New Western Michigan University athletic director Dan Bartholomae wants to make sure the people in Kalamazoo in particular, and Western Michigan in general, are fired up about the Broncos.

And he has about a million ideas, or so it seems, on how to accomplish that goal.

One of his first ideas will come to fruition on Saturday when WMU hosts No. 23-ranked Pitt at Waldo Stadium for a nationally televised football game which begins at 7:30 p.m. A big part of the pregame tailgating experience for students and fans is bringing in country singer Chase Bryant for the first Buster's Block Party.

''We're seeing a lot of support in the Kalamazoo area, but it's on us to bridge the gap,'' Bartholomae says. ''We call it High Quality Connections and that's why we're bringing in Chase Bryant.

''We've got to give people a reason to be energized about Western and sometimes it will be us going to them, like the Coaches Stampede we did this summer. But sometimes, it has to be them coming to us and the games and what we do around the games are part of that.''

Bartholomae has been on the go since arriving at WMU in January. One of the first items he did was put together a survey as part of his strategic planning process.

''I did a SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) survey when I got here, asking the entire community what we're good at, what we're not good at and what can we do about that,'' he said. ''I got great information, about 150 responses.

''The responses were amazing. You learn what people care about, what can we be doing now that we aren't.''

He also did a separate survey of student-athletes, and one in the community, and asked a lot more questions. Bartholomae had his strategic planning committee of about 30 people, which included faculty, staff, coaches, student-athletes and community members spend a day with consultants discussing the department's vision and they affirmed a statement Bartholomae opened his Bronco tenure with – the pursuit of ''Comprehensive Excellence''.

''We reset our mission to fit on a business card and it's called Broncos Reign,'' he said.

A huge part of that is community involvement with Western Michigan.

''I have all these people who want to be involved in what we are doing and not all of them are going to donate $50 million,'' Bartholomae says. ''It's about community involvement, mentorships and building bridges in the community.''

An example of this he likes to use is if WMU has a student-athlete from Grand Rapids who is interested in finance and plays basketball, there might be someone who lives in Grand Rapids who works at a bank and might have played basketball for WMU and could mentor the student-athlete.

''That could help develop relationships which will last them throughout their lives,'' he says.

These types of connections support Bartholomae's desire to lead the country in the holistic development of Bronco Student-Athletes. That is his first goal. The second is called Aggressive Revenue Generation.

''I chose the word 'aggressive' on purpose,'' Bartholomae says. ''Like everyone else in the country, we all went through cuts and now we're starting to build ourselves back up.

''Our budget is up about 10 percent, but that is based on future revenues, so we have to schedule differently, we have to sell tickets differently and we have to do sponsorship differently.''

He has hired Elaine Russell to be the Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Operations, overseeing marketing, promotions, tickets sales, communications, Bronco Productions, sponsorships and other revenue generating projects.

''As people went home for COVID, we have to convince them to come back,'' Bartholomae says. "In our scheduling, those non-conference games are important to us so we have go figure out what is the balance, playing a Power 5 to come here to give us a budget lift or do we look at other non-conference opportunities.

''As for sponsorship, we've done an unbelievable job on local sponsorship, but now we have to look at regional and national sponsorship.''

Third is enhancing facilities for the student-athletes and fans, putting together a 10-year plan for facilities which includes student-athlete development, fan experience and training for the athletes.

Fourth is creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for our student-athletes and staff. The diversity task force is led by Senior Associate AD Keanah Smith, who won the Excellence in Diversity Award from the university this year.

Fifth is campus and community engagement, starting with the Bronco Stampede, held in July and the first part of August in Chicago, Detroit, Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo. Joining Bartholomae were head coaches Tim Lester (football), Pat Ferschweiler (hockey), Colleen Munson (volleyball), Shane Clipfell (women's basketball) and Dwayne Stephens (men's basketball, first year).

''Next year, we'll probably do it in May so we can have more people attend,'' Bartholomae says. ''The thing which was promising was, for example, in Chicago, every single person who left that event said that they were going to bring four buddies who went to Western Michigan, but they weren't sure what this Stampede was going to be like.

''They were upset they didn't invite their friends. I explained that I didn't think it was so much about the number of people who attended this year, but about the buzz and outreach they created.''

The sixth goal is for WMU to regularly compete at a championship level.

''There are a lot of different ways to measure that, but my goal is for us to be competing in the top third in the Mid-American Conference in all sports,'' Bartholomae says. ''If you are in the top third in this league, that's giving us a chance to compete for a championship every year.''

A good measure of how WMU is doing in the MAC is the NCAA Director's Cup, which takes into consideration all the men's and women's sports final standings. Last season, boosted by the hockey team's third-place finish in the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, WMU was second among the MAC schools, only trailing Ball State.

''Everyone who comes here is a Division 1 athlete and they come here to win,'' he says. ''I've never sat across the table from a student-athlete during an exit interview who got their tails kicked in for four years who told me they had a good experience.''

Bartholomae is building a staff, bringing in Russell, Julian Jones (Senior Associate AD, Broncos Empowered and Championship Culture) and Lorne Robertson (Senior Associate AD for Administration, Academics and Compliance) to join current staff members Keanah Smith and Elizabeth Knips. He also added Medial Services director Brian Bauer and Bronco Athletics Fund director Jim Culhane to his executive staff.

Comprehensive Excellence is the overall motivation behind Bartholomae's vision for the Broncos. It starts with the student-athletes.

''It means that our student-athletes not only graduate, but graduate holistically, prepared to achieve their passions in life,'' he says. ''We spend so much time on athletics and academics, but forget we are building human beings during their four or five years here and they don't have the same resources normal students have because of their time demands.

''This has to be part of our department's culture.''

While Bartholomae is new to WMU, he isn't new to the Mid-American Conference or the Midwest, having worked at Indiana and Pitt before going to Oregon State.

''When I was an Associate AD at Pitt, being a MAC athletic director was an aspirational goal for me,'' he says. ''So, I would make my wife watch the Tuesday and Wednesday night MAC football games on TV.

''She would say, 'First of all, why are they playing football on Tuesday and Wednesday nights and why are we watching them?' And I would say, 'that's going to be us one day.' ''

That day is here.