By Blake Timm

Blake Timm is Sports Information Director at Pacific University and sits on the Board of Directors for the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). He can be reached at: timmbr@pacificu.edu.

When the recession hit rock bottom during the first months of 2009, athletic departments were far from immune. And in several cases, sport programs fell by the wayside.

Western Washington University eliminated it's 100 year-old football program. Colorado College cut its football, softball, and women's water polo squads. And the Massachusetts Institute of Technology disbanded eight teams, losing its national status as the school with the most NCAA varsity sports.

Administrators were also discussing tough budgetary issues here at Pacific University, a private NCAA Division III school located just west of Portland, Ore. But rather than determining what to cut, they were developing plans to restart the school's football program.

Over Memorial Day weekend, just as the nation's economy was taking another nosedive, Pacific's Board of Trustees voted unanimously to reinstate the school's football program after a 17-year absence. The Boxers will field a team and play a complete Northwest Conference schedule this fall.

While some may throw a flag on a school adding something as expensive as football in times like these, the decision is about much more than giving students something to do on Saturday afternoons. As an institution driven by tuition dollars and dependent on financial aid, Pacific officials saw a chance to continue a trend of unprecedented growth in its undergraduate student body with the move.

AN ECONOMIC STIMULUS?
Enrolling just over 1,100 students five years ago, Pacific now boasts an undergraduate population of over 1,500. In 2009, administrators needed a way to make sure those numbers wouldn't slip as many students and their parents considered state schools or community colleges to save money. Football became a big part of the plan.

"We look at football not so much as a strategy to enhance our athletic department, but to enhance our ability to recruit students to our undergraduate programs," says Phil Akers, Vice President for University Relations. "It's an additional aspect of what Pacific University has to offer that will allow us to attract students we previously couldn't."

"Football is a way to maintain our current enrollment or even grow our enrollment during times when it is more difficult for parents to send their son or daughter to a private college," adds Director of Athletics Ken Schumann. "I think this is the exact time for smaller private schools to think creatively about new programs that can build enrollment growth in an undergraduate setting."

The university grew substantially in six years under former president Phil Creighton, who retired in July 2009. It added three undergraduate majors, expanded offerings in exercise science, the natural sciences, and education, and added graduate programs in writing, pharmacy, and healthcare administration. Three new buildings were built on the main campus, while the school's graduate health sciences programs moved to a new campus six miles away.

In the athletic department, the number of teams has grown from 16 to 20 over the last 10 years and the number of student-athletes has increased by one-third. Significant money was poured into renovating the Pacific Athletic Center, and three years ago, the school partnered with the City of Forest Grove to build brand new baseball and softball fields and a multi-use stadium. Lincoln Park Stadium, home to our soccer, women's lacrosse, and track and field programs, will also host home football games.

University officials project bringing in 50 new students in the 2010-11 academic year as a result of football, adding nearly $1 million to the university's bottom line through tuition dollars. By 2013-14, the expected 90 players in the program are projected to add over $2 million to the institution's operating budget. The tuition money will not only add to the university's general fund, but also cover the operating expenses of the football program.

"It's precisely because we needed an economic stimulus on this campus in order to continue to attract enrollment that the logic of bringing back football was so compelling," Akers says.

The concept of adding athletics programs to aid enrollment could be called an exciting new trend. A recent article by the Associated Press found at least 11 colleges and universities nationwide starting new sports in the next year for the sake of increasing enrollment. Adams State College, for example, is adding six programs in an effort to draw more tuition dollars to the state-funded institution.

The overall idea is that a school can fundraise the dollars needed to start a program or build a new athletics facility, with the tuition from the additional students boosting the overall operating budget. And even if fundraising isn't a viable option, some sports do not take a lot of additional expense if facilities and administrative support are already in place. In addition, more students on campus allows an institution to grow in many positive ways.

Adrian College has made the concept part of its strategic plan over the last four years, spending roughly $30 million (half fundraised and half borrowed) on athletics teams and facilities in an aggressive attempt to boost enrollment. Over half of the school's 1,500 students are on varsity teams and coaches have roster quotas they must meet in order to keep their jobs. Jeffrey R. Docking, President of Adrian, told The Chronicle of Higher Education that athletics could well be "the fountain of youth for small liberal arts colleges."

Likewise, small colleges adding football is far from the exception. A total of 20 NCAA Division III schools have started the sport in the last decade, with most stating that one of the goals was to increase enrollment. The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor may have paved the way in 1998, when it found 217 new students on its campus after announcing it would begin a football program. The school immediately started a j.v. squad, saw the number of students who live on campus double, and was in the NCAA Division III playoffs only four years later, a place it now consistently finds itself at season's end.

Schumann expects that there will also be residual interest in Pacific by those who don't play football but are attracted by something related to the program. "We found during our research that not only do you recruit football players, but there are additional prospective students with other interests, such as cheerleading or pep band, or friends and family members of those players, who wouldn't otherwise look at Pacific," he says.

Some have criticized Pacific's administration for focusing its efforts on football and not academic programs. Akers stresses that the university is still looking at other academic avenues, but football's support from the alumni and the well-vetted plan made the addition attractive to trustees.

