Thursday, Jul. 31, 2008

UC Merced not quite ready for sports programs

MERCED -- An intercollegiate athletic program at UC Merced remains completely hypothetical.

While still five to eight years away, such a program has sparked some interest among both fans and athletes.

According to former NCAA administrator Cedric Dempsey, however, Wednesday's meeting of the Chancellor's Blue Ribbon Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics was an important first step in making intercollegiate sports a reality for the 3-year-old university.

Spearheaded by Dempsey and former Stanford athletic director Ted Leland, the 14-member committee has been mainly comprised of UC Merced faculty, students and prominent members of the Merced community.

Included in that group is former U.S. National Team soccer player and current Los Angeles Galaxy assistant coach Cobi Jones.

"I got introduced to the project through the chancellor's niece," Jones said. "It's something I'm very excited to be a part of.

"I went to UCLA, so I'm from the UC system. Having soccer in college was a big thing for me, and I saw this as a great opportunity to help bring intercollegiate athletics to future students."

The commission's purpose is to devise a plan for UC Merced to get an athletic program up and running in coming years.

Dempsey and Leland used Wednesday's initial meeting as a sort of brainstorming session to get a feel for what type of program the school wants to have.

"We want (the university) to think about the philosophy of the kind of program they want to be," Dempsey said. "We're going to meet back up -- probably in October -- and Ted and I will present a number options.

"We're working with campus planning right now on the possibilities of facilities here on campus. We'll present what we come up with to the committee. The committee will agree on one. We'll then refine it and present it to the students and community."

A fully functioning athletic program still remains five to eight years away, but the commission hopes to have a full plan in place by January.

UC Merced Recreation and Athletics director David Dunham -- the architect of the Blue Ribbon Commission -- was pleased with the initial meeting.

"I thought we had some great discussion today," Dunham said. "Just getting this process started was huge for us.

"I think both Ted and Cedric bring a wealth of experience from some major universities as well as some smaller schools like us."

Dempsey and Leland have each worked in athletics for a number of prominent colleges.

Dempsey is a former president of the NCAA as well the athletic director at Arizona, San Diego State and Pacific.

Leland's been a director of sports programs at Stanford, Dartmouth and UOP.

The duo has just started a project at Cal State Channel Islands that Dempsey said was comparable to UC Merced's situation.

"Like here, Channel Islands had no athletic facilities," Leland said. "Most universities build facilities through student fees.

"Obviously, this school doesn't have the student base to do that yet, so a lot of the funds are going to have to come from outside sources."

With UC Merced's enrollment still under 2,000 students and no real alumni base to call on for donations, Dempsey and Leland are going to have to do some creative thinking on how UC Merced should proceed.

Leland and Dempsey's current charge is to come up with a number of options both at the Division II and III levels with various price tags attached. Then the commission will decide how much money can realistically be raised.

Much more should emerge from the commission's next meeting, but all parties involved seemed pleased with Wednesday's first baby step.

"There's certainly a long way to go, but I sense a strong commitment from the university to have intercollegiate programs -- and that's the most important thing," Dempsey said.