A must-read feature

An exception is being made here -- the posting of an entire article -- so an apology is due to Chris Murray. Read this keeping in mind San Jose State University athletics.

With Wolf Pack at critical stage, new AD Doug Knuth can't fix all problems by himself
Chris Murray
Reno Gazette-Journal
August 2, 2013

I’ll start by being blunt.

The Wolf Pack athletic department is one of the nation’s worst in terms of on-the-field success.

It’s not what people want to hear, but it’s hard to argue.

The Learfield Sports Directors’ Cup, which uses a mathematical formula to rank the success of each athletic department, pegged Nevada tied for 257th out of 294 departments in 2012-13.

Only 11 departments had a lower score than Nevada, including just one FBS school, Texas State, which is reclassifying from a lower level. The Wolf Pack has been a Division I school for two decades and hit rock bottom last year. Nevada was destroyed by UNLV in last year’s inaugural Governor’s Cup series.

Yes, the Wolf Pack football team has reached eight straight bowl games, including a magical run in 2010. Yes, the Wolf Pack basketball team reached four straight NCAA tournaments from 2003-07 and has a nice pipeline to the NBA. Those achievements are the silver lining to a half-decade of underachieving.

The good news comes in the form of Doug Knuth, Brian Polian and Jay Johnson.

The new athletic director (Knuth), football coach (Polian) and baseball coach (Johnson) are mirror images. Each is between the age of 36-40. Each blends energy, creativity and optimism. Each doesn’t want to hear about Nevada’s perceived limitations. Together, they are the future of Wolf Pack athletics.

But here’s the tricky part: This trio alone can’t fix Nevada’s recent history of poor performance. Simply switching an up-and-coming Knuth with an ineffective Cary Groth, the former AD, won’t fix everything.

There’s a huge money issue here, one that Knuth won’t be able to solve by himself.

For starters, Nevada needs to renovate Mackay Stadium ($10 million), build an indoor practice facility ($18 million-$24 million) and tennis facility ($1.5 million) and increase individual sports budgets and coaching salaries by a good percentage just to get to a break-even point with Mountain West foes.

The Wolf Pack had the lowest football and men’s basketball budgets in the MWC last season. In fact, Nevada spent less on football and basketball combined than any MWC school spent on football alone in 2012-13. The department’s overall budget of $20 million is nearly $15 million below the MWC average.

On her final day in office last April, Groth was frank about the financial issues.

“We’re so far behind,” said Groth, whose department took a major cut in state funds during her tenure. “We’ve done so well on smoke and mirrors. You don’t need a lot of finances to do well academically. You don’t need the finances to do well in your community services and your citizenship. But competitively, you’ve got to have the funds and the tools for your coaches to have success.”

The Wolf Pack’s future success hinges on money and that money must come from three groups of people, each equally important as Nevada tries to scrape itself of the doormat of Division I schools.

Fans

Wolf Pack fans really don’t know how much of an impact they have on Nevada’s bottom line.

The difference between selling out Mackay Stadium each game and the current level of attendance is roughly $2.1 million. Sell out every game at Lawlor Events Center, too, about that’s $2 million more.

The financial issues could largely be solved if Nevada simply packed the stadium with regularity.

Administration

Nevada’s previous administration used Wolf Pack fans like an ATM machine, asking for money without really listening to their needs. Knuth has promised to make the relationship more of a partnership.

The disconnect between the Wolf Pack administration and fans was growing in recent years. Groth was unpopular and Chris Ault, whose football mind can’t be questioned, has long been a lightening rod.

Knuth and Polian are the perfect elixir to this problem, two likeable guys who are willing to get into the community. Groth also struggled with her coaching hires; Knuth, meanwhile, hit a homer with Johnson.

State and university

You can have a spirited debate on whether state money and student fees should be used to fund college athletics, but the bottom line is almost every school gets a ton of subsidies, most more than Nevada.

According to USA Today, Nevada received $8.8 million in subsidies in the last reporting year (2012), bottom in the MWC. The average MWC school, according to USA Today, received $17 million in subsidies, nearly double what the Pack gets. Nevada got a big state-fund cut in 2008 and hasn’t recovered.

“We can’t win championships here year-in and year-out if we’re the 11th-largest budget (in the MWC),” Knuth said. “We have to grow. We have to grow our budget. We have to grow our annual fundraising. We have to grow our ticket sales. None of that is surprise. Everybody in our community knows that.”

The question is whether the community, the administration and the university is ready to treat Nevada like a real D-I entity rather than try and sneak by on a meager budget while thinking everything’s fine.

This year marks the Wolf Pack’s 22nd season at the D-I level and it faces a critical time in history. In many ways, it’s still asking the question, “What do we want to be when we grow up?”

“One of the reasons I came here is because there’s just so much opportunity,” Knuth said when I spoke with him last month about the future of the department. “I look everywhere and I see opportunity.”

Opportunity, yes, but also a lot of work ahead. Knuth seems prepared for that work, but is the community and the university? That question can only be answered with time.