Five Year Strategic Plan

As the University of Montana athletic department looks ahead to the next five years, there are three major areas of focus for strategic planning purposes: facilities, student-athlete support (academic and welfare), and competitive issues.

A majority of the projects identified in the athletic department strategic plan fall within these areas. While there are other strategic goals noted and included in this document, the following three are the highest priority. Many of the identified projects affect more than one of these areas.

Facilities: There are several facility priorities identified for the next five years that positively impact the academic, athletic, and safety needs of our student-athletes. These include completion of the Washington Grizzly Champions Center and fan-support facilities at the softball stadium, constructing an indoor practice facility, addressing indoor and outdoor tennis needs, resurfacing the outdoor track, and renovating the vacated weight room and locker room space in the basement of Washington Grizzly Stadium.

Student-Athlete Support: There are three areas of priority planned for the next five years to address overall student-athlete success: academic support, mental health, and physical well-being. Currently, private and departmental scholarships cover approximately 50 percent of summer school funding needs. The department wants to provide stable funding sources to meet all summer school needs moving forward. In addition, the department will provide resources to address the unique challenges faced by student-athletes when it comes to mental health. Finally, to support the physical well-being of Grizzly student-athletes, the department will provide effective nutritional counseling and training table in a cost-conscious way.

Competitive Issues: Remaining a nationally competitive and highly successful Division I FCS athletic program is a must. Hiring and retaining high-quality coaches and recruiting student- athletes that can be successful both academically and athletically must continue. Maintaining salaries for coaches and support staff on par with peer institutions is a constant focus. In order to provide a quality experience for the fans and student-athletes, the department will continue to prioritize scheduling Division I opponents in all sports. This strategy is also critical to growing ticket revenue for the department. Finally, the examination of providing full Cost of Attendance (COA) scholarships needs to be ongoing. Recruiting against other institutions for high-level student-athletes is more and more competitive. Offering full COA scholarships may be needed to ensure competitive success in the future

The University of Montana Department of Intercollegiate Athletics recognizes a commitment to serve both its student-athletes and the University. Its primary commitment is to provide an opportunity for student-athletes to fully develop their academic and athletic potential. Through practice, training and competition, the department strives to instill in each student-athlete:

 Good sportsmanship and personal integrity.  Loyalty to the group and the ability to function with others as a team.  Appreciation for the benefits of hard work, motivation and perseverance in both winning and losing situations.  Pride in accomplishments gained through fair and honest means.

A strong athletic program does much to generate pride and enthusiasm in students, alumni, the University as a whole, and the community which the University serves. The public relations, good will and service provided by a strong athletic program benefit The University of Montana in ways which cannot be measured in strictly economic terms. Through its athletic program, the University’s accomplishments and academic goals are made known to the public.

Based upon this philosophy and with ongoing support from the President and the University Athletic Committee, the following values, mission statement, vision statement and strategic goals have been established.

Integrity: Grizzly Athletics will exhibit integrity everywhere we go and in everything we do.

Excellence: Grizzly Athletics will demonstrate excellence in everything we do.

Loyalty: Grizzly Athletics will demonstrate loyalty to our University, our state, our teams, and fans.

In order to understand where we are and where we want to be, it is vital to define those qualities that we hold sacrosanct. In understanding those values, the goals and path to achieve those goals will be clearly set out before us. Every decision of the department will reflect these defined values.

What qualities make a national championship team? What traits does a successful graduate possess? What makes Montana “Montana”? In answering these questions, we have defined who we are.

Grizzly Athletics, through honoring and promoting the University of Montana mission, retains the trust and respect of campus, alumni, supporters and the State of Montana by graduating student-athletes, striving for excellence, competing with integrity, and serving as a concerned and committed partner in community life.

The University of Montana is a member of the Big Sky Conference and affiliated with Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Our purpose is to provide a sound, competitive intercollegiate athletics program that represents the University in an impeccable manner, and provides student-athletes the opportunity to develop physically, mentally, ethically, and socially. In doing so, the athletic program will provide: (1) coaching of the finest quality, (2) facilities that provide excellent venues for safe and high-caliber competition, (3) academic assistance to enhance academic success, (4) customer service that is consistently excellent, and (5) incentives and initiatives to retain quality coaches, employees and student-athletes. Our main objective is to assist young men and women in their educational pursuits to the fullest through support, guidance and motivational programs. This assistance is intended to provide maximum opportunity for student-athletes to reach their full potential. The University is committed to a philosophy of excellence and our Athletic Department mirrors this sentiment.

