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Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Daily Titan: Athletics barely hanging on to Division I Status

Budget cuts, tuition increases and insufficient revenues have left Cal State Fullerton athletics barely clinging on to Big West Division I status.

The NCAA requires a university to maintain seven priority sports and fund them at 80 percent in scholarships in order to be considered Div. I.

The seven sports that are considered priority by the Big West conference out of CSUF’s 15 are men and women’s basketball, men and women’s soccer, baseball, softball and women’s volleyball. CSUF is currently Div. I defending champions in both baseball and women’s volleyball.

CSUF is now at the bare minimum seven priority sports and is in jeopardy of being bumped to Div. II if its expenditures continue to exceed the current budget.

“We have some issues in terms of whether or not we can meet our minimum funding at the Div. I level,” said Steve DiTolla, associate senior athletics director. “In the NCAA, the Div. I level is defined, outside of men and women’s basketball, you need to have 50 scholarships, full scholarships, and we are dangerously close to not being that far.”

The full scholarships are split evenly between the men and women’s priority sports, DiTolla explained. The CSUF athletics budget barely covers these fees even after terminating both men’s wrestling and woman’s gymnastics during spring in order to meet budgetary obligations.

The budgeted athletics scholarship fund for 2011-12 is about $2.1 million and was not increased to accommodate the additional 12 percent tuition fee increase that affected every student on campus.

“When we are issuing scholarships, we pay the school for our student athletes,” DiTolla said. “So as each one of you got hit (with tuition fee increases) we got hit to the tune of about $90,000.”

Tripon Posted: September 27, 2011 at 10:05 PM | 22 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
  Tags: amateur, angels, business, college

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   1. Benji Gil Gamesh VII - The Opt-Out Awakens Posted: September 27, 2011 at 10:59 PM (#3939538)
Am I the only one who saw the headline and thought "*Another* anti-Moneyball article??"
   2. Crispix Attacksel Rios Posted: September 27, 2011 at 11:05 PM (#3939543)
I did too.

Is Cal State-Fullerton the number one college in terms of baseball being dominant in relation to other sports? Maybe CSU-Long Beach and UC-Riverside as well?
   3. Balkroth Posted: September 27, 2011 at 11:06 PM (#3939546)
Mark me as another who thought the same thing.
   4. The Long Arm of Rudy Law Posted: September 27, 2011 at 11:13 PM (#3939561)
Is Cal State-Fullerton the number one college in terms of baseball being dominant in relation to other sports? Maybe CSU-Long Beach and UC-Riverside as well?


I'd say Wichita State for the non-California division.
   5. Voodoo Posted: September 27, 2011 at 11:16 PM (#3939564)
I'd say Wichita State for the non-California division.


They've been to a Sweet Sixteen recently in basketball, so I don't think they qualify.
   6. BDC Posted: September 27, 2011 at 11:21 PM (#3939574)
In Texas, Rice would be the baseball-strongest school.
   7. Tripon Posted: September 28, 2011 at 12:10 AM (#3939738)
This is affecting all CSUs. Long Beach St is probably in a similar mess.
   8. Crispix Attacksel Rios Posted: September 28, 2011 at 12:13 AM (#3939755)
If the state legislature decides public education is an obsolete distortion of the free market, as has happened in so many places over the last decade or so, something has to go.
   9. TerpNats Posted: September 28, 2011 at 12:14 AM (#3939760)
If the Athletics are "barely hanging on to Division I status," the Astros will be reclassified Division III next year.
   10. Bourbon Samurai stays in the fight Posted: September 28, 2011 at 12:38 AM (#3939879)
I see all the jokes I thought of have already been made. Carry on.
   11. Ned Garvin: Male Prostitute Posted: September 28, 2011 at 01:19 AM (#3940071)
As a member of the faculty at a different CSU campus, I can say that everyone will be taking more budgetary hits because the state refuses to fund education. And quite frankly, though I support intercollegiate athletics and the effect it has on the lives of most student-athletes ,education is more important. If there is a decision between cutting classes and cutting athletics, I will be the first one to set the bats on fire.

That said, university bureaucracy and administrative payroll should be targets #1-99.

And obviously, paying to educate the students we admit would be a better starting point.
   12. depletion Posted: September 28, 2011 at 01:48 AM (#3940190)
“In the NCAA, the Div. I level is defined, outside of men and women’s basketball, you need to have 50 scholarships, full scholarships, and we are dangerously close to not being that far.”

What is the motivation for requiring 50 full scholarships? What if your seven sports are golf, equestrian, sailing, vintage car racing, polo, skiing and croquet and you have all rich kids that don't need the money? The NCAA remains on my list of worst organizations.
   13. OCF Posted: September 28, 2011 at 02:15 AM (#3940315)
As a member of the faculty at a different CSU campus,...

How many of us are on here, anyway? (Long Beach in my case.)

Both Fullerton and Long Beach dropped football in the early 90's during another spate of bad budgetary times - although our troubles then seem quaint through today's eyes. I don't know about Fullerton, but we get periodic "bring back football" movements, which are never going to amount to anything. Football at those two campuses never came remotely close to drawing enough to be anything other than a money sink; it may be precisely not having football that has allowed Long Beach and Fullerton to put resources into sports like baseball and volleyball. On the other hand, not having football is a lot of scholarships not given - that's also part of it.

