Dannen Letter

[PeteRasche]

Sent today (apologies for losing formatting):

August 1, 2022

Dear Tulane Fans and Friends,

I hope that this message finds you and your family well and that you are enjoying your summer. I write today to share some thoughts on where Tulane Athletics is headed in 2022-23 and to provide you with some insight on potential changes ahead in college athletics.

Today, I am as enthusiastic about the future of Tulane Athletics as I have been since my arrival in 2015. The foundation for success is built by our coaches and staff, relying on the talent and commitment of our student-athletes, and rests on the shoulders of our passionate and generous supporters. I am confident that we will exceed expectations across the board in our sports, and that includes on the fields, courts, pool and tracks of competition as well as in the classroom and in the community.

With the significant Hurricane Ida displacement behind us and a strong core of returning players and recruits, Football looks to begin a new bowl game streak this fall.
Volleyball will begin a new chapter under new Head Coach Jordana Price, who joins the Green Wave from Florida State and has brought with her excitement and momentum.
Men’s Basketball will enter the season with three All-AAC underclassmen on the roster and has post-season expectations.
Women’s Basketball replaced significant senior leadership but quickly rebuilt the roster and also enters the season with championship goals.
Jay Uhlman recently took the helm of our Baseball program, and with two of the top freshmen position players in the country returning to the diamond, the possibilities are limitless.
Sailing won a National Championship last year, and Coach Higgins returns a strong roster seeking a repeat of that amazing accomplishment.
Women’s Tennis advanced a doubles team to the Second Round of the NCAA Championship and has its eyes set on winning the AAC championship in 2022-23, while Men’s Tennis will once again be in the championship hunt.
Women’s Golf returns essentially the entire roster from its AAC Championship season in 2022.
Beach Volleyball moves to Conference USA for the 2022-23 season with expectations of our first NCAA appearance in the sport.
The running programs are poised for great things under second-year Head Coach Adrian Meyers with the strongest roster we have had in years.
Swimming and Diving is coming off a historic performance at the AAC championship meet, including the first team relay win in the 800 freestyle, and accolades for the AAC Swimmer of the Year. The team is excitedly awaiting completion of major renovations to our natatorium which are currently underway.
Bowling is seeking unprecedented success after qualifying for the USBC national championships last season.

Our excitement and expectations are high in several other areas as well. You can continue to expect incredible academic achievement from our student-athletes, with 13 consecutive semesters of improved academic performance, a record-high department Academic Progress Rate and a graduation rate of 93%, ranking among the highest in the nation.

Expect facility improvements in the year ahead, as we project the new tennis facility to be completed in the spring. In addition, significant fund-raising has been completed for a next-generation sports medicine facility that will be located near the Hack Shack, down the left field line of Turchin Stadium. Construction on that project is slated to begin later this academic year.

We have so much to be proud of and to look forward to in 2022-23, and your support of our student-athletes and coaches is a big reason. And while Tulane Athletics continues to pursue excellence, the world of intercollegiate athletics is quickly becoming unrecognizable.

Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) wasn’t on the radar a few years ago, but today is the talk of collegiate athletics. Donor and fan collectives didn’t exist twelve months ago.
The transfer portal continues to create opportunities for student-athletes but also chaos as coaches try to manage rosters. Last year, more than 25% of Division I men’s basketball and football players entered the transfer portal, the first full year in which they could change schools without losing a year of eligibility.
The United States Supreme Court issued a ruling in the Alston case last summer that changed the way we govern ourselves, leading to deregulation of a highly regulated environment.
Last summer and now this summer, we have seen major schools announce their departure from one conference to another, rearranging the composition of several conferences.

Despite these changes—and ones to come in the months ahead—something that will not change at Tulane is our emphasis on student-athlete welfare and the student-athletic experience. Our alignment at the institutional level and inside the department to ensure we remain student-centric is absolute. We will not lose sight of our North Star, and our student-athletes are our North Star.

As all of you know, the past three years have been challenging in many ways for all of us. The late winter and spring of 2020 brought the pandemic, which continued to impact us throughout the next year. Tulane University and Green Wave Athletics were at the forefront of student-athlete, coach and staff welfare, with more than 120,000 COVID tests administered just over the past year. And then, as we began to move past the pandemic last fall, Hurricane Ida hit one week before our first football game in September. It is hard to believe that our seniors will begin this year hoping for their first full year of “normalcy” at Tulane!

The greatest challenge we have in the upcoming year after three consecutive years of disruption, is to reunite the Green Wave community. But I am confident we will do just that. Our strength comes from our togetherness. Our student-athletes, staff and coaches, University leadership, donors, fans and friends will empower the success of the Wave and I could not be more excited for what lies ahead.

Enjoy the rest of the summer and I can’t wait to see you this fall on campus.

Roll Wave,
Troy Dannen
Athletic Director

[tjtlja]

Pete, thank you for sharing.