"We had a business plan that we could put to work quickly," Akers says. "We felt we could get a return on the investment faster with this particular program at this particular time than with any other program."

PLANNING PROCESS
Bringing on football, however, was far from an overnight decision. The business plan Akers refers to was actually five years in the making and required much research in order to ensure that the program would have a positive effect on both the university budget and the student body as a whole.

When Schumann put together the initial draft of the university's football business plan in 2004, it consisted of just 17 pages and provided for one year of fundraising. As that first year progressed, it became clear that fundraising would take longer than expected. The silver lining in that slowdown was that it gave Schumann the chance to answer more questions surrounding the program's return.

In reality, the questions were many. What were some of the hidden costs of starting the sport? How would the addition of football affect class sizes and potential academic offerings? Would the addition of football compromise Pacific's academic standards? Could Pacific stay within Title IX compliance? How would the addition affect social life on campus? Would football fit the culture of Pacific University?

More research was done, with Schumann leaning on information from other Northwest Conference schools, as well as information from Division III schools that had recently added the sport. By the time Pacific's Board of Trustees voted on the proposal in May 2009, the plan had grown to 82 pages.

The majority of the document illustrates different funding scenarios, and how to make the numbers work. Schumann is hesitant to reveal all the specific dollar amounts for the program's start-up, but the plan estimates a first-year cost of $1.5 million, all of which will be covered by outside donations.

"We put every possible expense that we could have in there," Schumann says. "In many cases, we overestimated some of the expenses to play it safe."

Salaries are a large part of the budget, and include coaches as well as a full-time athletic trainer, full-time equipment manager, and part-time employee to assist in sports information. Another big expense is the conversion of the Pacific Athletic Center's former dance room into coaches offices and the construction of a team room. Additional line items are uniforms, safety and practice equipment, video equipment, transportation, officials' fees, and game day operations costs.

While the plan is primarily filled with spreadsheets and bar graphs, it also has 20 pages dedicated to narrative addressing questions stakeholders needed answered apart from funding. This includes academics, social and cultural impact, and Title IX, among other items.

On the question of academics, Schumann referenced the grade point averages of football programs at other Northwest Conference schools. Research found that the average GPA of those programs was comparable to that of Pacific's current men's athletics teams.

Title IX concerns were addressed by Pacific's history of adding women's programs to accommodate interest. Since 1995, Pacific has begun five varsity women's programs--most recently lacrosse in 2006. Additionally, Pacific's student body was surveyed about adding other sports twice in the five years leading up to the start of football. In both surveys, football led the way for men's programs, while lacrosse topped the women's list.

How the addition of football might affect the culture of the university was more difficult to answer. Research went into figuring out which classes and majors potential football student-athletes were likely to enroll in, whether current students and faculty favored the idea, and what additional benefits it might bring to campus life. There was not always agreement among all constituents that the idea was a win-win for everyone, but ultimately, the Board saw the benefit to the overall financial health and growth of the university.

The plan also details an exit strategy in case the football program does not meet the university's expectations. That showed the Board that administrators were being realistic in the plans and covering every detail.

"We did a lot of research and continually refined it," Schumann says. "You have to look at every angle and possible contingency. You must have all of your i's dotted and t's crossed."

FIELDS OF GREEN
Once the plan was in place, the challenge became raising funds to put the team in motion. University administrators made it clear from the beginning that no existing institutional funds would be used to start the football program. Everything had to be fundraised.

The goal is that fundraising will pay all the start-up costs for the first year of organizing the program (2009-10), including coaches salaries and equipment. After that, it is expected that money from the tuition of the new student-athletes attending Pacific will cover the costs of football, with dollars left over for institutional funds.

Projections call for $1.5 million to be raised this year, with the money needed in 2010-11 reduced to $158,950. Tuition for Pacific students is around $30,000 annually. At first, most of the tuition money will help fund the team, but the amount returning to the general budget should increase as more players come on board.

The first step in the fundraising process was more of a friend-raising effort. Schumann and the university's fundraising team identified a number of individuals who had expressed a desire to bring football back to campus since it was discontinued in 1992. The group, known as the "Football Founders," included alumni, former coaches, and friends, some of whom had limited their giving to Pacific when the program was cut. To date, the Football Founders consists of nearly 100 individuals.

Initially, the Football Founders served as a sounding board. Schumann presented the plan to a few group members, soliciting feedback. As the plan developed, the Football Founders were approached for financial support as well as help in spreading the word about Pacific's gridiron comeback. As of December, the Founders have contributed a quarter million dollars to the program's start-up. "They were the ones who took this forward and helped rally the troops around the idea of football," says Schumann.

In retrospect, Schumann believes that formulating more of the plan at the start, before targeting the Football Founders, might have helped speed up the school's fundraising efforts. "We wanted to talk to potential supporters right away," he says. "But if we had waited a little bit longer so our business plan was a bit beefier, I think we could have condensed the fundraising time frame."

