It has been very easy in recent years to mock the last line of

Fordham's fight song, as the school's top-funded sports teams

frequently seem to choose the latter of the two options.

Over the last five years, going back to the 2007-08 school year,

Fordham's football, men's basketball and women's basketball programs

have a combined record of 98-234, a win percentage of only .295.

The lack of success from the top-funded teams can overshadow the

strides made by several of the school's lesser-funded programs.

Softball qualified for the NCAA Tournament the last two seasons as

both an at-large team and a conference championship winner.

In 2010, women's swimming and diving won the first ever A-10

Championship for a women's team at Fordham.  Both tennis teams, as

well as men's soccer, had highly successful fall seasons.

So why do the top-funded teams continue to struggle?

Executive Director of Athletics Frank McLaughlin, Vice President of

Student Affairs Jeffrey Gray and numerous coaches were all interviewed

to talk about the athletic department's current state and what they

would like to see in the future.

The administrators acknowledged the recent failures of the

high-profile programs.

 However, they remain optimistic for the future, pointing to decisions

which reflect an increase in commitment to athletics.

This includes giving out football scholarships for the first time

since 1954 and increasing the funding for both basketball programs.

At the same time, sports administrators expect continued success from

many of the smaller programs.

An in-depth look into Fordham Athletics begins with a team that

dramatically regressed last season, causing the school to make its

fourth major coaching change in the last two years.

 

Football

After three consecutive 5-6 seasons, the football team fell apart this past fall. Fordham finished 1-10, with its only victory coming against 1-9 Columbia. It was the worst season for the Rams since 1999, when they finished 0-11. Head Coach Tom Masella was fired immediately after the final game of his sixth season at the school.

"We're obviously disappointed," Gray said. "I think it's indicative of our decision [to fire Masella]. I would simply stress that it's not an evaluation of this season in specific, it's an evaluation over the body of work over four years, which has been below what we expected based on what we put into the program."

This season was especially disappointing considering that the team was entering its second season with scholarship players, a move which was designed to improve recruiting and increase the overall competitiveness of the program. Gray believes that improvement from the decision to give out scholarships will show over time.

"When you have scholarship players that are freshmen and sophomores, I think that you can expect a certain level of performance from them," Gray said. "But I don't think it's reasonable to expect that they're going to carry you across the goal line game in and game out."

The team's struggles could also be attributed to a tough schedule. Fordham played Division I (Football Bowl Subdivision) opponents for the first time, traveling to Connecticut and Army and losing both games by a combined score of 90-3.

"We knew what we were getting into when we scheduled the Division I games, and so did the coaching staff," Gray said. "We had an opportunity to get the program a little bit of profile. I don't think there's anything wrong with that."

Fordham's decision to give out scholarships allowed the Rams to play Division I opponents, though it also came with the consequence of preventing the team from competing for the Patriot League Championship. Though the Rams still played the other six teams in the conference this season, the games did not count towards the standings.

According to Gray, the move to scholarships was made with the expectation that the rest of the Patriot League would follow suit. If this does not happen, he says that Fordham will have to look into leaving the conference.

"If they make the decision to stay their course and not make any changes, than we would have to find another solution for our football program," Gray said. "I don't think we would stay in the Patriot League under these circumstances, which were supposed to be short-term circumstances."

McLaughlin was less critical of the team's current situation with the Patriot League.

"It's definitely not hurting recruiting," he said. "Would you like to compete for the League championship? Yes you would, but it's not like you're banned from the 1-AA playoffs. We can be an at-large bid. In some ways, we can be like Notre Dame is with the BCS."

Fordham will look to new Head Coach Joe Moorhead, FCRH '96, to turn things around next season. Moorhead was a starting quarterback at Fordham for three years prior to becoming a coach, and McLaughlin said that his history at the school improved his candidacy for the job. Most recently, Moorhead was offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at UConn.

"Whenever we have a job opening, if someone is a Fordham alum we always try to give them special attention because they understand Fordham's academics," McLaughlin said. "We had some really good candidates, but Joe just came in and did a terrific job."

Despite last year's futility, McLaughlin believes the team will have a quick turnaround in 2012.

"Having talked with a lot of people, I think that everybody agreed that we have some very good young talent," he said. "Everyone we talked to didn't think that this was a rebuilding job. They thought that [the team] could be somewhat successful pretty quickly."

Men's basketball

Expectations are not as high for this year's men's basketball team. Despite recent signs of life, including a victory over nationally-ranked Harvard, the program is still recovering from winning just five games combined during the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons.

