Fred Glass Gives an Update on South End Zone Facility and Other Additions for 2017 Football Season

Indiana Athletic Director Fred Glass gives the media a tour of the SEZ facility. Image: David Sugarman HoosierHuddle.com

By David Sugarman (@David_Sugarman2)

Earlier today IU athletic director Fred Glass gave a tour to members of the media of the construction and renovations currently underway at Memorial Stadium in the south end zone. Glass followed this up with a press conference covering topics ranging from Gameday coming to Bloomington for the first time, the enhanced fan experience features in 2017 and yes, what happened with Bryant Fitzgerald. Here are our biggest takeaways from the day:

The Arms Race

It’s no secret that from barber shops, to mini golf to state of the art locker rooms that teams are constantly upgrading their facilities and if Indiana wants to keep the eye of top level recruits in the Big Ten they have to be willing to make the investment. Indiana is pouring 53 million dollars into what will be know as the South End Zone Excellence Academy.

It will include a new locker room, player’s lounge, new training and maybe more importantly new recovery equipment. Glass talked extensively about hydrotherapy pools as well as other additions for the Dr. Lawrence D. Rink Center for Sports Medicine and Technology. That will house a number of projects currently in the works including the Center for Elite Athlete Development, the Rehabilitation and Treatment Center and the Irsay Family Wellness Clinic. Other additions include the Hancock Hiltunen Caito Center for Leadership and Life Skills which will hold the Glass Family Student-Athlete Leadership Suite and the Career Counseling Center, and in another area there will be the Tobias Nutrition Center as well as a rooftop terrace for fans. The majority of these renovations will be done for the 2018 season with the exceptions being the football locker room and player’s lounge which is set to be completed for the 2019 season.

IU on the Big Screen

With the South End Zone renovations currently underway, there is no video board there for the time being, instead there is one at the top of the north end zone complex. The north end zone one will stay there and once the renovations are done there will be another state of the art video board added to the south side.

The Early Bird Gets the Worm

In his press conference Fred Glass circled back to one thing time and time again, “Get there early.” With GameDay coming to Bloomington for the first time Glass commented, “It’s difficult to overstate what a big deal it is.” Glass was hesitant to make any guarantees, but said he felt confident that it would be a sellout and a prominently IU crowd. Glass added in some extra incentive for students as well. Every student who comes to the game will get a voucher for a free hot dog and soft drink. He said he wanted to get some food into the stomachs of students who’d been tailgating all game. We like where your head is at Mr. Glass.

Bryant Fitzgerald

The elephant in the room was what exactly happened with Bryant Fitzgerald who will now have to sit out this season due to an error by Office of Compliance Services of the Indiana University Department of Intercollegiate Athletics. It was Glass’ first meeting with the media since the embarrassing blooper and he had no interest in harping on it for very long. He did say that there would likely be some additions to the compliance staff so this doesn’t happen again, but didn’t elaborate further than that.