COLLEGE BASEBALL: Specifics laid out to keep UND baseball alive – Grand Forks Herald

“We’re trying to do everything we can to help them put together a plan to operate baseball,” said interim UND President Ed Schafer, who attended the meeting. “We’re not asking them to do this just to give them some activity to make them feel good. We’re going to do what we can to try to get this accomplished.

“The University of North Dakota is committed to operate baseball if a sustainable funding source is found.”

According to a document provided at the meeting, UND baseball will need to hit its fundraising benchmark each season in order to maintain the program.

For example, the team will need to raise $546,312 by Feb. 17, 2017 for the 2018 season.

The document also states “establishing an endowment is the best solution for establishing the long term stability of the program.”

The endowment amount required to fund team operations is $13,273,943.

Schafer said he’s optimistic the baseball program can be revived, based on the year-by-year targets.

“If they can reach that first year, I think they’re going to make it,” Schafer said. “If they can get all of us who want to save baseball on board and working together, I think they can do it.”

Schafer admitted the Aug. 30 deadline for the 2017 season is late in the process. However, he added the likelihood of reaching the fundraising goals will be evident much earlier in the summer.

“They’re going to get out there and know if they’re going to do it or not,” Schafer said. “You’ll get a sense of that up front. Either no one will be writing checks or people are going to support it and there’ll be momentum.”

With the program in limbo, UND head coach Jeff Dodson and one of his two assistants will have contracts next season regardless of the success of the fundraising.

“You don’t want him out there trying to raise dough and people saying you don’t even have a coach,” Schafer said.

The UND baseball program, not the alumni association, will have to lead the fundraising efforts, Schafer said.

“We can’t be the lead,” Schafer said. “The resources of the alumni association and the athletic department will be put forth in a reasonable manner. The reality, though, is it has to be led from the baseballers.”

Schafer said UND baseball’s affiliation with the Western Athletic Conference is unknown. The school alerted the league two weeks ago that the university planned to cut the program.

“We’ve been talking to leagues and conferences and asking if we put this back together, what’s the latest date we can tell you?” Schafer said. “All of those conversations are taking place so this isn’t a failed effort.”

On April 12, UND athletic director Brian Faison and Schafer hosted a press conference to announce the school’s plans to eliminate baseball and men’s golf in order to assist in the university’s budget deficit.

A week later, UND baseball team members asked Schafer at a public forum why the program wasn’t allowed an opportunity to raise funds.

Late last week, UND officials contacted Dodson to say they would discuss a fundraising effort.