EUGENE, Ore. — Contrary to popular belief, Oregon athletic director Rob Mullens does not sit on a throne of gold with Nike swooshes emblazoned on all sides. Part of his office view in the Casanova Center is the parking lot.
Granted, the parking lot in 2013 will become a new $41 million, six-floor football complex that’s under construction, but that’s more a function of doing business in the BCS top 10. They’re not building it because of what many people feel is the driving force behind Oregon’s facilities: “Because we can.”
Yes, Mullens knows there are advantages having Nike chief executive Phil Knight as your biggest booster and not Don from Don’s Dodge. Since Colorado drubbed Oregon 38-6 in the Cotton Bowl 16 years ago, Knight has contributed an estimated $200 million to Oregon’s athletic department, money that has gone to a $90 million face-lift of Autzen Stadium in 2002, a $42 million academic center last year and $100 million in bonding to help pay for the $200 million, state-of-the- art, 12,541-seat Matthew Knight Arena basketball facility, which opened last season.
The end result: 79 consecutive football sellouts, a trip to last season’s BCS title game, a 5-1 record and a No. 9 ranking entering Saturday game at Colorado.
For Mullens, surprisingly, fundraising remains a challenge.
“Some people perceive that we have everything that we need because they see the quality of facilities and the level of success that we have and the number of sellouts,” Mullens said. “But there are also people who understand where this program was.”
Mullens’ pitch to midrange and ground-level donors is this: Since the Bowl Championship Series began in the 1998 season, Oregon has the smallest stadium of any participant.
“Remember, our asset base is 54,000 seats,” Mullens said. “We’re competing against folks with 85,000, 90,000, 105,000 seats sold out and an incredibly broad donor base.”
Also, Oregon’s one-time recruiting advantage is slipping. Ten years ago, the country-club-quality locker rooms, training facilities and athletic department building titillated many a prep All-American toward giving Oregon a chance.
Today, Oregon is just another soldier in the arms race.
“I spent eight years in the SEC, 6 1/2 in the ACC,” said Mullens, hired in July 2010 from Kentucky, where he was deputy director of athletics. “There are a lot of other institutions who have first-rate facilities — and the SEC, their facilities are deep. I’d line ours up with any of those, but we’re not alone.”
One major problem lurks, however. The NCAA is investigating Oregon’s $25,000 payment to recruiting service director Will Lyles, who allegedly steered five-star tailback Lache Seastrunk to the Ducks last year.
Lyles told : “Indirectly, I played a pivotal role in (Seastrunk’s signing with Oregon).” Oregon has denied wrongdoing, and Lyles has since backpedaled from earlier statements.
“I’m not concerned,” Mullens said. “We have a fine system in place. I trust our team. We’ve been completely forthright, open and provided and responded to anything that anybody needed.”
But if the NCAA finds Oregon at fault, the probation could be severe. Could Oregon withstand a major setback?
“We’re building the foundation to sustain that success,” Mullens said. “Our expectation is we’re an elite football program, and we’ll remain an elite football program.”
