Mike Bobinski left Georgia Tech for Purdue for a simple reason – he saw a better opportunity. In an interview with 680 the Fan Wednesday, Bobinski explained that he believed that the Purdue job gave him the best opportunity to be impactful.
“At the end of the day for me – and I think for most folks – you want to ultimately be in a situation where you feel like you can have the best impact, the best opportunity to be impactful,” he said. “As I was approached about the Purdue possibility, it really looked like something that fit me and my background really, really well.”
Bobinski went on to describe how the athletic department at Purdue is poised “to move in a really good direction” and make significant progress in the next few years. He mentioned the revenue jump that the Big Ten will make in coming years. Twelve of the 14 Big Ten schools (not including newcomers Maryland and Rutgers) will reportedly receive $44.5 million in 2017-18. Compare that with the $22.5 million that Tech received in ACC distributions for 2015-16 (though the 2019 launch of the ACC Network is expected to significantly increase distributions).
“So resources will be available to do things that you need to get done,” Bobinski said.
His first priority at Purdue likely will be addressing the football team, which has won six games in the past three seasons and is 2-22 in Big Ten play in that span. The department has already begun to address that with a $60 million upgrade of its football facilities.
Bobinski acknowledged later in the interview the challenge that Tech’s limited resources have placed on his plans.
“Has that been a source of some frustration?” he asked. “Yeah, it has. I’d be lying if I said otherwise. I don’t lack for understanding for what we would like to get done, and the things that are in need of getting done, but you’re not always able to make those things happen given our current circumstance. That does frustrate me when you know there are things you could do to help move things forward and you’re just not able to do it at this point in time.”
Among other things, Tech does not provide the full allotment of scholarships for the swimming and track teams. Bobinski said last school year that he wished there were enough money in the budget to provide athletes with a comprehensive three-meals-a-day nutrition program. Regarding football coach Paul Johnson's assertion that Tech was "way behind" other ACC schools with its facilities, Bobinski didn't disagree.
“I completely salute the fact that we need to continue to find ways to make sure that our facilities are competitive,” he said. “That’s part of the game these days. You can’t deny it.”
It isn’t much different than comments he has made in the past. Bobinski said last fall the goal is to spend on tools and resources that meet legitimate needs.
“That’s our goal, that’s our objective,” he said. “Can we always meet every need? No, we can’t, probably, but I’m not interested in doing the things on the fringe. I’m interested in doing the stuff that really moves the needle.”
Typically, Tech tries to aim to break even in its annual budget. This past fiscal year, the department was expected to come out $221,000 ahead. For the upcoming school year, Tech projects to run a $2.4 million deficit, in part due to the buyout payment for former basketball coach Brian Gregory and higher salaries for new coach Josh Pastner and his assistants, slower ticket sales for football and basketball and costs for the upkeep of Bobby Dodd Stadium.
He told 680 the Fan that he realized that he didn’t have an endless supply of money at Tech.
“But certainly, when you have to manage it very, very closely on a day-in, day-out basis, after a while, it does begin to wear a little bit on you,” he said.
Bobinski also described Purdue, which has had retiring athletic director Morgan Burke in place for 24 years, as “really, really efficient, well-organized, really well-managed, so you get a chance to just sort of take a thing that is in really good shape and move it up to a little bit higher level of performance.
In response to a question about charges that he was distant or not always available, Bobinski described Tech as having "undergone a tremendous amount of change in the organization over the last couple of years and done our very best to put the department in total in a direction and in a position to be successful over the long haul, but being successful requires everybody to be willing to meet in the middle a little bit. That's something that is an ongoing challenge for our department, to have everybody come out of their corners and be willing to get on board with the overall sense of direction for the department. I'm very hopeful that it will continue to get better and improve, and we've made a lot of progress in that way."
There were other factors. Bobinski’s son is in graduate school at Notre Dame. His daughter and newborn granddaughter are in Ohio. Bobinski is a graduate of Note Dame and got his start in collegiate athletics administration at Notre Dame before eventually having athletic director jobs at Akron and Xavier. He owns a condominium in town in Atlanta but also a 13-acre property in Coweta County that he tends with a tractor.
On Tuesday at his introductory news conference in West Lafayette, Ind., he told reporters that it was “awesome” flying over a landscape of farmland and silos en route to Purdue.
“It was back to what I’m familiar with,” he said.
Bobinski described the Tech athletic directorship as “a good job. It’s a great place in a great city with great people.” He said it was “my absolute thought process” when he arrived that Tech was a destination job and that continued to be the case until Purdue.
“However folks will characterize (my legacy) will be how they do it, but I value my time here,” he said. “I’ve enjoyed it incredibly and will always keep a close eye on what’s happening at Georgia Tech, because this is a great place.”
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