By Bryan B. Blair, Vice President and Director of Athletics
December 19, 2024
 

Team Toledo, 

These are indeed exciting times for Toledo Athletics! Coming off a highly successful fall season in which we won two more Mid-American Conference Championships, our football team is headed to another bowl game later this month, our basketball teams are poised to defend their MAC titles, and our winter and spring sports are getting ready for what should be exciting and competitive seasons! 

Off the field, we are hard at work preparing for the major changes that are coming to college athletics, particularly those related to the recent House vs. the NCAA court case that I have previously discussed here. The court's decision in the House case will allow athletic departments to disburse portions of their revenue to student-athletes. This is a fundamental change to the way we operate, and our challenge is to find a balance between providing competitive NIL licensing compensation to student-athletes while still funding and growing the core operations of our department. It won't be easy, but we view it as an opportunity to grow and separate ourselves from some of our competitive peers. Change always brings opportunity and we are excited to embrace the future! 

Candidly, these changes will require us to be creative in finding new sources of revenue and increasing our current revenue streams. With the entrance of UMass into the MAC next year, we will be facing aggressive new competition within our conference  that will require us to step up our commitment if we want to continue to support our student-athletes at the highest possible level.   

 

• Recent Article by Pete Thamel on UMAS football to read: https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/42773277/sources-umass-hire-joe-harasymiak-football-coach

We hope you will join us in our quest to make Toledo the gold standard for college athletics by supporting the Rockets in any way you can. Our goal is to continue to produce championship-level programs while providing our outstanding student-athletes the support they need to thrive in their sport, in the classroom and in life. That takes all of us pulling together as one #TeamToledo! 

• Team Toledo, you can support our student-athletes through the Rocket Fund or 1923 Society. 

Incredible opportunities await us if we are bold enough to embrace the challenge and commit to making the University of Toledo a Gold Standard for college athletics. I look at the current 12 team college football playoff with two teams (SMU & Boise State) who were very recently in peer conferences and eventually transformed into two of the premier Group of Five programs, culminating with their entry into College Football Playoffs.  It's not hard to imagine Toledo being in that position. Just a year ago, we won 11 consecutive games, and at the end of the regular season we were in the mix for being the top Group of Five program in the country and a New Year's Six bowl game. If that happens going forward, that would put us in the national playoffs with schools like Oregon, Georgia and Ohio State.  That would have next-level impact, not only on our football program but on our entire University and Toledo community. But dreams like this don't happen by accident. They start with a vision, and come together with teamwork and commitment. I truly believe we have the potential to make this dream a reality!   

ROCKETS READY TO INVADE DETROIT'S FORD FIELD AT THE GAMEABOVE SPORTS BOWL! 

Our Rockets will play Pitt of the ACC in the GameAbove Sports Bowl at Ford Field in Detroit on Thursday, Dec. 26. This is the 15th consecutive season that the Rockets are bowl-eligible, which is the sixth-longest streak in the country and second-longest among Group of Five schools. We look forward to five days of fun in the Motor City, as well as an exciting football game against a challenging opponent. 

The GameAbove Sports Bowl, in particular, is a great opportunity for our football program and for our University for many reasons:  

• The game will be nationally broadcast on ESPN. It is annually the MAC's highest rated bowl game by far, and if this year's contest matches last year's TV audience of 2.3 million viewers, that would make it our most watched football game since more than 3 million tuned in to see us play Ohio State in 2022. There is no other single event that can showcase our University's brand to such a large number of people across the entire country. 
• We are the only MAC school playing a team from a Power Four conference, giving us an opportunity to defeat two power conference schools in the same season for only the second time in our history.  
• The game is played at Ford Field, a first-class NFL facility that ranks among the very best bowl venues in the country.  
• Best of all, with Detroit only one hour from our campus, it's a great opportunity for #TeamToledo to travel up I-75 and make Ford Field a home-field advantage for our Rockets! 

I encourage everyone to come out to Ford Field and show the entire country the power of #TeamToledo!    

Bowl ticket information can be found here: UTRockets.com/BowlTix


UTOLEDO GLASSBLOWER FEATURED ON ESPN2 FOOTBALL BROADCAST

A perfect example of how athletics can help promote the University brand occurred in a recent nationally televised Rocket football game. Eamon King, a UToledo scientific glassblower, was commissioned by the Orange Bowl to create three glass bowls that will serve as trophies for the national semifinal game in Miami, Fla. on Jan. 9. King's story was highlighted in an in-game feature on ESPN2 during our football game vs. Ohio on Nov. 20, shining a national spotlight on him (and UToledo). 

Another example of how Athletics can work hand-in-hand with the academic mission of our University is the appearance of the Rocket Motor Sports Car, produced by students from our College of Engineering, in our pre-game team introductions in the Glass Bowl.  The appearance of the car at our football games provided a platform for positive brand exposure for our College of Engineering and for our University. The motor car's role at our football game's has been a point of pride for the college, as noted by Interim Dean Mohammad Elhinia in his recent holiday greeting. 

