Report to Faculty Senate on Intercollegiate Athletics

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Report to Faculty Senate on Intercollegiate Athletics

September 30,2011

Jim O’Day, Athletic Director

Jean Gee, Associate Athletic Director

Jim Lopach, Faculty Athletic Representative

As required by the Office of the President, this annual report to the Faculty Senate covers AY 2010-2011 with respect to 1) student-athlete academic performance, 2) student-athlete eligibility for competition, 3) violations of NCAA and Big Sky Conference (BSC) regulations, and 4) the Athletic Director’s statement regarding notable developments and issues. At the November 10Faculty Senate meeting, we will be happy to answer questions.

I. Academic Performance of Student-Athletes

UM grade point average and credits taken

AthletesAll undergrads

Fall 2010

Average term GPA2.962.84

Average cumulative GPA3.022.91

Average term credits12.9911.91

On Dean’s list22.5%19.6%

On academic probation4.4%6.9%

Spring 2011

Average term GPA2.962.88

Average cumulative GPA3.022.95

Average term credits13.9312.22

On Dean’s list18.9%19.7%

On academic probation3.2%5.0%

NCAA Multiyear Academic Progress Rates (perfect = 1000; problematic = 925)*

UM sportAPR

Men’s Basketball950

Men’s Cross Country940

Football932

Men’s Tennis963

Men’s Track, Indoor946

Men’s Track, Outdoor939

Women’s Basketball963

Women’s Cross Country981

Women’s Golf992

Women’s Soccer970

Women’s Tennis977

Women’s Track, Indoor981

Women’s Track, Outdoor979

Women’s Volleyball970

*APR formula: Each student-athlete can earn a maximum of two points each semester: 1 point for retention and 1 point for academic eligibility (maximum of 4 points for an academic year). For each sport, the earned points of the student athletes are added up, divided by the number of possible points, and multiplied by 1000 to yield the yearly APR for that sport. The multiyear APR is derived from the most current APR and the APR for each of the prior 3 years.

UM Graduation Rates: Four-Class Average (unreleased data, based on 2004-05 freshmen cohort)

AthletesAll students

65%43%

II.Ineligibility for Competition, Spring 2011 and Fall 2011: Reasons and Number

Reason# Spring 2011# Fall 2011

18/24 credit-hour rule 09

Grade point average rule 34

Six-credit rule 43

Percentage-of-degree rule 110

Of these 34 athletes determined to be ineligible to compete Spring 2011 and Fall 2011, 16 have regained their eligibility to compete at UM and 13 did not return to UM.

III. Rules Compliance

UM reported the following 12 NCAA and/or BSC violations:

• Assistant coach inadvertently made an email contact with a high school athlete prior to September 1 of the prospect’s junior year.
• Student-athlete dropped a 3-credit course by mistake, putting him below the 12-credit full-time enrollment rule for practice and competition.
• UM sport bought a subscription to a recruiting service that did not meet NCAA rules.
• Volunteer coach recruited off-campus prior to passing NCAA coach recruiting test.
• Head coach inadvertently but illegally sent a text message to a prospect while attempting to send the message to an assistant coach.
• Department of Athletics personnel spoke with media outlets about a prospect’s status with UM program prior to prospect’s formal enrollment at UM.
• UM sport contacted two prospects during a recruiting period seven times each, one more time than NCAA rules allow.
• UM sport during a prospect’s official visit allowed two friends of coaches to attend a meal with the prospect, which is a violation of NCAA rules.
• Ball signed by an athlete was placed for sale on EBay by a fan, violating an NCAA rule prohibiting use of a student-athlete’s name without knowledge or permission.
• Coaching staff in UM sport exceeded the NCAA’s limitation of one phone call per week to a prospect.
• Missoula business ran a newspaper advertisement that contained the picture of a current student-athlete without UM’s knowledge and consent, an NCAA violation.
• Head coach arranged for a student-athlete to participate in an event at a Missoula elementary school without following UM Department of Athletics procedures.

IV. Athletic Director’s Statement

FY 2011 was of historical significance to UM Athletics. Here are some of the major initiatives and projects that took a considerable amount of the department’s energy and time.

Outside study. As the school year began, UM Athletics was in the midst of an independent study by NACDA Consultants, funded by private sources, to examine the department’s strengths and weaknesses and to determine how UM compared to peer schools in the Big Sky Conference (BSC), the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), and the Mountain West Conference.

WAC invitation. Results from the outside study were extremely useful when the WAC Commissioner invited UM in the fall of 2010 to become a member of that Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) conference [UM currently is in the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS)] and competes with the likes of Idaho, Utah State, and New Mexico State. After a thorough review, UM President Royce Engstrom determined that it was important at this time to remain in the BSC and at the FCS level of football (all other UM teams already play at Division I level).UM was the only FCS school in the country officially invited to move up to the FBS during recent conference realignments. Appalachian State, James Madison, Liberty, and Georgia Southern have also conducted FBS feasibility studies, but none has been invited to join a FBS conference.

Big Sky Conference expansion. The BSC announced plans to expand starting in Fall 2012 (Cal Poly and UC-Davis for football only, and Southern Utah and University of North Dakota for all sports), which will provide 13-teams for football, 11 teams for basketball, volleyball, golf, cross country, track and field, and tennis, and 10 teams for soccer (Montana State has no soccer).