I am glad that Dannen gave a state of the union of Tulane athletics. The only disappointment was the football ops facility not being mentioned as one of the capital projects moving forward. The lack of not addressing Tulane’s goals for conference realignment was expected. Nevertheless, it is nice to see our leader speak to us fans.

[murphwave]

Nothing about making us more attractive to conferences or positioning ourselves us for next wave of re-alignment

[LondonWave]

I'm glad we can say finally that Hurricane Ida is behind us.

[PeteRasche]

FWIW I'm pretty sure he's issued a letter like this on August 1st every year.

[Baywave1]

He didn’t even give a date for finishing the Reilly swim fixes. Yikes.

I’m focused on the sports. This could be a good year on the field and court

However when the boss brags about administering 120,0000 COVID tests while numerous FBS peers are announcing spending $100,000,000 and more on athletics, we now know what a deafening silence sounds like.

[ml wave]

He didn’t even give a date for finishing the Reilly swim fixes. Yikes.

What would be the upside of doing that? Have you tried any kind of construction work in the area since Covid/Ida?

[Wave Revival]

He's mentioned having the funding for a new tennis facility for a couple years and now says it will be completed in the spring. Where is the new tennis facility going to be located?

[Baywave1]

He didn’t even give a date for finishing the Reilly swim fixes. Yikes.

What would be the upside of doing that? Have you tried any kind of construction work in the area since Covid/Ida?

Accountability and transparency.

Good effort to slip in how inflation is exploding construction project plans locally and nationally. I guess it’s now a race between SWB and Reilly as to which infrastructure improvement gets finished first. No predictions on a winner here

[GSx]

A whole lot of nothing.

[Wandering Quaker]

I would have liked to read something about positioning us for further improvement, but in a letter that would be (and has been) published openly, I didn't expect any comments about hopping conferences.

[tulaneoutlaw]

A whole lot of nothing.

Yep. As Bay mentioned above, "peers" are announcing major funding campaigns. I use quotation marks because we consider them peers, but aren't doing anything concrete to back up that notion, so we'll soon be left in the dust. The athletic department feels very unserious right now.

[waverider]

He didn’t even give a date for finishing the Reilly swim fixes. Yikes.

What would be the upside of doing that? Have you tried any kind of construction work in the area since Covid/Ida?

More importantly, why would he comment on non-athletics projects that he has no control over.

[ml wave]

He didn’t even give a date for finishing the Reilly swim fixes. Yikes.

What would be the upside of doing that? Have you tried any kind of construction work in the area since Covid/Ida?

Accountability and transparency.

While both good things for his constituents, neither have any upside for him. It's just something for people to potentially bash him about and the number of people that would care if the project gets completed/on time probably does not reach triple digits.

[WaveProf]

He didn’t even give a date for finishing the Reilly swim fixes. Yikes.

What would be the upside of doing that? Have you tried any kind of construction work in the area since Covid/Ida?

Accountability and transparency.

While both good things for his constituents, neither have any upside for him. It's just something for people to potentially bash him about and the number of people that would care if the project gets completed/on time probably does not reach triple digits.

This

[austxwave]

A letter from TD is no different than the groundhog coming out and seeing his shadow....in this case he'll run back into the Wilson Center and rarely be seen for 12 months. By him seeing his shadow, it means 12 more months of mediocrity.

[PeteRasche]

Have you tried any kind of construction work in the area United States since Covid /Ida?

FIFY. Though I imagine the Gulf South is worse since Ida.

Accountability and transparency.

Good effort to slip in how inflation is exploding construction project plans locally and nationally. I guess it’s now a race between SWB and Reilly as to which infrastructure improvement gets finished first. No predictions on a winner here

I won't bore you with examples (I can give you many) but I can say that any expectation that construction projects be finished in a relatively timely manner these days is COMICAL. You can't get steel beams, you can't get the electrical and HVAC equipment to put in it. It is truly unprecedented, the construction industry has never seen anything like this. But sure, blame Dannen.

(to be clear, I'm not defending him in everything, but this particular item is a 100% legit excuse)

[waverider]

Have you tried any kind of construction work in the area United States since Covid /Ida?

FIFY. Though I imagine the Gulf South is worse since Ida.

Accountability and transparency.

Good effort to slip in how inflation is exploding construction project plans locally and nationally. I guess it’s now a race between SWB and Reilly as to which infrastructure improvement gets finished first. No predictions on a winner here

I won't bore you with examples (I can give you many) but I can say that any expectation that construction projects be finished in a relatively timely manner these days is COMICAL. You can't get steel beams, you can't get the electrical and HVAC equipment to put in it. It is truly unprecedented, the construction industry has never seen anything like this. But sure, blame Dannen.