It is the goal of the Athletic Department to serve and direct student-athletes along a path that combines their educational pursuits along with athletic participation. Accordingly, the Athletics Department will create an environment wherein all student-athletes regardless of gender, ethnicity, race, national origin, color, creed, sexual orientation, age, disability, or religion are given the opportunity to participate and succeed both academically and athletically. The function of the Athletic Department is to work closely with the UM campus community, alumni, friends of the University, and the greater surrounding community to achieve our mission. A healthy working relationship with the NCAA and the Big Sky Conference is also part of the responsibility Intercollegiate Athletics must effectively and continuously pursue.

To be a model NCAA Division I program excelling in academics, community engagement and athletics

Our expectation as a department is to reach the highest level of success in all NCAA measures in each sport program. Striving to win the Big Sky All-Sports President’s Trophy recognizing the overall positive production of our total program reflects upon the quality of athletes, coaching and resources provided.

As stated previously in the mission statement, success for our Athletic Department means excellence both on the athletic field and in the classroom. Therefore, UM’s vision is to be among the top institutions in athletic achievement as well as in NCAA academic measures such as student-athlete graduation rate, the Academic Progress Rate (APR) and the Graduation Success Rate (GSR).

Academics Assist and encourage Grizzly student-athletes to reach their full academic potential.

Financial Achieve and maintain fiscal transparency, accountability, and success.

Student-Athlete Welfare Provide each student-athlete with the opportunity to grow personally and enjoy a positive experience at the University of Montana and within the community.

Community Service Support the community through active and meaningful public service and responsible citizenship.

Sportsmanship On and off the field of competition our staff, athletes and fans will respect the sport, themselves and others.

Winning Provide the facilities, coaches and resources necessary to continue the Grizzly winning tradition.

Diversity Provide opportunities for individuals on the basis of merit in a non-discriminatory manner. In addition, proactively contribute to the success and full implementation of the UM diversity plan.

Equity Provide appropriate participation opportunities, facilities and resources equitably without regard to gender.

Advocacy Engage the University and Montana communities, Grizzly fans, former athletes and University alumni in the mission and accomplishments of Grizzly Athletics.

University Relations Engage the University community as a full partner in furthering the Mission of the University of Montana for the benefit of all Students, Faculty, and Staff.

The Department’s Strategic Goals reflect the idealism of those involved directly and indirectly with program results. They also represent the key elements of a successful program as viewed from high and theoretical levels – they are “strategic” not “operational”. They are not likely to change much year to year and if properly targeted operationally (one bi-annium at a time and one task or project at a time), they will produce superior outcomes and result in a highly successful athletic department that is in harmony with its environment (University of Montana, the City of Missoula, and the State of Montana).

A Look Back

In order to focus on future operational strategies, it is important to look at our past goals and evaluate our effectiveness in meeting those goals. Further, we must determine whether the challenges, built-in environmental constraints and environmental advantages that shaped those benchmarks remain the same.

In the original departmental strategic plan, the identified strategic goals fell into three broad areas: facilities, student-athlete support (academic and welfare), and competitive topics. As outlined below, the program has far exceeded not only the identified goals and priorities, but also addressed an issue that was not contemplated in the first plan.

Facilities Original Plan: An expansion to the east side of the stadium was completed in 2008. The expansion includes 2,000 new seats and a new club area with associated amenities. This additional revenue will assist with the next priority: the art annex project. This project will touch on many areas of concern including a renovated men’s locker room, a larger, more efficient and safe weight room, a larger academic center, and a meeting room. Further, the project will allow Athletics to assist the College of Visual and Performing Arts by providing funding to relocate their art studio to a more adequate facility for accreditation purposes. Another major project that appears under several strategic goals is an indoor practice facility. The availability of such a facility would benefit many of the sports within the department and address several problems including tennis practice during the winter and the availability of an indoor track. UM Athletics had entered into a lease agreement with Peak Fitness for regular use of their newly constructed indoor tennis courts (projected to be completed in winter/early spring 2010). However, the restricted availability of hours necessitates the continued usage of the portable courts purchased last year.

Grizzly Athletics’ ability to provide opportunities to encourage student-athletes to achieve their full academic potential was greatly enhanced with the opening of the Eric and Blair Sprunk Student- Athlete Academic Center in Fall 2015. This $2.5-million-dollar project, funded entirely through private donations, offers a large main study area, three small study rooms, a larger group study room and several individual computer stations for the department’s student-athletes. The addition of this space not only provides a conducive learning environment for the students, it also allows Athletic Academic Services to offer relevant academic programming and support to student-athletes.

