UCLA fans are under duress these days.

The football team has averaged one-win-per-month for two seasons under coach Chip Kelly.

The basketball program, the school’s pride and joy for decades, hasn’t won a conference championship (regular season) in seven years or a postseason game in three.

The athletic department’s budget is messier than the 405 at four minutes after five.

The school is ensnared in Operation Varsity Blues, a three-pronged scandal that infected athletics, academics and admissions, which is to say, everything.

The state-of-affairs, arguably the gloomiest in UCLA history, raises the stakes and lowers the margin-for-error in the school’s search search for an athletic director to replace Dan Guerrero, who’s retiring this spring after nearly two decades on the job.

As we evaluate the framework of the AD search and the multi-front challenges facing the Bruins, a question emerges:

To what degree, if any, do chancellor Gene Block and campus officials care about athletics?

Because the evidence suggests that Block’s interest in athletics is, at best, non-existent.

At worst, we’re left to wonder if Block thinks the Pyramid of Success is, you know, an actual pyramid.

From there, the next-level questions are easy:

— If the administration doesn’t care, how likely is it that UCLA will make the right choice for Guerrero’s replacement?

— How quickly will the Bruins emerge from the multi-year, many-layered slump?

— How likely are they to reach their considerable potential in the major sports?

Let’s examine the evidence, using UCLA’s closest relative for perspective.

Because when Cal’s commitment to athletics in general and football specifically seemingly trumps your own … well, ponder that on your next stroll down Bruin Walk.

Here we go …

One reason for UCLA’s current budget shortfall, which is expected to hit $36 million over two years — is the lack of wiggle room:

Just two percent of athletic department revenue comes from campus support, in the form of about $2.5 million annually in student fees.

That’s the second-lowest support level in the conference.

Only Oregon receives less help from campus than the Bruins, and the Ducks have much greater donor support.

Oregon listed $34 million in contributions (i.e. fundraising) on their NCAA financial report for the 2019 fiscal year.

The Bruins listed $16.4 million.

So the only athletic department (among public schools) that receives less in campus support than UCLA — on both a percentage and raw dollars basis — generates twice as much in annual donations.

Only one other school is close to the Oregon/UCLA level of campus support: Washington, which checked in with $31 million in contributions in FY19.

Minimal institutional support means limited margin for error with operational expenses.

Make a few coaching changes … encounter an unexpected drop in football ticket revenue … increase resources for various sports … and suddenly a shortfall erupts.

Cal has slightly different challenges but experienced the same general result.

UCLA reported an $18.9 million deficit in FY19. The Bears reported a shortfall of $24 million.

In Westwood, the administration responded by offering a loan to athletics to cover the debt — at interest.

In Berkeley, central campus agreed to cover the tab, the entire tab, interest free.

Debate the merits of the decisions all you want — we’re not suggesting one institution’s approach is right and the other wrong.

We’re simply offering the facts:

Sister schools, similar shortfalls, one covers the bill and the other doesn’t.

That disparity, in fact, is what started the Hotline down the research wormhole that led to our decision to call into question Block’s commitment to athletics.

Did we mention that Cal chancellor Carol Christ attended “at least” eight football games last season, per a university spokesperson (six home games, plus Stanford and the Redbox Bowl).

How many UCLA football games did Block attend in 2019?

Glad you asked.

We posed the same question to UCLA’s communications department earlier this week and are awaiting an answer.

(If it’s more than two or three, the joke’s on us.)

Ask Justin Wilcox about Christ’s support for his program — we have — and you’ll get a glowing response.

Ask Chip Kelly about Block, and our guess is that Kelly will 1) mention their shared interest in sleep research and 2) not have much else to say.

But campus financial support and chancellor-level passion are just two pieces of evidence that led to our conclusion.

The structure of UCLA’s AD search is the other.

It’s a momentous hire for the Bruins and for the Pac-12, because the collective benefits when UCLA — situated in the conference’s most fertile recruiting ground and in the nation’s No. 2 media market — is thriving in the revenue sports.

The Bruins desperately need an AD who understands major college athletics generally and football and basketball specifically.

Apparently, Block doesn’t think it takes one to know one, because his choices for the search firm and the search committee are painfully lacking in athletic administrative experience and football acumen.

UCLA hired WittKieffer to run the search; it’s a Chicago-based firm that specializes in every type of executive search known to humankind … except college athletic searches.

(Need a university librarian? Call WittKieffer.)

