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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 26, ISSUE 3 53 the way athletics is." Q: If next year's team doesn't win seven games, it'll be the worst four- year winning percentage for a Pur- due squad since the class of 1942. Shouldn't you put more pressure on people to win more games? Burke: "You focus on the inputs with the intent on winning every output. David Boudia didn't worry about whether he was going to win the gold medal, he worried about the execution. We all want to win every game. I hurt for Danny Anthrop. I hurt for every single kid on that team, probably more than anybody in this room. I know them. In some cases, I've known them for five years. So there's nobody who wants these kids to have more success than I do. But I'm going to tell you that as an athlete, if you always worry about the outcome, you'll come up short. You can talk to Stephanie White, you can talk to Robbie Hummel, you can talk to Drew Brees. They'll all talk about the process and what you have to do to get better. So don't assume that I'm not concerned about the number of wins and losses. I am. But I think to come out and draw a line in the sand that creates barriers to people being better than what that line in the sand is is a mistake. "We don't go into any season hoping to be average. We're optimistic. That's why we do these jobs. We go into every competition with the opportunity to win. At the end of the day, your hope is you win championships, not just get to a certain win level or get to an entry-level bowl. You want to win them all. "So what's realistic? Be the best you can be next year and develop these kids physically and mentally so they can deal with the adversity and get the success that they deserve. At the end of the day, if they do that, this group can have more success. But they've got to be able to find it within themselves to make that play on third down to get them off the field or get into the red zone and score or that's going to happen. Creating some kind of arbi- trary number is, to me, not the way to do it." Q: How do you market this team next year be- cause obviously the attendance wasn't what you wanted it to be? Burke: "Actually, the attendance was better than I thought it would be given where we were. Actually, we showed a little bit of a year-over-year increase. We made some pretty significant price adjustments to try to ac- commodate families into the stadium. I still think that was the right move. At the end of Coach (Gene) Keady's tenure, that arena had about 8,000 people in it. What's it got in it today? (Football fans) will be back. We have a very passionate fan base. It's one thing I love about them. Some of them are a little bit more emotional than I'd like. But they care, and I can respect that. "So, at the end of the day, your fan base will be back when you start to show the consistency. We've had a number of years now in a row where Ross-Ade has not been friendly to us. When Joe (Tiller) was here, Ross- Ade was very friendly to us. So your fan base says, 'Look, do I really want to get out there and tailgate and be there and be disappointed?' Being a Purdue alum who lived through the Fred Akers Era well before I was an AD, I understand." Q: Last year, you said the football team brought in about $3 million less than you'd hoped for. What does the balance sheet look like after this season? Burke: "I haven't done the final accounting." Q: Do you have a guess? Burke: "I don't guess on things like that. It's not a good picture." Q: Will you do anything with the ticket prices for next season? Burke: "No, we have no intent of making any change price-wise."