As will be fully addressed in the Equity section below, the inaugural softball team played in a new stadium. The stadium is located on UM’s South Campus, and features an all-turf field and an indoor batting facility.

There have been several enhancements to the football stadium including the installation of LED ribbon boards on the north and east side, new video, scoreboard, and sound system, new FieldTurf playing surface, and handrails in the aisles of the east and west side.

The Bill Ruegamer Indoor Golf Facility opened in October 2015 at The Ranch Club in west Missoula. The 1,500-square-foot facility has four hitting bays that open to the course's driving range and a 30-foot-by-20-foot putting surface with surrounding chipping areas. The building was built entirely with private funds, and was named in honor Bill Ruegamer in June 2016 after the former UM men's golfer made a gift to the department, part of which paid off the debt on the facility.

While not a UM-owned facility, Grizzly Athletics entered into a lease agreement with the Peak Racquet Center to provide indoor practice space in their newly built facility for the tennis programs. While not ideal, this intermediate step provides our tennis programs indoor practice opportunities in Missoula that were not available before.

The Washington Grizzly Champions Center broke ground in 2016 and is scheduled to be completed by Fall 2017. This project will provide additional facilities that will impact the academic and athletic success of our student-athletes and their safety. The Center will include a new football locker room, a larger and more efficient weight room and much-needed meetings spaces. The $14 million 51,000 square foot facility was made possible by hundreds of private gifts including a lead gift of $7 million by Kyle and Kevin Washington on behalf of the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation.

Student-Athlete Support Original Plan: The most urgent need within this area is scholarship funding. This includes fully funding current scholarships and providing a stable source of scholarship funds for degree completion and summer school. GrizScape, which offers sports enhancement counseling and support, is currently a year-to-year partially funded program. Providing full funding would greatly enhance this program. Finally, establishing a consistent funding source for uncovered medical expenses would greatly enhance our continued focus on student-athlete welfare.

Academic support for student-athletes increased with the addition of two academic advisor positions, with one of those dedicated to serving as the football academic advisor and the department’s life skills coordinator. With increased personnel resources, a two-credit academic and personal preparedness course was created and approved by Faculty Senate. The one-credit course during fall semester focuses on academic resources, while the one-credit spring course provides the student-athletes with “real-life” tools such as budget planning, nutrition and career exploration.

Financial academic support for Grizzly student-athletes has also greatly improved. Private support, in the form of endowed scholarships, has increased 47 percent since 2007. A majority of the increase comes in the form of scholarships earmarked for degree completion needs. A consistent summer scholarship budget has been established that covers half of the funding needs for summer school. Finally, every sports program is funded at the maximum scholarship limit within NCAA rules.

As far as student-athlete welfare, an additional athletic trainer position was added to cover softball and assist in other sports. Personnel changes enabled a focus on student-athlete centered treatment in the athletic training room. A contract with Vivature allows the department to generate revenue through insurance reimbursement that is reinvested in the care and treatment of student- athletes.

Competitive Topics Original Plan: The identified needs in this area include raising coaching salaries to be on par with peer institutions, incentives, multi-year contracts, increased recruiting budgets, and updated equipment in the weight room. Many of these projects lead to the intangible strategic goals within the plan including coach/staff/student-athlete retention, competitive edge in recruiting, and the continuation of winning tradition.

Multi-year contracts for the head coaches in football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball were approved by the Board of Regents in Fall 2008. The contracts included performance-based incentives for the head coaches, as well as for the assistant coaches. The men’s basketball contract was enhanced in 2012 with additional scheduling incentive language to reward the coaching staff for building a competitive schedule, with incentives paid from the guarantee revenue provided by quality opponents.

In 2007, Grizzly Athletics partnered with Learfield Sports as its multimedia rights holder and sports marketing arm. This move provided a vital new revenue stream for Grizzly Athletics.

Equity During the 2012-13 academic year, Athletics began research on the feasibility of adding a women’s sport. Data was collected via surveys and admissions application information with regard to analyzing the “interests, skills, abilities” prong of Title IX. Paired with additional research of high school female participation rates in Montana and surrounding states clearly supported softball as a feasible option for Grizzly Athletics. The hiring of head coach Jamie Pinkerton on August 21, 2013 marked the official start of the 15th sport for Grizzly Athletics. The inaugural team played its first game, in its own, newly constructed stadium on March 21, 2015. The team made the conference tournament in only its second year, with Coach Pinkerton also earning Conference Coach of the Year honors. Softball is well on its way to achieving the winning tradition expected at the University of Montana.

