UCLA Men’s Soccer Coach Gets the Boot

The coach who guided UCLA to the 1999 NCAA men’s soccer Final Four will not retain his job because his academic degree was obtained from an unaccredited university, the school announced Thursday.

Todd Saldana, who had a 43-17-4 record and led the Bruins to the NCAA tournament in each of his three seasons as men’s coach, has agreed to leave his post early, even though UCLA said it would honor its contract with him through June.

UCLA learned during the recently completed soccer season that Columbia State (La.) University, the school from which Saldana had received a bachelor’s degree in psychology in 1997, was a diploma mill.

Columbia State, which offered degrees through Internet correspondence courses, was shut down by law enforcement officials in 1998--after Saldana was hired by UCLA--for issuing fraudulent degrees.

UCLA requires its head coaches to have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited school. In a statement, Athletic Director Peter Dalis said UCLA does not believe “that there was any intent on Coach Saldana’s part to mislead the university.”

Saldana, 40, could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Bruce Geld, said Saldana was “disappointed that UCLA didn’t choose to renew his contract. He disagrees with their decision not to give him a chance to complete his course work, but he respects their decision.”

In a written statement, Saldana said he spent more than a year completing correspondence courses from Columbia State.

“I understood I was following a prescribed course of instruction designed by that school to supplement the credits I had already earned from El Camino [Community] College.”

Before taking over the UCLA men’s program, Saldana was the Bruins’ women’s coach for the 1998 season.

He was Loyola Marymount’s men’s coach in 1997, coached at Cal Poly Pomona from 1995-96, and was an assistant at UCLA from 1989-94.

College athletic programs across the nation are placing the resumes of current and prospective employees under increased scrutiny after an inaccuracy in George O’Leary’s biographical information cost him the football job at Notre Dame.

Betsy Stephenson, the UCLA associate athletic director who recommended Saldana’s hiring in 1998, said she did not feel it was necessary at that time to check his educational background.

“He was very highly recommended,” Stephenson said. “He was very well-respected in terms of his coaching abilities.”