EAGLE MOUNTAIN — As part of a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday afternoon celebrating the sale of a new home in this growing Utah County town, several BYU football players, clad in their white road jerseys, lost a sod-laying contest against members of a local landscaping company.
But the real winner on this day — in a financial sense — was the BYU athletic department.
School officials happily accepted a $141,500 check from the Utah Valley Homebuilders Association and will use those funds to endow an athletic scholarship at BYU. The UVHBA recently completed construction on Cougar House II, a 1,790-square-foot home on a three-acre lot in Eagle Mountain, located west of Lehi, and donated the proceeds from the sale to BYU.
"We spend more than $2 million a year on scholarships," said athletic director Val Hale. "That's a big part of our budget, which is about $20 million. That check is a long-lasting, perpetual gift. Once a scholarship is endowed, it frees up money for other areas in the athletic department."
Taking advantage of community resources to endow scholarships is one way BYU is trying to mitigate the shortfall in its athletic department budget. Like the other seven Mountain West Conference members, BYU does not partake of the huge revenues available to teams in the six conferences that belong to the Bowl Championship Series.
There is a $10 million gap between BCS schools and non-BCS schools, Hale said. "We don't have access to those BCS funds, so we have to find other ways to make that up."
The UVHBA was eager to partner with BYU in this cause. Cougar House II was constructed by more than 60 contractors, suppliers and tradesmen who donated time, labor and materials to the project.
Each full grant-in-aid costs BYU about $10,000 every year and endowing an athletic scholarship costs $200,000. The sale of Cougar House I in Springville earlier this year, totaling $106,000, along with the monies received from Cougar House II, has allowed the school to endow this grant-in-aid. Senior wide receiver Andrew Ord, who is majoring in construction management, is the recipient of the first Cougar House scholarship.
He and the other Cougar players are grateful for the UVHBA's assistance. "It takes a whole community to win championships," Ord said.
More than 30 full and partial grant-in-aids have been endowed at BYU through fund-raising efforts, and Hale's long-term goal is to endow all 256 scholarships — which would require about $50 million.
Endowing scholarships will enable the BYU athletic department to be profitable, Hale said. The athletic department has experienced a deficit in four of the past six years but Hale is optimistic about the future. "We're close to covering our costs, and we expect to be in the black every year for the next five years," he said.
Meanwhile, since late 2000, BYU has been trying to raise funds for a new athletic complex and indoor practice facility, which has a price tag of $40 million to $50 million. That total includes construction costs for the two buildings as well as an endowment for maintenance.
"Our goal is to have the funds raised and the ground broken as early as September and have it ready for the 2003 football season," Hale said. "We're making progress. Things are moving nicely."
E-MAIL: jeffc@desnews.com