While some of the environmental threats and opportunities identified in the past remain constant, changes in college athletics happen quickly and UM is not immune to the national conversations impacting our programs. The new and emerging issues identified below will shape the department’s ability to meet its operational goals.

Environmental Threats/Challenges

Campus enrollment Continued campus budget constraints The UM campus has experienced enrollment declines for the past several years. This decline directly impacts Athletics operations in several ways including reduced University support of the Athletic budget and decreased student athletic fee revenue.

Cost of Attendance (COA) Two years ago, the NCAA membership legislated a new definition of a full athletic grant-in-aid (GIA). Prior to the change, a full athletic GIA consisted of tuition, fees, room, board and books. Under the new rule, a full athletic GIA may consist of tuition, fees, room, board, books and other expenses related to attendance at the institution up to the full cost of attendance. While this is permissive legislation for the non-autonomy conferences, the inability to offer full COA has impacted recruiting when going head-to-head with an institution that does offer the full scholarship.

Conference realignment Nationally, the conference realignment frenzy has calmed. However, the threat of schools moving up to FBS and/or changing conference affiliations, is always present.

Locally, the Big Sky Conference has not been immune to conference membership shifts. The University of Idaho returned to the Big Sky in all sports but football in 2014, and football will rejoin in 2018. The University of North Dakota recently announced that it will be departing the Big Sky Conference in all sports beginning July 2018. This departure provides some unique scheduling challenges in those sports left with an odd number of members. This not only impacts travel, but also the fan experience with odd single games during several weeks in the season. Generally, the overall picture of how the Big Sky Conference will look in five years is uncertain.

Facility Maintenance Several athletic facilities are decades old, with minimal ongoing maintenance performed throughout the years due to budget constraints. Some of those issues are now at critical capacity and must be addressed. This includes several features of Washington Grizzly Stadium, the outdoor tennis courts, Dornblaser track and the Adams Center roof.

Opportunities

Conference realignment While conference realignment is detailed above as a challenge, it is also an opportunity. Idaho is a founding member of the Big Sky Conference. Their return renews traditional rivalries. They are also located in a footprint that is advantageous for travel for many Conference schools, including UM. Learfield contract re-negotiation The Grizzly Athletics brand remains strong and continues to breed excitement among UM fans and supporters. This has enabled the department to finalize negotiations with Learfield for a new multimedia rights contract that enhances revenue and much-needed facility upgrades.

Adams Center/Ticket Office The need for a positive and collaborative relationship between Athletics and the Adams Center cannot be overstated. Athletics is a resident who occupies a majority of the space, but most importantly, the majority of the building time for practices and competition. In addition, the ticket office under the direction of the Adams Center, serves as the department’s face to the Athletics ticket-buying public, and provides additional opportunities for increased revenue through implementation of a culture of sales orientation.

Concessions There are ample opportunities available to foster a stronger relationship between Grizzly Athletics, Adams Center, and UM Dining for concessions provided at sporting and non-sporting events in the Adams Center, Washington Grizzly Stadium, and athletic facilities on South Campus.

Video streaming and other technology A high level of untapped revenue potential lies with video streaming and other technology. This includes advertising, sponsorships, and pay-per-view opportunities.

Fundraising Fundraising remains an everyday focus in Grizzly Athletics. The priorities (in no specific order) remain scholarships, sport specific fundraising to be used at the discretion of our head coaches for their areas of greatest need and finally facilities – both new facilities and the enhancement of existing facilities. New initiatives in fundraising includes expansion of GSA priority seating sections in our football and softball venues. There will also be a focus naming opportunities in our new and existing facilities. Naming opportunities are available with a wide range of entry points or investment level so we are able to cater to a larger number of current and prospective donors.

Operational Goals As was the case in the original strategic plan, future goals fall into three main categories: facilities, student-athlete support, and competitive topics.

Facilities  Complete Washington Grizzly Champions Center: As detailed earlier, this project will enhance the athletic experience for every student-athlete, across all sports, with a modern, clean and safe weight room, and much-needed meeting spaces. In addition, football student-athletes will benefit with a functional and clean locker room.