Women’s softball. UM took the landmark decision to add one more female intercollegiate sport, women’s softball, which will begin in FY 14. This will be the first sport added in 20 years and will continue UM’s progress toward maintaining Title IX compliance. Non-compliance could result in the loss of federal dollars for research grants, loans, work study, etc., but would not affect UM’s ability to participate in the NCAA (Title IX is a federal standard UM must meet, not one tied solely to athletics). Funding for softball was approved by ASUM and the Board of Regents in Spring 2011. It involves increasing the student athletic fee by $12.50 per student per semester for the next two years, generating about $700,000 a year, which is the estimated annual cost of the softball program (not counting one-time costs, e.g., for facilities).

NCAA certification; diversity and gender equity. During the past year UM Athletics went through a comprehensive NCAA certification review, similar to accreditation of academic units. The self-studywas directed by Teresa Branch, Vice President of Student Affairs, and Bill Muse, Associate Vice President for Planning, Budget, and Analysis. After months of meetings, data gathering (principally by Senior Associate A.D. Jean Gee) and drafting – and just before the self-study was to be submitted – the NCAA declared a two-year moratorium for the process. UM was given the option of delaying or submitting its completed study. After UM chose the latter, the NCAA judged the self-study completely satisfactory and recertified UM Athletics (the future of the NCAA certification process is yet to be determined). The self- study dealt primarily with diversity and gender equity issues. UM Athletics greatly appreciates the hard work of all those involved in the process and will make appropriate adjustments to its policies and procedures.

Five-year funding plan. With assistance from the UM Office of Budget, Planning, and Analysis, UM Athletics established a 5-year funding plan to stabilize the department’s future fiscal situation.

Presidents’ Cup Award. For the second time in five years, UM Athletics was awarded the BSC’s Sterling Savings Presidents’ Cup for being the BSC’s most well-rounded athletic department. Three-fifths of the criteria are based on academic accomplishments, with the remaining two-fifths on athletic accomplishments. UM placed no higher than fifth in the award’s first four years, but was first in 2007, third in 2008, second in 2009, and second again in 2010.

Fund-raising activities. For the third consecutive year, the Grizzly Scholarship Association topped the $2 million mark in annual-gift fundraising – easily the highest in the BSC and among the top at the FCS level. Also last year, major gifts to the UM Foundation for athletics accounted for another $3.5 million. Remarkably, that was more than half the amount of dollars (not including endowment gifts or bequests) given to the UM Foundation last year.

Positive fiscal-year ending balance. For the eighth consecutive year, UM Athletics finished with a positive fund balance. The amount, $200,891, was put into reserves in case of future shortfalls.

Athletic championships. Women’s basketball won the BSC tournament and made their 19th appearance in the NCAA tournament; women’s cross country, for the first time since 1984, was the BSC champion.

New official website. After sharing a website with the UC Bookstore for 12 years, UM Athletics started its own website on January 1, 2011: The new site contains up-to-the-minute editorials, pictures, graphics, special-features, and Montana Grizzly apparel sales information for Griz fans worldwide. It was made available through the assistance of our multi-media partner, Learfield Sports/Grizzly Sports Properties, is hosted by CBSSports.com, and uses the many talents of UM Athletics’ sports information, marketing, and sales personnel. The new site gives UM Athletics more control of content, and numbers show it has become very popular with fans.

UM Athletics goals for FY 12.

• Construct new student-athlete academic center, renovate existing athletic facilities including athletic performance center and locker rooms, and acquire lights for the football stadium. The latter will accommodate late practices asclasses are increasingly being scheduled during the entire 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. period, and will also accommodate the new BSC television package that has games running from 1:30 to 4:30.
• Upgrade compliance assistant position from half-time to full-time to strengthen compliance with NCAA rules.
• Provide additional staff resources to sports information, marketing and promotions, and athletic medical services to better meet student-athlete welfare and Title IX requirements.
• Develop a long-range financial plan to meet ever increasing grant-in-aid expenses.
• Continue to increase privately-generated revenue. With a budget of $15,717,305,UM Athletics must secure almost $10 million in private funding (which includes almost $4.5 million from football-ticket sales).
• Review UM Athletics Strategic Plan. The first plan was put into place in 2007. While it has since been updated, it needs to undergo comprehensive review in 2012.

Significant statistics

• UM’s Bureau of Economic Research estimates that each Grizzly home football game generates between $5 million and $7 million for the Missoula community.
• UM football led FCS schools in attendance in both 2008 and 2009, and was second to Appalachian State in 2010.
• Last year women’s basketball attendance was 40th among 333 Division I schools (with an average home crowd of 3,024), and the Lady Griz ranked in the top 20 in ticket-sales revenue.
• Graduation rate for UM student-athletes increased from 63% to 65%, while the corresponding measure for the entire UM student population decreased from 44% to 43%.
• In the eight years of the NCAA Academic Progress Rate, UM Athletics has been penalized with a loss of only .22 of a scholarship (men’s cross country 5 years ago). Nationwide, most penalties have been in men’s basketball and football.