However, Schumann is glad Pacific used a targeted giving approach, in which the donations would all be restricted gifts for the football program. "It takes the stress off as there is no question of whether the money could have been used for other purposes," he says.

The reinstatement announcement in May, followed by the hiring of Head Coach Keith Buckley in July, has accelerated giving. That has both Schumann and Akers confident that all funds will be in place by next fall to sustain the program well after the first ball flies off the tee in September.

Much of the buzz for the program has come through word of mouth, marketing through our Web site, social media (we've been spending a lot of time on Facebook), and media attention. In addition, our president sent initial letters to alumni and interested friends soliciting their support and Pacific's alumni magazine ran articles on the start-up in spring 2008 and spring 2009.

RECRUITING NET
As Buckley looks out on the Lincoln Park Stadium field that will become the home to Pacific football next fall, he faces the challenge of bringing in enough students to field a competitive team. Not only are Boxer fans counting on him, but also those running the university's admissions office.

For the program's first year, Buckley is casting a wide net. The recruiting effort began in September with a mailing to 3,000 high school football programs in eight western states as well as Alaska and Hawai'i. As the high school season concluded, Buckley had active communications with as many as 600 potential athletes either though contact by the admissions office, direct communication, or a recruit information form on Pacific's athletics Web site, and he is confident he will reach the school's first-year goal of 50 students.

"We feel like we are in great shape," Buckley says. "As we add to our coaching staff fairly soon, it will only expand the capabilities that we have to go out and get those kids."

The team will play a full varsity schedule in the fall of 2010, consisting of seven Northwest Conference games and one non-conference game. The majority of the team will be freshmen, and Buckley is selling them on a guarantee of immediate playing time and the chance to become a starter in their first season on the team.

"There's no other team on the West Coast that can say that other than us," Buckley says. "Every guy who shows up in the fall is in line to start. We've found that kids like the thought of a new program coupled with the prospect of playing time. And the school and the academics that go with Pacific make it an appealing package."

In hiring a head coach, Pacific was focused on finding someone with experience in attracting quality athletes who can meet Pacific's high admissions standards. Administrators feel they found that in Buckley, who spent the last two seasons as the assistant head coach at the University of California-Davis, where he coordinated recruiting for the Aggies' Division I FCS program. He has also coached at Stanford University.

Buckley's recruiting has been greatly assisted by a windfall of positive media attention. We've accomplished this by pitching the story hard and doing what we could to make it easy on the media, including delivering footage of a press conference to one TV station because it couldn't make it to the event.

"We've had an unbelievable media response to the program," Buckley says. "We've done TV shows and feature stories. We've reached places from Honolulu to Sacramento, and the initial announcement even ran in the Los Angeles Times. From that perspective, we've done a great job blanketing the West and letting people know that football is back at Pacific."

As a Division III school that offers no athletic-based scholarship dollars and has no letter of intent binding potential athletes to Pacific, Buckley will not know how successful his recruiting efforts have been until the first day of practice in August. And while the stakes are higher with the expected positive effect on the university's bottom line, Buckley says he is excited about the challenge he faces. For him, Pacific's enrollment goals and his own goal of fielding a competitive team are one in the same.

"There's an old saying that you coach for free and you get paid to recruit," Buckley says. "The mentality you take is that recruiting is everything. So whether you are recruiting for the overall enrollment growth of the university or for the growth of the football program, it's all in the same bag."

Sidebar: ANOTHER OPTION
Post University has found an even less expensive way to add football to its athletics program. This fall, it will offer the sport of sprint football to its students and join the Collegiate Sprint Football League (CSFL).

The rules of sprint football--which is not affiliated with the NCAA--are nearly identical to the traditional game, with one unique twist: Each player must weigh 172 pounds or less. Post Athletic Director Anthony Fallacaro likes that the sport gives student-athletes who might not otherwise compete at the college level due to their size that opportunity, while also providing the NCAA Division II school of 1,200 students in Waterbury, Conn., a very cost-effective football option.

Expenses are kept low thanks to a short season--there are just six other CSFL teams to compete against--and the league only allows 15 days of fall preseason practice with no practices in the spring. The program will just about pay for itself with the tuition and fees of its participants.

"We're allowed 65 players on the football roster, which will increase our enrollment numbers pretty quickly," says Fallacaro. "We're hoping to attract the student who is very good academically and played football in high school, but might not have considered playing in college or was looking at D-III."

In addition, Fallacaro believes the squad will provide more publicity for the school overall, attracting non-athletes, too. He hopes to grow the cheerleading program and perhaps begin a pep band. "It's about starting something that will add to every aspect of our school," Fallacaro says.

Joining the CSFL was also an opportunity to compete against the likes of Army, Navy, and Ivy League schools Cornell, Princeton, and Pennsylvania. Mansfield University, an NCAA Division II school in Mansfield, Pa., is the sixth member, starting its program in 2008.

Post has scheduled only two games in 2010, then will likely play another abbreviated schedule the following year before becoming a full member of the CSFL in 2012. "The campus is excited about this," says Fallacaro. "Students are already asking if there will be busses to away games."
-- Mike Phelps