Receipts Act, money collected outside of appropriated or non-appropriated funds must go to the US Treasury. In order to “do it right,” AFA has lobbied Congress to pass legislation to permit funds to be used directly to support the Athletic Department mission, so until the legislation is approved, the Department must maintain 3 different funding processes.
Troy Calhoun has changed his coaching staff, hiring outstanding new Offensive and Defensive coaches. Spring football was intense, resulting in several injuries – only one serious. Six games have been scheduled for network TV, and the remaining six are being negotiated – that allows AFA to control game times for those games.
AFA will be charging for parking and tailgating slots this year in an effort to increase revenue. We have been given authority to charge for these activities as long as the funds go directly to support the Academy.
Dr. Mueh insisted on “starting slowly” on prices rather than impose more expensive charges that some have suggested. Only “official” tailgate spots will have relatively modest charges based on the size of the area. The QBC area is not a designated tailgate area, so we won’t incur a tailgate charge, but all cars entering the parking area will have to pay to park (buy season parking pass).
Q&A
* Recruiting: this year is a very good year for football recruiting – Troy is excited about this year’s recruits: a dozen players over 290 lb, recruited John Oliver – ranked the top quarterback in the state of Georgia – 6’3” 210 lb. It was a good recruiting year against Army and Navy candidates.
* the 2013 season was the “perfect storm” – many injuries – was playing the 5th string quarterback by game 3
* mostly as a result of changes implemented by the Commandant, giving the Class of 2014 substantial responsibilities for leading the Wing, the class has really stepped up into leadership roles across the board – the class shows maturity and dedication to service.
* It seemed like there were more significant head injuries last year with the hard ground in cold weather. Dr. Mueh recently attended a Summit on sports concussions that concluded that even with the substantial equipment in use today, you can’t prevent concussions unless you change the rules.
* More advanced tests will be available soon using a chemical marker to measure eye response, which gives immediate feedback on the possible severity of a head injury – if results are out of limits, the player is “out of competition.” All cadets have a baseline vision test, which can be used to compare against test results to measure possible injury.
* Mentioned that the NFL should lead the way in changing and strictly enforcing rules to prevent spearing and other violent activities that can lead to serious injury.
* Several members cautioned against potentially significant traffic delays caused by collecting parking fees. Without fees, traffic can still be backed up many miles north of AFA – now with fees, there could be significant delays. AFA is still working with Base Security to mitigate the effect of charging for parking. The Security Squadron got a 50% personnel cut from Sequestration, so that may improve traffic flow!
* This year, there will be some changes in where the cadets sit in Falcon Stadium
* Stadium renovation: was reduced from $120M to $50M, but decided that the “optics weren’t right” to spend money on such a highly visible project during severe budget restrictions, even though the projects were funded by donations.
* They will be spending $500K on changes to the Blue & Silver area in the press box to make a much nicer area, and will be increasing Blue & Silver ticket prices.
Bob Fillmore, President of the Quarterback Club, presented Dr. Mueh with a $2000 donation to the AFA Athletic Corporation (includes missing donation amount from last year).
