San Diego State Won’t Drop Minor Sports : Instead, All 16 Athletic Programs Will Face 2.6% Budget Cuts

It would be understandable if the women on the San Diego State gymnastics team felt like doing cartwheels late Thursday afternoon.

The Intercollegiate Athletic Authority, which helps administer the SDSU athletic department on behalf of President Dr. Thomas Day, voted to reject a recommendation of the finance committee that would have cut the women’s gymnastics program and the men’s tennis program. Their recommendation will now go to Dr. Day, who accepted all the committee’s decisions last year.

By a vote of 5-2, with one abstention, the IAA decided to cut all 16 sports by approximately 2.6% and to add $25,000 to the projected income for the Aztec Athletic Foundation for the 1985-86 school year. Since no cost of living allowance was alloted for any sports for next season, the 2.6% cut is even greater than it seems.

That’s one of the things that upset Dr. Merrill Lessley, a member of the IAA who represents the College of Professional Studies.

“We can pare down quality across the board or select,” Lessley said. He was one of the two who voted against keeping the two sports.

The rationale behind the IAA’s vote was that the cuts and additional $25,000, which is totally unaccounted for at this time, will be used to cover the $47,126 budget for gymnastics and the 19,210 budget for men’s tennis.

Gymnastics, which averages about 400 fans for home meets, is alloted nine full scholarships and earned $1,000 in income last year. The gymnastics team has been quite successful and annually makes the regionals. Men’s tennis, which doesn’t charge admission to its matches, is allowed two full-time in-state scholarships and earns no income.

In addition to concern for the athletes on both teams, there was concern that SDSU might lose its eligibility to compete in NCAA Division 1. A Division 1 school must have at least eight men’s teams and six women’s teams. Without gymnastics and men’s tennis, SDSU would still qualify with eight men’s teams and six women’s teams next year.

However, in 1987, a Division 1 school must have at least seven women’s teams, and in 1988, it will need at least eight.

Thursday afternoon’s meeting in a small classroom on the SDSU campus was dominated by a hard-hitting plea by gymnastics Coach Ed Franz and by an emotional pitch by Athletic Director Mary Alice Hill.

The teams in question received strong support from Bill Earley, the president of the Associated Students. Joe Vasquez, the assistant vice-president of business affairs, used numbers instead of words to make his points.

After Hill said that the SDSU athletic department was running close to a $500,000 deficit, Vasquez added that it would have been closer to $650,000 if the SDSU senate hadn’t moved some savings over to the athletic department. One of the biggest setbacks for the athletic department last year was the new CFA television football contract which lost the Aztecs approximately $125,000.

Vasquez also said that after covering expenses the most money the Aztec Foundation has been able to give to the SDSU athletic department is $270,000. That’s why he had budgeted $325,000 proposed income from the Foundation for the upcoming year. It’s also why he voted against raising that figure to $350,000.

In 1984-85, the Aztec Athletic Foundation was budgeted to raise $450,000, and it actually raised $300,000. The $300,000 included $50,000 donations from Carmel Mountain Ranch and the Greater San Diego Sports Assn. The donation from the GSDSA was a one-shot deal, and the Carmel Mountain Ranch has not committed itself for next year.

“I think that $325,000 is a conservative estimate,” said Steve Cushman, executive director of the Aztec Athletic Foundation. “And $350,000 is reasonable.”

Vasquez is not that confident, and that’s why he favored taking an action that would help cut the 1985-86 estimated athletic department deficit of $86,707.

“If we don’t stick to this motion, we’ll be back here doing the same thing next year,” Vasquez said. “Maybe even more drastically.”

If the teams weren’t dropped, Vasquez and the finance board reasoned that they should be forced to go the route taken by the SDSU men’s volleyball team last year.

Volleyball was to be dropped unless it could raise the money needed to compete. It raised $46,000 in two months, and competed this past season. The volleyball team has until July 1 to come up with the funds necessary for next year.

The finance board advocated giving the gymnastics and men’s tennis teams until Aug. 1 to raise enough money to support themselves.

Skip Redondo, the men’s tennis coach, said he had already talked to people at Yamaha about acquiring sponsorship. Many of the SDSU players wear Yamaha shoes and they use their rackets.

“I’m going to fight for my players,” Redondo said, “and I’ll do anything possible to raise the money.”

Franz faced a much tougher battle because his team’s budget is more than twice that of men’s tennis. He took a different approach when he addressed the committee on behalf of his athletes, who were anxiously standing alongside the wall.

“I don’t think that it’s the coaches’ task to go out and raise money,” said Franz, a tenured member of the physical education department who has coached the women’s gymnastics team for three years without pay.

That was the calm before the storm.

“On April 2, Mary (Alice Hill) told me the gymnastics program would remain and to go ahead and recruit,” Franz said. “It seems that you’ve (IAA committee) taken away Mary’s integrity. I told her this morning that I don’t know if I can believe her anymore.

“It’s frustrating at times to know that the biggest enemy comes from within. When you have failure at the top administratively, you smack the little guy. The timing stinks, guys.”

That was a reference to the fact that he just received a letter of intent from one of his recruits, he has another recruit flying to San Diego today, and his athletes will have a very difficult time trying to land scholarships at other universities at this late date.

Franz took one last parting shot.

“Why don’t we suspend all athletic competition for a year? Let the players redshirt for a year, and let’s really save some money.”

Shortly after Franz’s speech, there was a 10-minute recess. After that, Hill delivered a pitch that had less to do with the issues at hand than with her overall feeling about the athletic department she heads.

“People ask me why I took the job here,” she said. “Well, Colorado State fired me, and San Diego State was the only place that would hire me. I owe them.

“We’re only one year away. One successful football team will turn it around.”

Last season, the 4-7-1 football team lost $305,524 (income was $1,167,250 and expenses were $1,472,774). Even the basketball team, which went 23-8 and went to the NCAA tournament, lost $24,613 and that’s after the $77,000 for the NCAA appearance is added.

“When I came here (became permanent athletic director on Jan. 1, 1984), I said the program had three years,” Hill said. “If we couldn’t turn it around by then, we’d be Division 2.”