One item: Fullerton's long-time president just announced his retirement, and the campus is (or will soon be) searching for his replacement. My guess is that any irreversible decisions about athletics will wind up on the desk of the new guy.

That said, university bureaucracy and administrative payroll should be targets #1-99.

You do know that whoever Fullerton hires to be that new president is going to want $400K/year, just like the new guy in San Diego, right? Just telling you to be ready for it. There are something like 5 CSU campuses that need new presidents, all at once.
   14. Tripon Posted: September 28, 2011 at 02:26 AM (#3940366)
Your new chancellor wants a fancy fat check? Fine, but that means no vice-chancellors, and a skeleton crew because you demanded to be paid a significant part of the budget.

Teams ask their star players to take a pay cut in order to fit better players on the payroll. Schools need to do the same thing for their admin staff now.
   15. JimMusComp misses old primer... Posted: September 28, 2011 at 02:33 AM (#3940408)
OCF and Ned - I'm at CSU Bakersfield. Still a CSU last I looked. We moved Div. I five years ago after being a force in Div. II - I was stunned at how very expensive the shift was. We have received lots of local support, but it is getting very tough to maintain the status. wrestling, a sport that we have won MANY Div. II titles in, is on the brink and was only rescued by private donors last year.

Also, I agree with Ned. Chancellor Reed is a nightmare and our local campus Administration is bloated. Up 25% in 7 years under our new President.

Presidential salaries are on a slope up as faculty salaries are flat. The $100,000 boost the SD guy got is just the tip of the iceberg. Reed is trying to eliminate campus visits and reference checks (!) for Presidential candidates, to protect their privacy. And give them $400K per year. And hire them unilaterally.
   16. JimMusComp misses old primer... Posted: September 28, 2011 at 02:37 AM (#3940439)
Tripon, you have no idea. The 23 campus Presidents make roughly $8 million in salary. The Chancellor oversees them and has nine (?) VP's. Each campus has many VP's and Deans. It's crazy. So much of it is tied to assessment now - the new "academic assessment" culture has justified all these positions.

Anyway, I'm home now. Need to stop thinking about CSUB.

[fixed a typo]
   17. OCF Posted: September 28, 2011 at 02:47 AM (#3940513)
Small vocabulary lesson: in the UC system, the CEO of the statewide system is the president, the CEO of one particular campus is the chancellor, and the statewide governing body is the Board of Regents. But in the CSU system, the CEO of the statewide system is the chancellor, the CEO of one particular campus is the president, and the statewide governing body is the Board of Trustees. Tripon's post looks like he was speaking UC, which is a different dialect than CSU. All in the same state - it does get confusing.

But the drop in state support for the CSU has been stunning. We're not talking about "cuts" meaning failing to increase at the inflation rate or the population growth rate. No, we're talking about the actual dollars from the state budget going into the CSU being approximately cut in half over the last few years. Which we've made up for by raising tuition. (We finally got honest and are using the "T" word rather than calling them "fees.") Which now means that the tuition payed by a class full of freshmen in a fully-enrolled section will just about pay for the marginal cost of hiring a part-time lecturer to teach that class. Which means that state funding isn't as tightly connected to enrollment as it used to be, even though the tuition still comes nowhere close to paying for the whole operation.
   18. JimMusComp misses old primer... Posted: September 28, 2011 at 03:23 AM (#3940560)
The drop in state dollars is unreal. Per pupil support down 45% I think since I started in the system in 2003.
   19. Shredder Posted: September 28, 2011 at 05:01 AM (#3940621)
UCR has been pretty decent in womens basketball in the last few years. And we've been ok in men's golf. We've got Brendan Steele who was in the hunt in the PGA championship this year. But if Fullerton is struggling, I have to believe we are too. Different world from when I was there, though. Enrollment is up 150% over the last 15 years, from 8,000 to 20,000.

I don't know what tuition is now, but it was $1,000 per quarter when I was there, $3,000 per year.
   20. OCF Posted: September 28, 2011 at 06:04 AM (#3940623)
I don't know what tuition is now, but it was $1,000 per quarter when I was there, $3,000 per year.

Those were the days. Go ahead, look it up - if you dare.
   21. John Manuel Posted: September 28, 2011 at 01:27 PM (#3940733)
Thanks for the link. I would say Fullerton, with four national titles and plenty of big league alumni, is the most baseball-centric athletic department in D-I. Rice plays football in Texas; I don't think baseball will ever be bigger at any school where that is the case.

Hey No. 11, good luck setting the bats on fire. Are you the only one who doesn't know they use metal bats in college?
   22. BDC Posted: September 28, 2011 at 01:39 PM (#3940752)
the new "academic assessment" culture has justified all these positions

Sounds like Texas. I direct a doctoral program, and I spend much of my time being assessed, critiqued, and asked for "improvement strategies" by a flock of administrators who have never been involved in doctoral education; but of course they know much better than I do what I need to be doing :) Much of the "assessment" consists of filing meaningless reports entirely for the sake of filing said reports.

Rice plays football in Texas; I don't think baseball will ever be bigger at any school where that is the case

You're correct; Rice plays great baseball and lousy football, and Rice football still draws far more fan interest. It's just that they've clearly cultivated their baseball program, and not yet (or not been able to) sell their souls to improve football to TCU-like heights.

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