Dear Aztec Supporters and Friends:

We have just concluded the most successful athletic year in the history of San Diego State.

Our finish in the NCAA Director's Cup, which measures the overall athletic success of each Division I school, was the highest ever for the Aztecs.  This was led by:

• 5^th in the NCAA Water Polo Finals
• 14^th in the NCAA Men's Golf Finals
• 32^nd in the NCAA Outdoor Track Championship
• A school record number of victories, another Conference Championship, and another NCAA Tournament berth in Softball

• 2^nd  place Conference finishes by both soccer teams
• A third place Conference finish in baseball (a team with arguably the best pitcher in college baseball!)
• Men's Basketball winning 20 games for the third consecutive year (a feat never before accomplished in the Division I era at San Diego State)

  Water Polo at NCAA Championships

• Women's Basketball finishing runner-up by an eyelash in the
  Conference Post-Season Tournament 
  • Both of those basketball teams return all of their starters!
  
   
  

Add to all that a clearly improving football team that is being built on the kind of solid foundation that was sorely needed, with a philosophy that in order for us to be consistently successful from year to year, we must be consistently strong up front.  It's obvious to all of us that the transformation is taking place, and I fully expect us to be hunting a bowl game this year!

I want you to know that this expectation of success is one that is now in place for all of our sports.  We expect our student-athletes to succeed and our teams to win, and we

make that very clear to everyone in our department.

• This spring we honored 218 of our 530 student-athletes for achieving a grade point average of 3.0 or better, the most scholar-athletes in our history! 
• Six of our teams (Water Polo, Men's Golf, Baseball, Men's Basketball, Volleyball, and Women's Golf) had the highest semester GPA's in their history.  Unprecedented!  
• Football's graduation success rate is now second only to Air Force in our Conference.
• APR scores improved in 13 of our 18 sports. 
• We graduated 84% of those student-athletes who finished their careers with us.  That's good, but we're not going to be satisfied until that is 100%.

Remember also that SDSU is now one of the most popular schools in the United States and consequently one of the toughest schools to get in.  More than 63,000 students applied for admission this fall for less than 8,000 spots, second only in the United States to UCLA.  This Fall's entering class will have an average grade point average of 3.6, and an average SAT score of 1120.  If I were applying today with my old high school record, I couldn't get in! 

SDSU and Air Force are now the most difficult schools in our Conference to get student-athletes admitted.  If we were in the Pac 10, only Stanford and UCLA would be more difficult than SDSU!  We are proud of that, and are now recruiting to those strengths.  That, however, does make it harder to admit great student-athletes who may come from backgrounds that don't prepare them as well for the rigorous academic challenges at San Diego State.  We will still take an academic risk on that great athlete (as all our competitors do), and when we do, we must be ready to assist them in learning what it takes to be academically successful.

With budget cuts throughout our University and the California educational system in general, we are not immune to the substantial belt-tightening we all must now do.  Our goal is to tighten those belts without having it affect the academic and athletic success of our student-athletes.  It's a bit of a "Catch-22" for us as we share in the budget cuts while at the same time pay the increased tuition and fees that are being put in place to help the university compensate for those State of California shortfalls.  We have budgeted approximately $500,000 more in this year's grant in aid costs to cover those increases, for a total of close to $5.3 Million for the 2008-09 school year. 

Here's where we can use your help!

• Buy season football tickets, and come watch a football program on the rise, led by a talented and caring head coach, Chuck Long, who always does the right thing in pursuing our goal of bringing a football championship to San Diego State. 
• Buy season basketball tickets to Men's Basketball, and watch Steve Fisher's team, with all its starters back, go for another championship! 
• Buy season tickets to Women's Basketball, and watch one of the very best young teams in the country, coached by one of the very best coaches in the country, Beth Burns.
• Bring a friend to our events, and enjoy the best entertainment value in San Diego.
• Join the Aztec Athletic Foundation (AAF), or if you are already a donor, increase your annual gift!  There is a level that is comfortable for everyone, and you can make such a difference by helping to provide an education for a deserving student-athlete.
• Urge a friend to join AAF.  If each of our donors brought just 1 new donor at the entry level of $125, it would translate to an increase of over $300,000 annually!

I can't thank you enough for your support of Aztec Athletics.  The excitement around here is palpable, and I invite all of you to stop by, say hello, and let us show you why we're so excited.  We expect this coming year to be the Aztecs' best ever, and you can make it even better by supporting these terrific student-athletes. 

Jeff Schemmel

Director of Athletics