 
 

Click HERE to watch video.	Click HERE to watch video.

ROCKET WELCOME TO NEW ROWING COACH CHRIS BAILEY-GREENE!

We are thrilled to welcome Chris Bailey-Greene as the first head coach of our new women's rowing program! Chris is a native Ohioan and former Ivy League student-athlete who brings more than 13 years of coaching experience from top institutions such as Washington State, Oregon State, Gonzaga and Yale. 

We look forward to introducing Chris to our #TeamToledo community soon. We are excited to collaborate with Metro Parks Toledo and the Toledo Rowing Foundation as we begin competition on the Maumee River in downtown Toledo next fall! 

FOOTBALL SIGNS NO. 1 RECRUITING CLASS IN THE MAC!

A major component to our Strategic Plan (risetogethertoledo.com) is to recruit, retain, and develop the best teammates. Simply put, nothing is more important to our success than attracting the very best student-athletes to our University. That is why we are excited that our football team once again signed the No. 1 recruiting class in the Mid-American Conference! 

Head Coach Jason Candle and his staff have consistently signed top recruiting classes. Toledo has had the No. 1 ranked class in the MAC in each of the past two seasons and seven times since Coach Candle assumed the reins as head coach in December of 2015.This year's class is no exception and ranks ahead of schools such as North Carolina, Vanderbilt, Central Florida, Purdue, California, Boise State and San Diego State. Better still, this class has an average GPA of nearly 3.5! I can't wait to see what these stars of the future will do in the Glass Bowl and in the classroom in the years to come! 

BASKETBALL TEAMS READY TO DEFEND THEIR MAC TITLES

Excitement is building in Savage Arena as both of our basketball teams are ready to defend their Mid-American Conference crowns! 

Tod Kowalczyk's men's team is going for an unprecedented fifth-straight MAC title or as Coach says, "Going for the Nickel!" while first-year Head Coach Ginny Boggess' women's squad is looking to capture its fourth consecutive crown! MAC play begins on New Year's Day when our women's team hosts Northern Illinois. Our men open conference play on Jan. 4 at Western Michigan, then return home on Tuesday, Jan. 7 for their league home opener on vs. Eastern Michigan. 

Our men also have two non-conference games vs. Top 25 opponents over the holiday break, at No. 15 Houston on Dec. 18 and at No. 11 Purdue on Dec. 29. Our women, who have already played No. 21 Iowa and No. 7 Maryland, will compete at the Cherokee Invitational in North Carolina on Dec. 18-19. 

We want to see Savage Arena packed this season! It's not too late to purchase season tickets or one of our convenient ticket packages.   

Men's & Women's Basketball season ticket information can be found here: WBB Tickets  & MBB Tickets

 

Click HERE to watch video.	Click HERE to watch video.

CROSS COUNTRY COMPETES AT NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS

Congratulations to our women's cross country team and to men's cross country runner Dominic Serem for qualifying and competing at the NCAA National Championships in Madison, Wisc. on Nov. 23. Our women qualified for the NCAA Championships with a strong third-place finish at the NCAA Regionals, placing ahead of five Big Ten schools -- Michigan State, Ohio State, Michigan, Indiana and Purdue. On the men's side, Dominic became the first Rocket in 49 years to earn an individual berth to the men's NCAA Championships, thanks to his third-place finish at the regionals. 

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR GRADUATES!

Congratulations to our 23 Rockets who graduated this month! In our Strategic Plan, "Rise Together," we identified our central purpose: "Graduate Champions Who Will Change the World." Our aim is to ensure every student-athlete has the opportunity to compete for championships while earning meaningful degrees that prepare them for success beyond sports. We are incredibly proud to celebrate our Rocket graduates and wish them the best of luck as they embark on their future journeys! 
 

BRAGGING RIGHTS….

I'd like to recognize these fantastic accomplishments from the past month: 
 

Taylor Alt: The senior outside hitter earned first-team All-MAC honors for the fifth time in her career while leading the volleyball team to its third post-season appearance in the last four years in the National Invitational Volleyball Championship (NIVC). Alt is the first Rocket in any sport to earn All-MAC honors in five consecutive seasons.
Maxen Hook: A safety on the football team, Maxen earned first-team All-MAC honors for the third consecutive season and fourth time overall. He is only the third Rocket to earn all-conference honors in four seasons, joining NFL stars Nick Kaczur (2001-04) and Barry Church (2006-09).
Laura Nicholson: Laura broke the school record in the indoor 3000m at the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener in Boston, Mass. on Dec. 7 with a time of 9:13.54.
Khera Goss: Khera became the 34th player in our women's basketball program's history to crack the 1000-point mark, passing that milestone in a contest vs. Maryland on Dec. 1.

Finally, I'd like to close by wishing all of #TeamToledo a happy and healthy holiday season. This time of year is a great time to count your blessings, and I am certainly blessed to be part of this Athletic Department, University and Toledo community. 

This Community. This University. This Athletics Department. 
Together, we will accomplish the "impossible." 

Go Rockets!