New Missouri State University President Dr. Biff Williams officially introduced Patrick Ransdell before a full Plaster Student Union Theatre Friday as the MSU Pride Band played the fight song and the Sugar Bears and the cheer team waved pom poms.
Ransdell promised to focus on three areas as the athletics director of MSU: Aligning athletics with the educational mission of the university; keeping student athletes as their priority; and engaging the community like never before.
He promised to listen as he works toward those goals.
"I'm going to listen to our staff, our coaches, our student athletes, university leaders, donors, prospective donors, corporate sponsors, local businesses, members of the board (MSU Board of Governors) and members of this community," he said, "listening intently to see what is important for you."
Ransdell said he applied for the job because he believes Missouri State can win games immediately and sustain those wins for a long time. He also sees a lot of potential for growth.
"There's more underlying support in the community than maybe what's been shown the past couple of years," he said, "so we're going to tap into that, and we're going to reactivate a lot of people."
As MSU gets ready to move to Conference USA, Ransdell said most of the programs are well positioned, but for football, it’s going to be a lift. He wants to put plans in place to make sure the football program has a successful transition.
Both Ransdell and Williams have said improvements need to be made to Plaster Stadium, including adding premium seating. Ransdell plans to engage an architect and contractors soon to get an understanding of what that might cost. Williams said he believes those improvements could require $100 million over time. At Williams’ last institution, Utah Tech, he said $50 million was raised over 10 years for stadium improvements.
Williams said Ransdell’s can-do attitude, optimism and focus on putting students first are what impressed him the most during the hiring process. And he said Ransdell has what it takes to be a successful athletics director today.
"It's really engaging the community, getting the local businesses who want to be a sponsor, it's really a lot about external relations, and it's creativity," Williams said. "And what he did at Central Florida, what he did at Appalachian State and breaking records. He was one of the brain trusts behind that, so I'm really excited to see what he's going to do here."
Williams said the athletics program needs to generate more revenue. MSU needs to have high ticket sales, according to Williams so it can provide a better student athlete experience.
He wants the celebratory mood of the event Friday to extend to all areas of campus. He said he’s talked to several student groups and told them their role is to go to games and cheer for MSU. But it’s not just athletics.
"We want a tradition of 'go to Tent Theatre, go to some of the music performances, come to the games, come to the Bear Bash, come to all these,' " he said. "We want to create a culture where they go to everything, and then more and more people will come to the games."
Ransdell is excited to join the staff of MSU. As he soaked up the energy and excitement at the PSU Theatre today, he said, explained why he applied for the Missouri State job.
"When people said, 'why are you looking at Missouri State?' this is exactly what I was thinking about," he said, "the energy, the passion, this is — it could not have been dreamed better than this situation right here, right now. It is a great day to be a bear."
