by Mandi Kane
Daily Lobo
The success of UNM's varsity sports teams determines how much money in scholarships eventually makes it to them, said Jada Lucey-Martinez, director of the Lobo Club, the University's booster program.
UNM has about 500 student-athletes who participate on 21 varsity teams. About 350 of them benefit from the Lobo Club each year, Lucey-Martinez said.
She said the success of the teams is a big factor in being able to convince donors to contribute and to obtain new ones.
"If the football team goes to a bowl game, or (a team) wins an NCAA tournament, the donations are going to increase," Lucey-Martinez said. "People are more willing to give when you are a winner."
Last year the Lobo Club, a nonprofit organization, raised about $3 million, Lucey-Martinez said.
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The organization raises the funds through both monetary and in-kind donations. In-kind donations are services or labor provided by a private business.
"For an example, a restaurant can make a $1,000 in-kind donation," Lucey-Martinez said. "Then (the athletic program) can use up to $1,000 for catering, or dinner for recruits, things like that."
The Lobo Club offers different levels of donor membership that start at $50 and go all the way up to $10,000 and beyond, she said.
The memberships include perks such as priority parking and seating at sporting events, according to the Athletics department's Web site.
The donor can give a gift that is restricted to a specific sport, but "unrestricted gifts," or gifts that benefit all athletics programs, "are highly encouraged," Lucey-Martinez said.
The University saw an increase in donations after the Lobo football team played in the Las Vegas Bowl last Christmas.
"The football team is consistently becoming more successful, but the majority of the revenue the club brings in is from men's basketball." she said. "This is a basketball town."
The men's basketball team definitely sees the benefits of the Lobo Club since "eleven out of the fifteen players are on full athletic scholarships," said Grant Farmer, coordinator of basketball operations at UNM. The NCAA allows up to 13 players on a basketball team to be on a full scholarship, he said.
Farmer said the NCAA and the University have to make sure the athletes are performing well in the classroom as well to keep their scholarships.
"You can certainly lose that scholarship if you aren't getting work done in the classroom," Farmer said.
The Lobo Club, and all other college booster programs, are under regulation by the NCAA.
"The NCAA tries to monitor people who are involved with the program, such as alums, to see how the money is handled," he said. "College sports have a lot of documentation as to what money goes where."