 Softball Stadium: While a significant amount of progress has been made with the softball stadium, several projects will round out a competition facility that will be one of the best in the Big Sky Conference with these additions. o Permanent fan seating o Public restrooms o Locker room (to share with soccer)

 Construct indoor practice facility: The availability of such a facility would benefit a majority of the student-athletes at the University of Montana. As part of the athletics facility master plan completed in December 2013, SportsPLAN Studio identified locations on South Campus and near Washington-Grizzly Stadium for an indoor facility of various sizes and cost. Finalizing the location and scope of the project is a top priority.

 Address outdoor and indoor tennis facility: SportsPLAN Studio identified a location for an indoor tennis facility adjacent to the softball field. In keeping with the master plan, explore the possibility of constructing the facility and the potential of building outdoor courts at the same location. At present the outdoor courts are located on central campus and occupy space planned for future university expansion. The department currently has a lease with Peak Fitness for use of indoor tennis courts, which serves the department well. However, the restricted availability of hours and distance from the university has reduced the effectiveness of the arrangement as a long-term solution.

 Install wood floor in the East Auxiliary Gymnasium: Moving the track and tennis programs into an indoor facility would free up the availability of the East Auxiliary Gym. Installing a wood floor enables the department to use this for basketball practices, which greatly alleviates the scheduling pressures currently on the West Auxiliary Gym and the Arena.

 Renovate WGS basement (former weight room/football locker room): Phase II of our facility improvements in the Adams Center and Washington-Grizzly Stadium utilizes the space vacated when the Champions Center was completed. Phase II includes relocating our equipment operations to a larger space, expanding the current athletic training facility, a new men’s basketball locker room and players room, additional locker rooms and expanded locker rooms for several sports, additional meeting rooms for all student-athletes and expanded space for hosting external events.

 Resurface outdoor track: UM will host the Conference Outdoor Track Championships in 2019. The current track not only needs to be re-surfaced for safety and competitiveness reasons, but new standards in conducting the Championship requires additions in order to host all of the events.

Student-Athlete Support  Meet all summer school funding needs: Currently, the department is able to fund 50 percent of the summer school requests. Since a large majority of student-athletes taking summer school are doing so in order to get ahead in their academic programs, fully funding those requests closely aligns with the mission of the department.

 Mental Health/sports psychologist: Research shows that more students on college campuses report suffering from depression and other mental health concerns. Student- athletes are not immune from this growing concern. However, student-athletes are often underreported in the research due to the stigma associated with mental health diseases and conditions. Addressing the unique challenges of student-athlete mental well-being is of the highest concern and priority for the department.

 Nutrition/training table: Nourishing the mental health of a student-athlete goes hand in hand with nourishing the body appropriately. Student-athletes often make poor nutritional decisions that directly impact their athletic performance. Providing student-athletes appropriate nutrition is not feeding them whatever they want, whenever they want. Effective nutritional counseling and training table can be achieved in a cost-conscious way, with dramatic results.

 Cost of Attendance (COA): As federal support of the Pell Grant program and other student financial aid programs diminishes, students and student-athletes have scarce resources for additional assistance for educational expenses. The issue is further compounded with campus-specific restrictions on the ability of UM student-athletes to receive academic scholarships. Even a “full-ride” student-athlete has expenses that are part of a student’s day-to-day life that are not covered by athletic aid. This includes trips home, disposable educational supplies, gas, etc. Non-student-athletes often make up that difference with earnings from employment. Many student-athletes simply do not have the time around school and their sport to work. Scholarships that cover full COA address the daily expenses a student-athlete encounters throughout their college career.

Competitive Topics  Coach salary pools: UM will maintain its focus on competitive salary pools for head and assistant coaches. This enables UM to attract and retain high quality coaching staffs whose philosophies align with the missions of the department and UM.

 Cost of Attendance: As explained earlier, the inequity among schools on offering full COA directly impacts recruiting. If a prospective student-athlete has a full COA offer from School A in one hand, and an offer from UM that is “just” a regular scholarship in the other, chances are s/he chooses the full COA. The ability to fund COA in some of our sports will improve recruiting and in turn, improve successes on the field/court.

 Scheduling: Continuing to schedule quality Division I opponents in all sports remains a constant and important priority. This provides a quality experience for the fans, a competitive experience for the student-athletes, and essential ticket revenue to the department. The ability to schedule guarantee contests in football and men’s basketball also serves as a source of revenue to enhance those programs, and the overall department.

Original Grizzly Athletics Strategic Plan: May 9, 2007 Reviewed Annually: 2007-2011 Updated: March 1, 2011 Reviewed Annually: 2011-2017 Updated: April 1, 2017