Purdue COO Mike Bobinski discusses Zach Edey, NCAA settlement and more

WEST LAFAYETTE — Mike Bobinski has led college athletics for nearly three decades, including the past eight years at Purdue University.

Never before has this role been so demanding.

Bobinski’s arrival at West Lafayette came before the era of NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) in college sports.

And now we have the recently proposed settlement, in which the NCAA and its five major conferences agree to pay nearly $2.8 billion in damages to current and former athletes since 2016. It marks the first time in the history of college sports that schools will directly pay student-athletes.

“It’s more confusing and complicated than ever before,” Bobinski said. “There’s just a lot of uncertainty.”

Bobiński sat down with Journal and Courier to discuss this and much more.

Q: To wrap up the 2023-24 season, obviously the NCAA men’s basketball run was a highlight. There have been a lot of great things that have happened with Purdue athletics, but you’re never going to be 100 percent satisfied. Where can you improve?

Answer: I thought it was a foundation-building year. We’ve had a lot of head coaching turnover over the last few years and I really like our group right now. I think we have some really talented guys, especially our new coaches. Some of our new coaches have a lot of potential and I’m excited to see them build.

Q: One of them is women’s football coach Richard Moodie. He seems very enthusiastic and innovative. What does he bring to the programme?

A: He brings with him an incredible amount of soccer experience. Diverse experience internationally and nationally, and a history of building a successful program at South Alabama. His energy is undeniable. He and his staff have made a huge impression on our young ladies who have been here.

More: New Purdue women’s soccer coach Richard Moodie hopes to bring excitement to Boilermakers

Q: Women’s basketball, with a different roster, has taken a step back from the season early last year. But you gave coach Katie Gearlds a contract extension after the season. I assume you see what’s building and believe it’s headed in the right direction?

A: We have the benefit of being able to look behind the scenes a little bit and understand that this year is going to be a transition year. We had a roster that was very experienced and young, and the combination of those wasn’t always perfect. I get to watch the day-to-day building process that Katie and her staff are going through and I believe in the direction we’re headed. We wanted to demonstrate that and let her know that we have a lot of confidence in her ability to take our women’s basketball program to the level of competition that we’ve seen in years past.

Q: For years, I think Purdue athletics was kind of like, that’s where Drew Brees played in college. Drew is a legend and still very recognizable, but time has moved on to a new generation. In that regard, how valuable is Zach Edey to have that star athlete that you’re connecting your university with?

A: Zach’s profile over the last two years, you can’t measure it or appreciate it until you walk away from him. We had unanimous National Player of the Year for two years in a row. It’s easy to take that for granted when you’re as close to it as we all are. It’s a huge, huge deal. I think it’s going to pay dividends for a long, long, long time.

More: ‘He changed this program.’ Zach Edey’s Purdue basketball legacy is in thin air

Q: Purdue has several ties to the Paris Olympics. How does that elevate your sports programs as a whole? For example, if someone watches USA Volleyball and it mentions that Annie Drews played at Purdue, that’s a huge amount of exposure.

A: We’ve talked a lot about college sports in recent years about how important the pipeline that college sports provides to our Olympic movement, not only in this country but elsewhere. In some cases, we have young people representing their home countries. It just adds to the profile of what we’re able to do here at Purdue, prepare and develop young people who are able to compete at the highest level.

Q: On that note, diving coach Adam Soldati resigned after being diagnosed with ALS, and now you’re transitioning to David Boudia taking over while also coaching several Olympic jumpers. It wasn’t ideal, and Adam has done a lot for this university. I’m sure you want to keep Adam in his position as long as he wants to do it. How carefully are you handling this delicate situation for Adam and his family?

A: Of course it’s a difficult circumstance for Adam and his family. He’s without a doubt one of the most talented individuals and coaches I’ve ever been around in my professional career. He thinks and operates on a different plane than most. I’ve always felt inadequate after talking to Adam. He and (Soldati’s wife) Kumiko and their family have approached this exactly as you would expect, with the most positive and optimistic attitude and approach you could possibly have. From our very first conversation (about his ALS diagnosis) I said we would 100% take your lead on this. We’ll want to provide all the support we can along the way, but it’s up to you to decide how that works. He balances his desire to support the program and the young guys he’s coached, but also prepare himself and his family for the road ahead. He’s really given us a road map, and we’ve just tried to walk with him.