In the description of UCLA’s open position on the WittKieffer website, we found the following:

“All applications and nominations are invited. The position will remain open until filled. Applications should include, as separate documents, a letter of interest addressing the themes in this profile and a CV or resume. References will not be contacted without candidate’s consent. These materials should be sent electronically via email to Jeff Compher, Zach Smith, Ph.D., Kim Brettschneider and Horace Mitchell, Ph.D.”

Who are these folks?

Compher is a former athletic director who oversees WittKieffer’s intercollegiate athletics searches.

(The firm has 127 consultants listed; best we can tell, Compher is the only one dedicated to college athletics.)

But Compher is based in Chicago — he’s not the point person for UCLA’s search, according to sources.

The point person, as we understand the situation, is Mitchell, the former Cal State Bakersfield president who has no background in college sports. (He’s also a former Vice Chancellor/Business at Cal and VC/Student Affairs at UC Irvine.)

The other executives listed in the UCLA profile are Brettschneide, who’s based in New York, and Smith, who’s in Southern California.

According to her profile, Brettschneide’s expertise includes “healthcare policy, education policy, fundraising and management, resulting from her prior years as Executive Director of the Children’s Defense Fund-California, Development Director of the Wonder of Reading in Los Angeles, and Interim Education Director of the Conservation Corps in Long Beach, California.”

According to his profile, Smith has “supported and led presidential searches for AAU, research, regional comprehensive, polytechnic and liberal arts institutions. He has also supported executive leadership searches for a broad range of public and private universities and healthcare organizations, in areas ranging from advancement to finance.”

So the collective experience in college athletics administration from that trio is a big zippo.

Compher is a former AD, but his level of day-to-day involvement in the search is believed to be limited as Mitchell runs the show.

We asked UCLA for details on the search operations and were told, politely, that a November letter from Block to constituents would be the school’s only comment on the search:

“It was decided at that time that UCLA would let the process run proper its course without further comment on the matter until the announcement of the new AD in May.”

In that same letter, Block listed the members of the search commitment, who will take the guidance and information provided by WittKieffer and make a recommendation to Block.

That search committee is — you guessed it — a bit short on experience in intercollegiate athletics and wholly lacking in football expertise.

There are eight members, and only one works for Guerrero’s department: Christina Rivera, who serves as Senior Associate Athletic Director/Senior Woman Administrator.

Her role, according to UCLA: “Dr. Rivera directly supervises several sports, administrative areas and leads department initiatives, especially in the areas of Title IX and gender equity, women in sport, governance and legislation, and performance evaluation and program assessment.”

Rivera understands college athletics, but 1) she is the only search committee member (out of eight) who does and 2) she’s not exactly walking with Kelly and Mick Cronin to practice on a daily basis.

The chair of the search committee is Monroe Gorden, the VC/Student Affairs.

In an interview posted on the UCLA alumni page, Gorden referenced his time on the UCLA football team, which was truncated by injury.

We checked: There is no Monroe Gorden listed as a UCLA football letter-winner, suggesting an extremely limited role.

Gorden has no intercollegiate administrative experience and, according to his bio, is “a licensed attorney in California with experience in business and health care law, he served as manager of legal contracting at United Healthcare and assistant general counsel at Tenet Healthcare prior to joining UCLA in 2006.”

Now, some UCLA fans might recall that Cal employed WittKieffer to assist on its search for an athletic director in the spring of 2018. And Jim Knowlton has, at this early stage, proven to be a solid hire.

But— you probably figured a ‘but’ was coming — there is a crucial difference in the makeup of the search committees.

While Chip Kelly might not be able to recognize anyone on the UCLA committee, Justin Wilcox assuredly could have identified at least one member of the Cal version.

Because Wilcox was on the committee.

(So, by the way, was Lindsay Gottlieb, the Bears’ former ace basketball coach now on the Cleveland Cavaliers’ staff.)

Does the severe tilt away from athletics in the makeup of UCLA’s search committee and search firm portend a bad hire?

Not necessarily, but it undercuts the likelihood of a good hire — just like the lack of campus financial support undermines the Bruins’ ability to navigate inevitable budgetary storms.

And all of it … every shred of it … suggests a deeply-rooted indifference to athletics at the top of the org chart.

There was a time, back when the Bruins were winning Rose Bowls and NCAA basketball titles, that UCLA’s chancellor was deeply passionate about athletics — not only on campus but across the conference.

In fact, one could argue that Chuck Young ran the conference during his multi-decade tenure in Westwood.

We’re not suggesting a return to that model. But the Bruins, and the Pac-12, would benefit from an administration that was committed to athletics.

The current edition, according to the evidence, clearly is not.

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