Last week, Rick Bay, the athletic director at SDSU, resigned after an 11-month audit that came as a result of the president of SDSU threatening to fire him. Bay, who’d been with the Aztecs since 1995, vastly improved many facilities and programs at SDSU.

Bay not only hired coaches like Steve Fisher and befriended financial supporters like Padres owner John Moores, but also raised admissions standards for athletes that coincided with graduation rates. But, in the end, failure to administer a thing like the equipment room caught up with him.

This got me thinking about an issue that I’ve sometimes pondered since I got to UCSD: Why doesn’t a high-profile coach or administrator at our school ever get caught messing up? The answer is that most of our coaches and administrators keep a low profile. Many of our coaches are well known in certain circles, but the term “”high-profile”” doesn’t seem to label anybody at our school.

I’m not saying that this isn’t a good thing. It is. Larry Eustachy and Mike Price were put in the spotlight and made their respective schools’ programs even more high-profile than they already were when they were both involved in scandals. And I don’t think I want a coach to go Bobby Knight on a student. A coach getting caught boozing it up the way Eustachy did would definitely not be positive for our school. So I guess I don’t want a scandal, but I want something that lessens the apathy and ignorance I feel surrounds athletics around campus from non-athletes.

Certainly part of this problem is the college system. I’m sure college administrators do a great job of informing students of every academic activity. And I know that most of the RAs, deans and others in power at the college level do a great job of rallying students within the colleges for college-related activities. So why couldn’t they do the same for athletics?

Some would say that winning brings an excitement and to campus. I searched for answers on UCSD’s athletics Web site and found that 13 UCSD sports rank in the top 25 nationally in Division I or Division II. Obviously, the overall success of UCSD’s collective teams and programs isn’t the problem.

So what is the cause of the lack of care or buzz on this campus about sports? Well, going to games isn’t seen by many as an event or legitimate activity that takes precedent over important academic things like biology class, O-chem or Counterstrike.

But can’t a school be a research university and be excited about its athletics at the same time?

The only way it can happen is with the athletic department making athletics more visible and, if that is not enough, doing something else. If you have to resort to Chalupas, I say there’s nothing wrong with that.

Doing other less gimmicky things, like hosting the NCAA Women’s Water Polo Championships this year and other events like it that bring prestige to us from other schools and people who know the sport. But even had UCSD’s squad, which finished the season ranked 12th nationally, made the national final four that UCSD hosted (they were only one game away from being in the final four they hosted, did you know that?), I’m not sure how much of the campus would have been aware of it or cared. And no matter what the reason — that’s sad.