Jay Jacobs demands excellence from Auburn coaches

• Auburn athletics%2C including Tigers Unlimited Fund%2C made %24800%2C000 last year
• Sellouts anticipated in football%2C men%27s basketball
• Jacobs%3A Softball turnaround under Clint Myers %27phenomenal%27
• Baseball has %27got to get better%27

AUBURN -- There is no athletic director in America who has overseen more drastic changes in the last two years than Jay Jacobs.

Now midway through his 10th year as Auburn's AD, Jacobs navigated through the turmoil of 2012-13, firing Gene Chizik, John Pawlowski and Tina Deese, three of the five most prominent coaches in the department, and hired Gus Malzahn, Sunny Golloway and Clint Myers to rebuild Auburn's football, baseball and softball programs, respectively.

Then he took the ax to Tony Barbee, who ran an already beleaguered basketball program further into the ground over four years, and made the biggest hire in college basketball this offseason — Bruce Pearl.

The changes cost Auburn a lot of money and also led to a lot of wins and increased revenues.

Jacobs committed to pay Malzahn, whose contract was renegotiated prior to the SEC Championship Game, $26.85 million over the next six years, Pearl $14.7 million over that same period, with Golloway ($250,000 annually) and Myers ($180,000) signed through 2018, and pay buyouts to Chizik ($7.5 million), Barbee ($2.4 million) and Pawlowski ($449,000).

Malzahn led the Tigers to the greatest turnaround in SEC history, Myers took the softball team to an NCAA regional and Pearl has given new life to one of the worst programs in major college basketball and driven up ticket sales. Only Golloway, whose team was projected to finish last in the SEC West, failed to get hit with Jacobs' Midas touch in Year 1 of his tenure on the Plains.

More than the financial commitments or the competitive impact, the biggest indicator of exactly how big a turnaround Jacobs has overseen comes from the avid Auburn fan base.

During the fall of 2012, Jacobs said almost nothing publicly and fans grew increasingly restless for a total housecleaning of the athletic department. Those who hoped for change at the top have since largely come back around to Jacobs' corner after he swiftly and furiously fired back last spring at two erroneous reports riddled with unfounded accusations of improprieties within the program.

What was very nearly an angry mob ready to storm the Plains less than two years ago was throatily in support when he introduced Pearl two months ago, laughing and cheering along with Jacobs as he ushered in the fifth new coach in what was less than two years.

Jacobs sat down with the Montgomery Advertiser last week to discuss the changes he's made over the last year., including personnel, improvements the program is looking to make in infrastructure, ticket sales and the forthcoming SEC Network.

Over the last year-and-a-half you made four coaching changes, which have almost universally paid immediate dividends, how do you explain the turnaround?

"I demand excellence and yeah there are ups and downs in this business, there are wins, there are losses, but I demand excellence and I'm going to continue to demand excellence. The Auburn people demand excellence, no more than I do but as much as I do in some cases. Last year, the football season was a lot of fun. That run that we had, those two games at the end of the year and getting a chance to play for a national championship and having more SEC football championships than anybody else in the league in the last 10 years is fun. I'm doing my job, and I'm going to keep doing my job and whatever's best for these student-athletes is what I'm going to do."

What is the impact to your bottom line from the increased resources you've committed to coaching salaries?

"It impacts it but because of the job that me and the staff have done the last 10 years, we've been able to put considerable dollars in reserve and so it's there so we can make the kind of adjustments we need to make. Whether it's that, whether it's in salaries, whether it's $5.5 million for this wellness kitchen, whatever it may be, it's a business. We're going to run it like a business, and you have to forecast your expenditures as well as your revenues so you can make good business decisions, but we're not going to compromise on anything."

It was reported the athletic department lost $865,994 last year. While not a significant sum for a $104 million program, what accounted for most of that loss?

"We probably did more as far as gearing up for this SEC Network last year. We have added some staff to the football staff. … It's no one particular thing. … Every dollar is always accounted for. Anytime that we operate off of one our budget lines it's explained and approved by a couple of people."

