In Reply to: How far Track and Field has fallen. * posted by BluBlood on May 19, 2026 at 17:20:40
When we were good, we were flush with cash due to the TV broadcast payouts prior to the dissolution of the CFA football contracts and switch to conferences. UCLA (and USC) were 2 of the schools who received larger portions of those contracts and better timeslots, etc. for football (and hoops)
it took awhile for the impact of that change and loss of that $$ advantage to really trickle through UCLA Athletics, but it steadily did. Not as bad as Nebraska and some other football powers who also greatly benefited from the legacy arrangements.
It only seems to be in the past decade that the Athletic Dept finally started to realize how the landscape had changed and began to adapt. Chesney is the first football coach who seems to have gotten the support the program has needed for decades, and basketball has picked up too, tho Cronin still says money is the number one issue, it would appear...