Head Coach Tom Pecora was hired in March 2010 after nine successful seasons at nearby Hofstra University. His hiring represented an increase in commitment from the administration towards the program. The New York Post reported when Pecora was hired that he would earn $705,000 annually. Gray said the team is now funded in the top half of the Atlantic 10.

"Our men's basketball team was awful," Gray said. "They were funded in the bottom quarter of the conference, what do you expect to get out of a team that's funded in the bottom quarter of the conference? The fact of the matter is [that increasing funding for] basketball was a very specific decision, made primarily because the basketball team was not performing at the level we wanted it to."

Pecora said that he would not have come to Fordham if he were not convinced that the administration was dedicated to putting more resources into the program. He also looked forward to the prospect of turning around a team that had only one winning season since joining the A-10 in 1995.

"I found it intriguing that they hadn't had success in a long time," Pecora said. "So to come in and be able to [turn it around], it'll be a great accomplishment for the young people who are part of the program and my coaching staff and everyone involved in the program, everyone involved in the athletic department when we do it. I have no doubt that we can."

One of Pecora's goals is to continue to improve Fordham's local recruiting presence. The Rams have four freshmen seeing regular playing time this season, and three of them (Devon McMillan, Bryan Smith and Jeff Short) are from New York City. Sophomores Branden Frazier and Lamount Samuell are also from the area.

"The first thing you do is take care of your own background and then you expand nationally and internationally if need be," Pecora said. "But the first thing is to make sure that players in the area that fit the Fordham profile, we're on early. One of the things we did when we got the job here is jump on ninth graders, because that's how far in advance you have to start working if you're going to have good relationships with these young guys and get them to come in their junior or their senior year."

Convincing potential recruits to play in the Rose Hill Gym is one obstacle Pecora must overcome as he attempts to build the program. According to fordhamsports.com, the gym is the oldest in Division I basketball, and it seats only 3,200.

Gray said that criticism over the Rose Hill Gym was one of the main reasons that the school decided to schedule four of its A-10 games last season at the IZOD Center in New Jersey. The decision backfired, however, with the IZOD games plagued by low attendance by students and little interest from other fans in the area.

"I was disappointed with the IZOD Center last year," Pecora said. "[Both] in the turnout and losing our home court advantage."

Gray agreed that the IZOD games did not work out last season, and the team will play every home game this year at the Rose Hill Gym as a result. In the future, though, he still believes the IZOD Center may be the best option if the team becomes more competitive and needs to play in a bigger arena.

"We're not building a new gym [on campus]," Gray said. "It's over $100 million and there are a lot of other things that we want to do here. A new arena would be nice, but it's on the very bottom of the list here."

"If they continue to become more competitive and there's more draw and we start to put more people in the seats over here then maybe we have an option of scheduling a few other games over at the IZOD Center [in the future]," he continued. "We're exploring other facilities, and Brooklyn clearly is one that's kind of on the list that we've talked about but that's not easy to get to."

The facility in Brooklyn that Gray referred to is the Barclays Center, which will open this fall. The arena will become the home of the New Jersey Nets when the franchise relocates for the 2012 season. The Atlantic 10 also announced that it will hold its conference tournament there beginning in 2013. For this reason, Pecora would prefer to play any non-Rose Hill home games in Brooklyn.

"I have strong feelings for the Barclays Center because we're playing our conference tournament there," Pecora said. "Any opportunity you can get to make that more of a home court feeling for you compared to the other teams in the conference, it's silly not to play there. Plus, it's going to be state-of-the-art."

After being told about Gray's transportation concerns, Pecora maintained his support for the Barclays Center.

"If you go somewhere and win, transportation shouldn't be the issue here," he said. "It's what's best for the basketball program."

Both Gray and Pecora envision the team improving enough in the near future to possibly force their hand on the issue.

"We're giving them a lot of support," Gray said. "And they should finish, not this year, but in the next year or two they should finish in the top half and get into the Atlantic 10 Championships."

"Every coach in the country, when the season starts their goal is to get to the NCAA Tournament," Pecora said. "I understand that it's going to take time, and it's a growth process. They understood that when they hired me. I still feel very confident we can get this all done."

Women's Basketball

The women's basketball program has not had any more success than its male counterpart. The Rams have not had a winning season since 1994-95, with the team hitting rock bottom in 2007-08, finishing 0-29.

The team made incremental improvements after its winless season. Last year, the Rams were 12-19, the most wins for the program since 2002-03, when it managed 14 wins. Despite this, Fordham announced after the season that Head Coach Cathy Andruzzi would not return, and Stephanie Gaitley was hired shortly afterwards to replace her.

Gaitley brings a long history of success to Fordham, with a 464-270 career record over 25 years at Monmouth, Long Island, St. Joseph's and Richmond, according to fordhamsports.com. She is confident that she can bring the same type of performance to Rose Hill.

"I quite frankly don't understand why they haven't won," Gaitley said. "So I just felt like maybe they just needed a different direction as far as the coaches. I've found in recruiting that it has been an easy sell."

Proof of Gaitley's ability to attract talent to the school can be found in the commitment of top-100 recruit Samantha Clark for the 2012-13 season.

"Having a top-100 player tells people that she believes in us and with that comes other people," Gaitley said. "Recruiting right now for us, we're in good shape. We have one more scholarship offer, and I think that we're involved with some really good 2013 [recruits], so I think things are going in the right direction."

The current team has continued to build off of last year, with an 11-11 record after Saturday's win over UMass. Gray said that his expectations for the women's team are comparable to the men's, and Gaitley agrees that a top-half finish in the A-10 is realistic in the near future.

"I think in year three we should be in the top half," Gaitley said. "It takes a year to get your system in. Year two is generally the toughest transition year because you have the old and the new. Year three, you're pretty much starting to have all your own players and they get the system. [In] year three, I would anticipate us pushing towards the middle to the top of the conference."

Softball

Moving away from football and basketball, there are several success stories among Fordham's lesser-funded programs.

"There are a lot of schools that have great basketball programs, but the rest of their programs aren't any good," Gray said. "Here we've got the opposite."

Led by an All-American pitcher, senior Jen Mineau, the softball team has made back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances, a feat which is almost unheard-of among Fordham sports. Since the hiring of Head Coach Bridget Orchard in 2001, softball has been a consistent contender in the A-10 after never having had a winning season prior to her arrival.

"It feels like I've just started out, and we're continuing to get better and better," Orchard said. "The difference between when I got here and now, just with the support from the administration; they built us a new facility, helping with travel, playing the top teams, competing; every year it gets better and better."

College softball is not traditionally a strength for northeastern schools. In the final ESPN.com/USA Softball Top-25 rankings from last season, no school from the Northeast was on the list. Fordham and Syracuse were the only teams from the region to receive votes for the poll.

With the season starting during the height of winter, the Rams will play their first 27 games on the road in 2012. Orchard said that recruiting is easier now that the team has established itself as a contender. She also sells recruits on playing in New York City.

"A lot of those big state schools don't have the academics and job opportunities," Orchard said. "New York City, with the internships, we kind of sell them on life after college. Especially with softball, you're not going to go pro like you could in baseball, basketball or football. With women's sports, it's now or never."

The administration has noticed the team's success, and a third renovation of the softball field is in-progress. Orchard said that the renovation will add 300-500 seats and room for a press box which will possibly allow Fordham to host NCAA regionals in the future.

But the team still lacks many of the resources that other top softball programs have. While Orchard is full-time, she does not have a full-time assistant coach. The team also does not have its own locker rooms, which forces the players to use the cafeteria in McGinley Center for team meetings. Orchard was not critical of these limitations, saying that they give the team extra motivation, and she has high expectations for this year's squad.

"The final eight is our goal," she said. "We want to at least get to the Super-Regionals, which is a best-of-three to go to the final eight and if you get to that best-of-three you never know what can happen."

Men's Tennis

Men's tennis is another program which could soon be approaching nationally-prominent status. Under second-year Head Coach Cory Hubbard, the Rams have seen a dramatic turnaround in their fortunes. The team was 4-18 last season, but Hubbard recruited a class this offseason that was ranked 27th in the nation by the Tennis Recruiting Network.

"I was surprised how many recruits I was able to get in the first year," Hubbard said. "Basically everyone that I talked to or brought on-campus decided that they wanted to come. I was a little surprised at how easy it was once people got on-campus to commit to Fordham. The hardest part was getting them to come to campus."

The new players led the Rams to a 6-0 fall season, with Fordham winning 41 of the 42 individual match-ups in those six contests. Hubbard said the Rams still have a long way to go, but that their goal is to win the A-10 this season and receive an automatic berth to the NCAA Tournament.

The team's turnaround has taken place despite the fact that Hubbard is still a part-time coach with a limited number of scholarships. Fordham also does not have indoor tennis courts, which forces the team to travel off-campus to practice during the winter.

"There needs to be a lot more done with the program," Hubbard said. "[The administration] has started to realize that the program can be successful and they tried to help out by increasing the funding a little bit from last year. They have helped, [but] there's still a long way to go if we want to be able to compete as a top-50 program."

Hubbard expanded on these thoughts in an email sent the day after his interview, questioning the commitment of the administration to fully support its athletic programs.

"Here at Fordham, I feel the athletic department and administration would like to be more competitive nationally, but to do so they must make a bigger commitment financially," he wrote. "Too many times I feel they try to do things the cheapest way possible to keep things at the current level."

McLaughlin defended the department's allocation of resources.

"I think if you talk to any of our coaches they would all say the same thing," he said. "They deal with individual sports, and they want to be successful. Our job as administrators is to oversee the whole program knowing that we do have limited resources and then we work within the University community, so we're doing the best we can."

Hubbard's criticisms come as a part-time coach with a not-yet adequate facility. If softball is an indication, however, continued success could lead to consistently increasing funding.

Others

Another program that has seen increased support in recent years is swimming and diving. The women's team won the A-10 two seasons ago and finished as a runner-up to Richmond last year. The men's team, which does not have as many scholarships, finished sixth out of seven teams in the A-10.

Gray said that $6-700,000 were recently spent to improve the swimming pool. He expects the teams to remain competitive in the upcoming years.

"Women's swimming should achieve at a slightly higher level than men's swimming because they have more resources," Gray said. "When they go to the conference championship, they should be knocking on the door; it should be Richmond and Fordham all the time. The men ought to finish somewhere between third and sixth in the conference."

Men's soccer won the regular season A-10 title for the first time this fall with its 11 seniors, including standout goalie Ryan Meara (who was named A-10 Defensive Player of the Year and recently drafted by the New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer). The season included a victory over nationally-ranked Charlotte, which made it to the NCAA Championship game before losing to North Carolina.

Women's soccer just missed out on the A-10 Tournament for the second straight season, finishing seventh in the conference. Gray expects both teams to compete regularly for the top spots in the A-10.

"Women's soccer should not be missing the A-10 Championships," he said. "They should be in the top six, they should have winning records, they should be in the conference championships every year. Men's soccer is right where they need to be, more than slightly above .500."

Gray also expects improvement from Fordham's baseball team. The Rams finished outside of the top six in the A-10 last year after being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs the year before. Head Coach Nick Restaino was replaced after last season by Kevin Leighton, who comes over from Manhattan College.

"We don't think they should be constantly flirting with sixth or seventh," Gray said. "If they finish in fourth place in the regular season (in 2010), we don't think they should get bounced out in two games when they get to the A-10 tournament. Baseball should be in the top six; they should be in the A-10 Championships every year and they should compete."

Closing Thoughts

When Fordham's athletic department is viewed from a widespread perspective, the results are not as negative as an outsider might think if they were to look only at the football and basketball programs. Gray frequently referenced the varsity teams' overall performance, while at the same time making it clear that the administration expected more out of its higher-funded programs.

Continuing with his focus on the athletic department as a whole, Gray said that he expects Fordham to remain in the Atlantic 10 for the foreseeable future.

"The Atlantic 10 is probably the best place for us from an all-sports perspective," he said. "I think that it's a great conference right now for some of the low-profile teams we've been talking about."

McLaughlin was similarly positive about the department's long-term potential for success.

"I think that we've made some great strides but we also have a lot of work to do," he said. "I'm excited about our coaching staff. I'm excited about some of the facility improvements. I'm excited about Father [Joseph] McShane's support and the board of trustees. We're not satisfied; we want to keep getting better and better."

For the top-funded teams, there is certainly still plenty of room for improvement. It remains to be seen whether Moorhead, Pecora and Gaitley will be able to turn their teams into the consistent contenders that the administration expects.

If the initial performance of the basketball teams this season is any indication, though, there are signs that the increased financial commitment from the University is paying some dividends. The men's team is currently 9-11, while the women are 11-11. These records will not get either program to the NCAA's anytime soon, but it is a definite improvement from where both teams were just a few years ago.

Football regressed in 2011, but the program has a better history of success than its basketball counterparts, qualifying for the 1-AA playoffs twice in the last decade. Entering its third season of scholarship players, with what should be a less-demanding schedule, McLaughlin maintains that the team is not far away from being successful.

"I think this season was a very difficult one," McLaughlin said. "We had a lot of injuries. We had some close games. It's not like we were losing every game 40-0, so we're close."

"Close" was a theme that seemed to come up consistently throughout discussions with both the administration and coaches. The performance of the teams in the next few years will determine whether the term is accurate, and whether future students will be able to chant "We Do or Die," with an expectation that the former option is at least as plausible as the latter.