So after these short-term investments, you're expecting to be back to turning a profit?

"When you combine Auburn athletics with our giving — our Tigers Unlimited — we had a balanced budget. ... When you look at one budget it doesn't give you the totality. Our end of the year budget was really about $800,000 (in profits), which we just completed last week.

"With the significant investment that we're making with our SEC television network, that's costing us a lot of unbudgeted dollars. We're building two control rooms and running fiber to all of our athletic venues that didn't already have it. It's a few million dollars that we didn't have budgeted so we're having to tighten our belts on a lot of things, but we know that in years to come the revenue from that — the way that I do things from a business perspective, is what is the return on investment. Right now, we're making an investment in something that doesn't automatically show the offset in revenue. We've got a budget, but we've got some things budgeted that create more expenditures than revenue, but we know the revenue is eventually coming."

How are football ticket sales going this offseason?

"It's unbelievable. We'll be completely sold out by August. I don't know yet in Tigers Unlimited … at the rate at which we're going if everybody keeps contributing to Tigers Unlimited, that person who just wanted to buy a season ticket without a seat license attached to it may be without a ticket. Our numbers are trending very well. Our premium seating, our scholarship seating, has already exceeded year-to-date what we did last year and last year was a record year for us."

Will there be any improvements to Jordan-Hare Stadium for the fall?

"There won't be any additional physical improvement. We're continuing, we're recognized now as one of the best in game day experience in the nation starting on Friday. Now we've got other schools asking us how we're doing it. It brings a lot of pride to Auburn. We're going to keep pushing that as far as the game day experience goes."

What was the feedback from some of the initiatives made by the SEC's Working Group on Fan Experience last season such as video replays being shown in the stadium?

"Probably out of the top five things, three of them were connectivity; the Wi-Fi, social networking, those type things. At Auburn we were in a very great spot, people were happy … You can always improve on your concessions, the quality and the variety of food that you provide and those type things. The thing that we all — and it's not unique to anybody in particular, it's every stadium — (is connectivity). … Our master plan, because of the way that we're selling tickets, is to continue to create more amenities from a game day standpoint for our season ticket holders. That may mean that we take some seats that aren't as attractive to some of us and we do something different with those seats as far as add chair backs, or create a place that those people in that section get to go underneath the stadium and there's a restroom or their own private area. We're continuing to look at always to not add seats — but to increase the value."

What has been the impact of Bruce Pearl's hire on ticket sales?

"It's been incredible. Our general public season ticket has increased almost 200 percent in number. That's not the TUF side of it; those renewals aren't due back for another two months. ... I strongly suspect that we'll be sold out in basketball. … We've got a great facility over there, one of the best in the nation, and now we're looking forward to this fall having it completely full."

How do you look at what Clint Myers has done in one year?

"It's phenomenal. It's absolutely phenomenal. I demand excellence and he does too. We may have ended up this season leading the nation in fielding percentage. It's unbelievable what he's done. He tied the second-most wins we ever had in softball history. He is a phenomenal teacher and his staff is the same way. I'm just so happy for those young ladies to have the success they've had. We're one pitch away from being in Oregon (in a Super Regional) this weekend."

How do you evaluate the first season of baseball under coach Golloway?

"Coming in there was a reason that we had to make a coaching change. When you come in, regardless of what sport it is, there are tough changes that have to go on. We've got to get better in baseball. Sunny made some changes this fall and did some things to try to get the program to where he thinks it needs to be. With his experience in going to the NCAA, we know that he knows what a great program looks like. But just like we do every year, now at the end of this year I'm evaluating that program and I'll evaluate softball and everything else we do. ... I'm going to demand excellence in every area, not just in the wins and losses, but in every area."

Last year you said you learned not to take the winning for granted, what have you learned this past year?

"That's a profound question. I've learned that not only do I expect excellence, I demand it. I'm not going to compromise on anything. I played here, I coached here, the number of years I've been here, been through ups and downs, and I'm not going to compromise on anything that I know gives our student-athletes the best chance to compete or get a degree. I don't compromise on anything."