Bret Bielema shocked the college football world two years ago when he jumped from Wisconsin to Arkansas. And it almost didn’t happen, thanks to the source of frustration familiar to some of his other SEC colleagues.
“The facilities that I walked into at Arkansas, if I had seen them before I signed the contract I may not have signed it. I mean they were really bad,” Bielema said this week.
The concerns were soon allayed: A $40 million football operations facility, followed by a $58 million facility for all sports. That may sound like a lot, but these days in the SEC, it’s the cost of doing business.
“It’s a big deal. Because today’s kids are so gratification-oriented,” Bielema said. “Hey this is cool, cool. You’ve gotta kind of grab them a little bit.”
That’s a big reason why Mark Richt has been clamoring for a full-fledged indoor facility since he was hired at Georgia. He’s finally on track to get it, 15 years later. He waited a long time, and through the years has kept his frustration from bubbling to the surface. Now that it’s imminent, he has a sunny way of looking at it.
“We’re the last ones to build one. But sometimes when you’re the last to build one you can make it the best,” Richt said.
Indoor facilities have become the latest topic du jour when it comes to the SEC arms race. Georgia and Florida were the last holdouts, with Florida finally set to open one in September. South Carolina, which had a medium-length indoor facility, is opening a full-length one in a few months.
But their SEC competitors, including Alabama, Auburn and Tennessee, have had expensive facilities for years.
Florida’s new football coach, Jim McElwain, chuckled when asked how his new school compared with Alabama, where he worked from 2008-11.
“Well they got a pretty good jump on stuff there,” McElwain said. “Those of you who have been there, you kind of know what I’m talking about.”
The facilities themselves may be less important in their practical use than the importance to recruiting, and symbolism:
As Georgia defensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt put it last year, on a day the team had to cancel practice because of bad weather, rivals in recruiting would say: “How important is football to them if they don’t have an indoor practice facility? Well, they won’t be able to say that anymore.”
Although the project has been estimated by UGA to cost around $30 million, a true estimate is harder to pin down. It could be more, it could be much less. Why it could cost that much, and what bells and whistles the facility will have, is also a mystery. So is whether the existing, smaller facility will be replaced, or stay and adjoin the new one.
All that is known is UGA has committed to building it, and in Athletic Director Greg McGarity’s words, “getting it right.”
To that end, Georgia officials have visited other schools to study their indoor facilities. Richt said they’ve asked what those schools wish they had done differently, as well as very specific questions: Where to put the filming towers, how much space from the sideline to the wall, and so on.
“We’re really excited. I think it’ll be the best (indoor facility) in America,” Richt said. “It’s gonna be a beautiful thing.”
When Steve Spurrier was at Florida in the 1990s, he used to downplay the importance of an indoor facility. He still doesn’t think it’s hugely important for actual practicing. But when it comes to recruiting and the SEC arms race, Spurrier has grudgingly accepted that it’s part of the deal.
“You don’t really have to have them that much in the South,” Spurrier said. “But since everybody’s got one you probably need to have one now.”
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