Q: The football team lost a couple of winnable games last year and went 4-8. But head coach Ryan Walters is a confident guy and believes he’s going to go out and win every game. And you guys sell a lot of tickets and generate buzz. I imagine that’s one of the reasons he was hired?

A: Last year we didn’t get a good shock because of injuries. Not only were the numbers significant, but they were in absolutely the wrong positions. Even with the offensive line put together at the end, we still ran with incredible numbers. … I think a lot of people are sleeping on what’s going on with our football program. I see a lot of these ranked groups, none of whom have stepped foot on campus to see or really understand what’s going on. That’s OK with me. We don’t have to win in the publications. We have to win on the field.

Q: You guys covered this a few years ago, but there’s a lot of buzz surrounding the release of the EA Sports College Football 25 video game.

A: It’s probably to be expected, but generationally it’s kind of passed me by. I hope our student-athletes can benefit from it in a lot of ways, and I’m glad we’re in it.

P: But it’s another chance to promote Purdue. As far as traditions go, it’s probably played by people who don’t know anything about Purdue or the World’s Largest Drum of the Boilermaker Special traditions.

A: That’s another added benefit. Because the distribution of these games, I think, will be a huge success, people who probably don’t know much about Purdue or any of the other things that it has a chance to do, if you have some success, people are more likely to jump in and use Purdue as their team and learn more about it. I don’t see any downside to that.

Q: One last thing. There’s been a lot of activity in the last month or two with the lawsuit involving the NCAA and its Power Five conferences, including the Big Ten, approving a settlement of nearly $2.8 billion in payments to current and former athletes. What’s the impact on the Purdue athletic department?

A: There’s no way to predict what the impact will be on us on a day-to-day basis. Of all the alternatives, such as lawsuits and other challenges that we face as a result of individual judges or state legislators passing laws and regulations that are specific to each school’s state, none of them were headed in the right direction. The settlement in this lawsuit was the best of a number of difficult alternatives. That’s not to say it’s not difficult. It is difficult. And it will be different in many ways. We won’t know some of the actual mechanics and details until this settlement actually works its way through the full approval process.

Q: Where do you get this money from?

A: The compensation portion will effectively be withheld from NCAA distribution for 10 years. That’s the current working model from a Big Ten membership perspective. That means we’ll be cut by about $1.2 million to $1.3 million per year for the next 10 years. That creates a gap that we have to fill somewhere, somehow. We’re used to getting those dollars.

Q: I saw a quote from Phil Knight about giving Oregon unlimited NIL support from Nike. It’s still an uneven playing field in many ways, but at the same time you have a chance to compete for every recruit. It’s just more about money than it used to be. But you still have to follow the guidelines and remain a science-based institution. Where’s the balance?

A: It’s an interesting environment. I’m not going to make too many statements about it. When the 2025-26 season starts and the accounting guidelines are formalized, the current NIL environment and the one that’s going to be in place through that year will change and it’s going to change dramatically. I understand how and why we came to this revenue sharing concept, but there’s also a recognition that these are college athletes, not professionals. Assuming we’re just going out and buying rosters, which we’ve done in some cases. And in some cases, we’ve been unsuccessful. I wonder how the guys who have provided assets in some cases, and I won’t name names, but significant amounts of money and haven’t gotten anything back for it, how they feel about that. It’s a little bit, let’s earn it. That’s the approach that we’ve taken here at Purdue. I think it fits the philosophy and the approach that Purdue has taken. We’re attracting people who understand that I have to show something, I have to prove it before I can get significantly rewarded.

Q: When we discuss the loss of revenue due to the antitrust settlement, another drop in revenue is likely due to the expansion of the Big Ten, which means more travel dollars are needed, right?

A: Inflation is definitely tough on the supermarket, and we’re all feeling it. The travel environment is even worse. Feeding the teams on the road. Flights. It’s all accelerating at a really aggressive rate. We’re always trying to manage our travel situation as best we can, and adding the need to travel to the West Coast has added costs that we’ve had to budget for in the future. I think we’re at a point where we feel like we can handle it. It’s a challenge, but it’s inherent to the situation.

Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter and Instagram @samueltking.