AD Spetman pleased with first year at Utah State
Utah State athletic director Randy Spetman has seen financial struggles as well as record-setting academic feats from student athletes in his first academic year in office.
USU athletics currently have the lowest operating budget in the Western Athletic Conference, but student-athletes have posted a cumulative 3.0233 grade-point-average which is the highest in the history of the school.
“I think it’s been a very busy year, but a very exciting and productive year,” Spetman said. “If you analyze what we’ve done athletically and academically, it’s pretty good.”
Spetman said 50 percent of student athletes had a 3.0 GPA and 46 percent had more than 3.2. To date, there have been 36 athletes named to all-conference academic teams with a few sports to go, he said.
Spetman said the men’s basketball team was one of only two teams in the NCAA tournament to have a 100 percent graduation rate over the last four years.
“We continue to do well with men’s basketball,” he said. “We won the conference, we went to the NCAA tournament and academically we’ve been right at the top.”
Spetman said he was also pleased the women’s gymnastics team won the conference and the track team finished second in the WAC in its first year in the conference.
The athletics program has also made improvement off the field during the last year.
The Harris Athletic Center had its entire interior remodeled and the renovation of Romney Stadium is now underway.
“The whole south entrance is torn off right now,” Spetman said of the football facility. “Next season we’ll have new bathrooms, new concessions and a new ticket office and the like. At the end of the football season, we’re on schedule to take down the press box and go on in that direction. So it’s been really exciting.”
Spetman said his biggest challenge has been the financial situation of the athletic department.
“I guess it’s a little more challenging than I thought,” he said. “Financially we’ve had little to spend on the programs. As we head into the WAC we will go in with the lowest operating budget. So it’s a challenge to me to get us up in the middle of that pack. That’s my biggest challenge.”
Spetman insisted the situation would get better.
“[USU] President Stan Albrecht has committed to helping it get better,” he said.
“The exposure of the WAC is going to help us get more sponsorships. It’s a good picture ahead of us, but you have to work pretty hard to get there. It’s going to get better. “
Spetman said his success as AD has been a result of the student athletes.
“I’ve been very busy,” he said. “But I just think the student athletes have stepped up in both the classroom and the athletic field.”
-bhhinton@cc.usu.edu