COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — By all measures, Missouri endured a disappointing football debut in the Southeastern Conference, slogging
through a 5-7 season in 2012 that disrupted a seven-year streak of bowl games under Coach Gary Pinkel.
Off the field, Mizzou's SEC-driven success
has been far more noticeable. On Tuesday, school officials announced an
$8.3 million
gift from Don and Audrey Walsworth of Marceline to be used to
improve and expand Memorial Stadium and also build a new clubhouse
for the men's and women's golf teams at a private course in
Columbia.
The donation follows a $30 million gift from the Kansas City Sports Trust in June — the second largest private gift of any
kind in school history — and a $6.4 million anonymous athletics contribution in December.
"We have to have the facilities to attract
men and women of SEC caliber," said Walsworth, an MU graduate, CEO of a
northern
Missouri publishing company and former chairman of the
university's Board of Curators. "We have kind of a grace period right
now, but we're going to have to step up."
Two of the Walsworths' three children played golf for Mizzou. A third, Don Walsworth Jr., was a Pac-10 golf champion as a
Stanford University senior.
The school plans to add 6,000 seats to its football stadium, which now holds 71,004 fans. Eight SEC stadiums hold more than
80,000, with Bryant-Denny Stadium at Alabama and Tennessee's Neyland Stadium topping 100,000.
Missouri envisions a total of $200 million
of athletic facility upgrades, funded in part by $72 million of debt
financing
through 30-year revenue bonds. The school hopes to recoup its
entire investment through the sale of additional premium seats
and football luxury boxes.
Also on Tuesday, Missouri athletics director Mike Alden offered his first public comments on reports that men's basketball
coach Frank Haith could be charged with committing NCAA violations while at Miami.
CBSSports.com has reported that Haith, who spent seven mostly middling years at Miami before his surprise hire by Alden in
2011, will face charges of unethical conduct by the NCAA.
Two former Miami assistant coaches have been
told they will also face unethical conduct charges as part of a
two-year NCAA
inquiry, two people familiar with the situation have told The
Associated Press. They spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity
because neither the NCAA nor Miami has released the expected
notice of allegations.
Days before the report's anticipated
release, the Miami investigation took a dramatic turn last week when
NCAA President Mark
Emmert announced that former NCAA investigators improperly
collaborated with lawyers for disgraced Hurricane booster Nevin
Shapiro, a convicted felon. Shapiro has claimed he provided cash,
cars, prostitutes and other impermissible benefits to dozens
of Miami football players and other athletes between 2002 and 2010
with the knowledge of multiple coaches and athletics employees.
Alden said he discussed his concerns with
Emmert on Monday at a winter meeting of athletic directors on Marco
Island, Fla.,
as well as with a group of peers from Arizona, Illinois, North
Carolina and Syracuse while on a 12-day tour of Nike manufacturing
facilities in southeast Asia.
"I've never seen anything like that before
in my tenure in college athletics," he said. "So, I certainly think it
raises lots
of questions. I appreciate the fact that the NCAA has come up and
they're addressing it. We'll kind of have to see how that
plays out."
"There's a significant amount of concern nationally relative to the integrity of the process and transparency," Alden added,
emphasizing the impact of the NCAA's self-inquiry could be felt far beyond Coral Gables and Columbia.