jdredmon@mavs.coloradomesa.edu

Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot about the university’s sports programs and the administration’s lack of support. The issue isn’t one of disinterest or complacency — it has to do with the rate that CMU athletics is growing.

Mesa is currently the only school in the RMAC that has a team in every conference-recorded sport. CSU-Pueblo is the only college that comes close with only men and women’s swimming and diving being the lone sport left out. With many different programs needing the support from the administration, there are going to be underfunded teams.

The football program, which has been around since 1925, will and should get more funding and attention from the administration than sports like lacrosse or track and field that have been around for less than a decade and are still gaining their bearings and earning their proverbial stripes. Despite the strides those two have made, which of those three has the most notoriety and will draw the most attention in today’s sports?

Sports are a large source of revenue for colleges. Merchandising generated over $13 billion in revenue in North America, according to Price Waterhouse Coopers LLP, a professional service and accountancy firm.

It makes more fiscal sense for the administration to put the majority of its funding into sports that will generate the most revenue for the continued growth of CMU. The growing number of sports being run by the university is obviously coming at a time where Mesa is experiencing perhaps the most rapid growth in its near 80-year history.

Blaming the administration for the shortage of funding for certain sports/club teams is not going to change anything. It isn’t turning a blind eye to less popular sports because it simply isn’t interested, they are merely working with the amount of funding they have to disperse in the first place.

Coaches and various staff members have already let it be known that President Foster and the university are big supporters of all of the sports that the campus has to offer. Without their efforts, we wouldn’t have many of the sports in the first place.

Let the programs run their course, and their growth will result in more support and more funding, not only from the administration, but also from boosters and the alumni association.