Wildcat Wednesday - 9/21/11 - ARIZONAWILDCATS.COM - The University of Arizona Wildcats Official Athletic Site

Wildcat Wednesday - 9/21/11

Athletics Director Greg Byrne's weekly email discussing Wildcat Athletics

Athletics Director Greg Byrne

Sept. 21, 2011

CONFERENCE CONSOLIDATION

No doubt you've heard that the whirlwind of proposed conference expansion possibilities -- in our case -- ended Wednesday with an announcement from Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott that our league's presidents and chancellors reaffirmed that we're a 12-team conference. The landmark television contract that the Pac-12 signed, our league's plans to launch its own innovative network and its digital assets put us in a strong position at this juncture. There are so many pieces to the legacy and heritage of the Pac-12 that can help us strengthen the brand and move forward. There appears to be a lull in consolidation efforts now and that is good for the University of Arizona to be firmly entrenched in this great enterprise. There's a bright future.

THE NORTH END ZONE PROJECT

More progress has been made on steps toward the ground-breaking for the north end zone football facility in Arizona Stadium. We've concluded some design choices and are working on details with architects. It's pretty exciting looking ahead to this in the very near future. This facility will help us move forward in spectator amenities, recruiting and several services to our student-athletes and the campus community. We'll share more details with you in the coming months.

VIDEOBOARD UPDATE

For those of you who attended last weekend’s football game you noticed that the audio for our scoreboard was sounding much better. However, we still have adjustments to make. We continue to work with our audio engineers to fine tune the sound system in pursuit of the best possible audio show we can provide. This week we will have additional staff throughout the stadium providing real time feedback so that our audio technicians can make necessary adjustments. This process is a work-in-progress, so we appreciate your understanding.

I encourage any of you attending Saturday’s game to arrive early at Arizona Stadium to avoid any last-minute crunch at the gates. We are nearly sold out – thank you! – and expect a capacity crowd, so come early and enjoy the new pre-game CatVision programming on the videoboard. Concessions will be open and it's a good time to settle in for the games. Join us for the Wildcat Walk at 5:30, before gates open 90 minutes prior to kick.

HALL OF FAME WELCOME

Former Wildcat football star Rob Waldrop, who helped create the Desert Swarm defenses of the 1990s, will be on hand Saturday for an on campus salute for his selection to the National Football Foundation & College Hall of Fame. I hope you’ll join us in welcoming Rob back to campus and honoring him during our in-game presentation. If you don’t already have tickets to the Oregon game it is almost sold out, so please get your tickets now and don’t wait until Saturday.

WEAR THE COLORS VS OREGON

The Oregon game is also our Red, White and Blue-Out. Not only are those great colors, but the contrast will be impressive for the national ESPN2 telecast. Let’s show the country this is Wildcat Country! We want to see the whole stadium in Wildcat colors, with fans on the west side wearing blue, the ZonaZoo and east side wearing red, and those in the end zone sections wearing white.

CALENDAR NOTES...

Women's volleyball will play host to Washington at 7 p.m. Friday and WSU at 1 p.m. Sunday in McKale Center. Join us in supporting the women as they continue Pac-12 play... Our soccer team is off to the Bay Area for a match at Stanford on Saturday... The men's and women's cross country teams will compete in a big meet at St. Paul, Minn., after their superb showing in the Dave Murray Invitational in Tucson last week. Lawi Lalang set a record and the women had nine runners in the top 10 with Elvin Kibet winning... The men's tennis team will play in the Baylor Intercollegiates at Waco Friday through Sunday, while women's golf travels to Tennessee for the Fall Preview Friday through Sunday... Our football game at USC was selected for a telecast on FSN a few days ago, and will kickoff at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 1, in the Coliseum. It will be nice to see a lot of our Los Angeles area alumni come and cheer on the Cats... That's our fourth consecutive game on national television and based on this week's polls our fourth consecutive game against a ranked team. We knew the schedule was going to be tough in the first five weeks, and that underscores the factor...

HIGH-FLYING CATS

Not trying to encourage risk taking, but this photo of Matt Donahue sporting a ZonaZoo shirt on a highline above Sedona indicates some cat-like talents. (How about the colors atop the Empire State Building... anyone?) And, speaking of heights, below is Rita Tomas of Portugal, who spent 2009-10 at the University on a Fulbright grant, showing some recent pride at elevation in Colorado.

VOTE WILBUR

It was a close race last week and Wilbur needs your support now more than ever. Don't forget to vote for him in this week's mascot matchup vs. LSU’s Mike the Tiger! You can vote multiple times a day via: