July 6, 2005
SAN DIEGO -
SDSU Athletic Director Jeff Schemmel
Press Conference
July 6, 2005
Aztec Athletics Center
Opening Statements
University President, Dr. Stephen L. Weber
"I am proud to announce that San Diego State University has hired Jeff Schemmel to be our new director of intercollegiate athletics. Jeff is currently the associate commissioner for Governance and Legal Affairs with Conference USA. Jeff brings talent and experience from some of the biggest programs and events in college sports, and he brings them here to lead the athletic program at San Diego State.
"He has a track record of success as a high-ranking administrator at a major Big Ten University, and for Conference USA. He has been extremely adept at attracting major events, hiring top coaches, managing large staffs, and expanding revenue streams of private support. He is also an expert on compliance issues. Most importantly, he is committed to running a first-rate athletics program with integrity - one that's dedicated to the success of our student-athletes on the field and in the classroom, and one that builds pride for our university, our alumni and our fans.
"In many respects, we are already headed in that positive direction. Over the last several years, strong leadership and sound management in athletics have created an environment that has engaged the university, engaged the community, and supported our student-athletes and coaches as never before. I want to express my personal thanks to (SDSU VP of Business and Financial Affairs) Sally Roush, to (former SDSU athletic director) Mike Bohn, but most of all, to the colleagues in the athletic department for the progress that has been made. They have all worked hard to make this program a success.
"Jeff is superbly equipped to build on these achievements, and to take our athletics department to even higher ground. He has helped build strong programs, on and off the field, in every athletic department with which he has worked, most notably, the University of Minnesota and Kansas State University. From 1991 to 2003, Jeff worked at the University of Minnesota, the last nine years as senior associate athletics director and chief operating officer. While there, he helped hire successful coaches in several sports and supervised significant increases in marketing and fundraising. He also served as executive director for the 2001 NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four in Minneapolis, supervising everything from fundraising and logistics to game management. Jeff also spent 1988 to 1991 as senior administrator at Kansas State, where he played a major role in hiring football head coach Bill Snyder, who has become one of the most successful Division I coaches today. He also supervised fundraising, securing a 35 percent increase in annual giving in his first year alone."
"Before I give the podium over to Jeff, let me say a few words of appreciation. My thanks go out to everyone on campus and off, who contributed to our successful search and interview process. Literally hundreds of people were involved, spending their time working with candidates, because they care about San Diego State and the success of our athletic program. We are very grateful for their input. That helped enable us to work quickly and decisively, and positioned us to make an excellent hire. I should also say as a credit to the men and women in our athletic department, we had an extraordinary pool of applicants. It's a good way of measuring how much stronger our university is now than it was two years ago. It didn't just happen because we said so, it happened because many of the people in this room worked hard to make it happen. I also want to give special thanks to interim athletic director Steve Becvar, who has smoothly and capably led the athletic department over the past several months, and who received very strong consideration as the other finalist for this position. Steve is a consummate professional, and it is my hope that he will continue to play a significant leadership role in the future success of our athletics department."
Director of Intercollegiate Athletics, Jeff Schemmel
"It goes without saying that I'm honored to be standing here. I'm thrilled to be standing here. As I went through this process, I became more impressed each step of the way with not only what San Diego State has in place in athletics and the commitment that's there, but with the people whom I've met along the way, they've been terrific. In the forefront of those people are these two here, and I owe them a big thank you, Sally Roush and President (Stephen) Weber. I had my first opportunity probably a month ago to meet with both of them and from the very beginning, I was incredibly impressed. When we get involved in searches like this and talk about an athletic director position, the very first thing you think about and you talk about and get a feel for is the commitment of the president, in this case the president and the vice-president. From the very first half-hour that I spent with them, I knew that the commitment was there.
"As I came into the process and came to campus another thing that became clear to me was the great set of facilities that you have here and we have (to give) some great thanks (out) to those that made it happen. (The facilities) are very impressive. I came from a Big Ten institution, I've been at a Pac-10 and Big Eight institution and these facilities are as good as those and in many cases better. So the feeling that I got as the process went on was that this really is a great place to be. "My first impression of San Diego State was some years ago when I was part of an NCAA peer review team that came here, and what I remember thinking back in the late `90s was, `Wow, what student-athlete wouldn't want to come here? What high school kid wouldn't be so impressed with San Diego, with San Diego State, with the campus and now, much better than then, the facilities. So each step of the way, I have gotten more excited about this (opportunity) and clearly, I'm thrilled to be here.
"As far as expectations, I think that the AD's position is very simple in many ways. (The position is to) put everything in place that he or she can and have the staff help the student-athletes and the coaches succeed. It's really about that. It is always about the student-athletes and if we can do everything we can to make them successful, pooling everything we've got, all of our resources, it's going to be terrific.
"We want to continue much of the momentum that as already begun. Sally (Roush) talked about it, and the president (Stephen Weber) talked about it. The momentum that has begun here -- increases in fundraising, in marketing dollars, and increases in attendance -- we don't want to lose what has begun. So I hope that I can bring a fresh energy to that and continue the momentum we started. It is very important to me that that momentum include (interim athletic director) Steve Becvar. I will lean on him heavily to continue what we've already started here. The wealth of knowledge that he has and the energy that he brought to the position, I will rely on him heavily as we go forward."
On his first priorities as athletic director:
"I don't think there's any question that continued generation revenue is critical to our success. The resources that we can generate to help our student-athletes, to help our coaches, will be paramount in their success. I know that San Diego State plays with a budget that is substantially smaller than some of its competition in the Mountain West Conference, and we'll do everything we can to close that gap. But that doesn't mean we can't be successful, as successful as they are, with what we have. I've been at institutions where we've been able to do that. So we hope we can, we intend to and the expectations we have are very high. I really do expect that we will have great success in two things - No. 1 graduating student-athletes and No. 2, being competitive on the field. If we can do those things, we're going to do what President Weber, Vice-President Roush, the community and the institution wants us to do. "
On raising community support:
"We've talked about that a lot. There are a considerable number of similarities between the San Diego metro area and San Diego State and the Twin Cities metropolitan area and the University of Minnesota. The battles are much the same, especially with the professional sports that are in town. You're sharing an entertainment dollar, but what we hope to do is distinguish what we have, the product that we have. The student-athletes we have are not professional, they are true amateurs in college to get an education, and I think you can build on what they represent and distinguish what they represent from the professional sports. They're not being paid $10 million, they're not complaining about being paid $10 million. So I think there are some ways that if we do a good job, if we talk about our student-athletes the way we should, than we can sell our product. You can't go to a professional game and have a marching band on Saturday, but you can get that at San Diego State, so I really think that there's a niche that we can create. I've heard that there are 100,000 San Diego State grads in town, certainly many of them have loyalties we haven't tapped. I think the opportunity is great and there are challenges, but there are also opportunities."
On continuing predecessor Mike Bohn's "open-door" philosophy:
"We've preached that wherever I've been - that the door is always open. The ease with which we communicate or want to communicate is critical to our success like in any organization, quite frankly. If you're putting roadblocks between yourself and anyone in the organization really, in regard to communication, it's not healthy for the organization. What we hope for is a door that is open at all times, and maybe even more so, that the door is open so that they feel (comfortable that) they can walk (through it). We sure hope that we project that image. I'm sure going to sell that message to everyone on our staff and I will ask everyone on our staff to do the same.
On gender-equity issues:
"I have become familiar with Cal-NOW through this (hiring) process, but I had never heard of it until I got involved with this (job process). We all spend a lot of time on Title IX in our business and we do it not because it's the law, but because it's the right thing to do. We struggle all the time, especially with proportionality, if that is the piece that you're using to see how you're doing. It's not so much what we know we have to do, it's how we can pay for it, which is a continuing struggle that will continue to be an issue for us. We've got to do the right thing by Title IX and we've got to figure out how we're going to pay for it. If it's adding a sport, then how are we going to make that work financially? I'm not a believer in dropping men's sports, and I'm not a believer in cutting squad sizes on the men's side. We tinkered with that a bit at places, at Minnesota but it just wasn't very effective."