Eastern Michigan Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Heather Lyke discussed the current state of EMU Athletics at the Board of Regents Athletic Affairs committee meeting June 16.
New Hires:
Lyke announced two new hires for athletics. Ben Herman is the new assistant athletic director for equipment operations and Talea Drummer is the new associate athletic director for student-athlete support services.
Herman comes from San Diego State University where he spent four years as assistant director of athletic equipment services.
Drummer comes from Kent State University where she spent two years as the assistant AD of student-athlete success and director of football academics.
SAAC:
Lyke announced that women’s soccer student-athlete, Julia Lombardi, was nominated to serve as president of the Student-Athlete Advisory Council for the second straight year.
Along with this news, Lyke announced that the end-of-year award show, “The Ypsis,” held on April 20 would return this upcoming year.
Academic News:
The success of student athletes was a topic Lyke spent time discussing. Student athletes held an overall 3.242 grade point average for the winter semester, which is the highest in EMU history.
Also, 16 of the 21 teams at EMU held a 3.0 grade point average, roughly 84 percent of the teams.
The highest men’s team grade point average was golf with a 3.446 GPA and the highest women’s team was golf as well with a 3.723 GPA.
There were 35 student athletes who had a perfect 4.0 grade point average for the winter semester.
Football:
Lyke announced that each home football game would have a specific theme. Listed below are the home games with their themes.
Sept. 5 vs. Old Dominion - Celebration of track/Bob Parks Track dedication
Sept. 19 vs. Ball State - Hall of Fame
Sept. 26 vs. Army - Heroes game/Washtenaw 100
Oct. 10 vs. Akron - Homecoming
Oct. 29 vs. Western Michigan - Steel Mitten Game/Factory Day at the Factory and Football Alumni Celebration
Nov. 14 vs. Massachusetts - Band Day
Also announced were new jersey combinations for the Old Dominion and Army games. The jerseys for the Old Dominion game are themed to mimic the track and field uniforms to go with part of the game theme of Celebration of Track. The jerseys for the Army game consist of the American flag on the shoulder pads.
Lyke also said there are roughly four seats still available for the team plane to the Louisiana State University game on Saturday Oct. 3 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Revenue Report:
Deputy Director of Athletics Christian Spears then announced the current revenue for the past year. They saw an increase in ticket sales going from $140,710 in 2013-14 to $185,457 this year. They saw a drop in NCAA/Conference distributions going from $1,819,410 in 2013-14 to $1,701,703 this year and saw a $100,000 increase in funds from sponsorship and other various deals.
They also made $9,380 from the new fees from paying to park at football games.
Agreement Updates:
Lyke also announced a new deal with ESPN3 that would televise 35 EMU athletic events in 2015-16. Lyke stated the events would have to take place in the Convocation Center due to the lack of technology to be capable of broadcasting at the baseball and softball fields and at Bowen Field House. Lyke said the teams that would be broadcast would mostly be men’s and women’s basketball but they would also get some volleyball matches and wrestling and gymnastics meets televised.
Also announced was a new seven-year agreement with Adidas worth $3,675,000 which is a 31 percent increase over the last agreement.
Athletic Success:
Lyke ended the meetings discussing the success of EMU in the Mid-American Conference this year. She included Bob Parks being inducted into the MAC Hall of Fame and Johnny Rubino (baseball) and Victoria Voronko (women’s track and field) winning MAC Medal of Honors.
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