By Lauren Gustus
Sports Editor
A new Division I women’s sports team may soon join the Pepperdine pantheon of athletic successes, but funding difficulties have prevented a definite timetable for the program’s arrival.
“We shouldn’t begin a sport unless it can be properly funded,” Director of Athletics Dr. John Watson said of efforts to launch a women’s water polo team at Pepperdine. “We’re still seeking the funding. We’re not there yet.”
He said that he will not embark on a new program unless it is able to find success which, even at the college level, takes money. But challenges abound at Pepperdine to raise sufficient funds.
Although the first year that a team is in existence is the most expensive, each successive year the costs continue for the athletic department. The funds necessary for the program are not only start-up costs, but annual expenditures such as scholarships, coaches and equipment.
“Once we make the commitment to go we have to be reasonably sure we’ll have the funding year after year,” Watson said.
Scholarships are the primary concern. NCAA rules permit eight full scholarships for women’s water polo, but Pepperdine has to raise close to $300,000 for the first year of scholarships for other players. Tuition at a private institution is higher than at a public university, so to cover a student-athlete scholarship more funds must be raised at a private school. Tuition, room and board at Pepperdine is about $35,000 in comparison to cross-town rival UCLA, which needs to designate a far smaller sum.
“That’s a lot of money for us,” Watson said. “That’s real money, that we have to pay to the university.”
On top of the scholarships, the school must pay for a coaching staff, equipment and travel expenses. But fundraising itself is even an issue. There is no fundraising office within the athletic department at Pepperdine, which instead works with the regular fundraising campaigns sponsored by the university.
The athletic department is hoping to cut a slice out of a highly competitive pie. If women’s water polo becomes high enough on the university’s priority list of new programs to start, then it will get the necessary funding from the administration.
“We are just one requestor of lots of people who have dreams (at Pepperdine),” Watson said.
The motivation for a polo team stems from the need for more Division I programs for women on campus. The general population at Pepperdine favors females, 60 percent to 40 percent, and Watson said that the athletic department wants to offer women on campus more Division I opportunities.
Other Division I women’s sports options that had been explored were softball, lacrosse and crew. Because of the limited space on campus, water polo is the most feasible option.
There is currently a women’s water polo club team, which practices daily and has struggled to secure pool time and necessary funds for equipment.
Watson said that a new water polo coach would try to recruit scholarship athletes and also evaluate the skills of students already enrolled who are interested in playing.
According to Title IX, there must be equal funding for men’s and women’s Division I sports programs. However, the majority of Division I schools field a football team, which can eat up close to 80 scholarships for males. To counterbalance the resources devoted to a football program, NCAA committees have allocated more funds for women’s sports such as soccer, volleyball and water polo.
So by NCAA mandate, Pepperdine can only offer four and a half full scholarships to men’s volleyball and men’s water polo, while a women’s water polo team and the women’s volleyball team can award eight and nine scholarships, respectively.
While Pepperdine has the opportunity to offer substantial women’s water polo money to student-athletes, it does not yet have the means to do so.
“The desire is there to establish women’s water polo when we can get the funding.” Watson said.
The athletic department is exploring other on-campus improvements as well. Watson stressed that it is both the student-athletes and the regular students who stand to benefit from the potential improvements that a quality competitive environment will provide.
On the wish list is a fitness center, for which plans have already been approved, but for which no funding is available, and a new gymnasium that could host sporting events, lectures and entertainment.
March 28, 2002