(to be clear, I'm not defending him in everything, but this particular item is a 100% legit excuse)

Not just supply, but the costs of most construction materials are 2-3x more than they were just a couple years ago.

[1309th WAVE]

Have you tried any kind of construction work in the area United States since Covid /Ida?

FIFY. Though I imagine the Gulf South is worse since Ida.

Can confirm. I know a guy who's been waiting for a roof replacement since last April, here in [undisclosed gulf coast location]

[Luvs da Wave]

Instead of blaming TD, perhaps we should consider whether or not the lack of financial support for athletics is our fault.

[austxwave]

Nope...it's the AD's fault. If you want money from your fan base, you have to be engaged with your fan base: verbally, physically, in writing (not just today's email). He also fails at sharing his vision for the future. A good AD lives in the present but is always pushing the department towards future success. Our "money" programs have been mediocre or poor resultwise. I'm not going to buy the BS about student-athletes anymore...this is a business only now...all of the "haves" treat it this way and all the "wannabe haves" treat it this way too. With the NIL and the transfer portal, college athletics is no longer about an education. Don't kid yourself into thinking that it is. If Tulane shows that it treats athletics as a business, it doesn't guarantee more wins, but it sure will go a long way towards donations and ticket sales.

[PeteRasche]

Nope...it's the AD's fault. If you want money from your fan base, you have to be engaged with your fan base: verbally, physically, in writing (not just today's email). He also fails at sharing his vision for the future. A good AD lives in the present but is always pushing the department towards future success.

So if this is the differentiator, I'd be really curious - because I honestly don't know - how communicative and engaged the ADs of any major P5 programs are. My bet is they are less communicative and less engaged than Dannen - if for no other reason than they probably have way more people demanding their time and are incredibly busy 24/7/365. I'm betting not a lot of Alabama or Ohio State fans really care much about their AD's engagement; why would they? They (along with many others, *cough* Penn State *cough*) have shown there's not a scandal in the world that would reduce their fanbase or cause them to lose their top-tier status.

Be honest, winning and raising money and building facilities would soothe all your concerns, right? Troy Dannen could forego his August update letter and his December update letter and be completely and totally invisible but if we were in a P5 conference making tons of money and ensured to be on the good side of any potential future NCAA split, you wouldn't really care, would you? (I mean, none of us would, I'd assume.) From that point of view, it's not actually about the AD being engaged with the fanbase at all, it's just making the AD the scapegoat for all the failures of athletics, whether they be the doings of him, his predecessors, or long-held institutional policies and priorities. How much of that can really be remedied by a single AD is debateable.

For whatever it's worth, I've been down to athletic events at Tulane 4 or 5 times during the Dannen era and I've seen him at every single one. I visited a basketball practice in the Dunleavy era and Dannen was there watching (I sat and chatted with him for about 30 minutes). I've seen him at tailgates, I've seen him at football games, I've seen him at other events. He was at our HOF induction (obviously) but I also saw him at the baseball game afterwards. I can only compare that to my time as a student-athlete when our ADs were Chet Gladchuck and Kevin White, both of whom went on to better jobs ("moved up"), and I never saw either of them nearly as much. They came through our locker room after big wins once or twice to say hello and I'd sometimes see them in the Wilson Building. Maybe I have a skewed perspective, maybe Gladchuck and White weren't around the teams because they were off meeting the fanbase and doing the things you ask above... but I doubt it. And while I know it's easier to communicate with fans in the digital era, I don't believe my parents (nor I) ever received an "update" or "State of Tulane" letter from either of those ADs.

[speckled trout]

Instead of blaming TD, perhaps we should consider whether or not the lack of financial support for athletics is our fault.

People typically want a return on their investment. What sport is Tulane currently good at? The only one I can think of is women’s hoops and even they aren’t that good.

I understand that before last year Tulane was an average football program for about 3 seasons, but is that as good as we can ever be? Why even play college athletics if you aren’t trying to be good?

[wavedom]

It's Tulane's fault that there isn't much financial support for athletics. First off was the de-emphasis of sports in 1949 and the lack of success since then. It also ingrained a mindset that athletics was not important. Then it also hasn't produced a lot of true big money alums. The few that exist don't care about athletics. Last but not least they wasted what money they could raise on a glorified HS stadium. That money, $85 million, could have built the football ops. building and the new arena that the two big sports needed. Now those donors are tapped out as far as giving to Tulane athletics. So TD has a lot of faults but this is on Tulane University.

[washwave]

What's the old saying? Success has a thousand fathers and failure is an orphan. Tulane Athletics has been an orphan for a long time. If there was any level of sustained success, there would be a lot more support. I think that Troy Dannen has done a good job with what he has to work with. It's clear that he's more of a manager/marketer than a fundraiser and there is plenty that can be done to improve things going forward but, to echo what some others have said, I'm on the same mailing lists for a mega conference P5 school and get less communication from the AD vs. Tulane.