Video: Seattle U ramping up athletic department

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SEATTLE - Seattle University is moving ahead with plans to expand its athletic department and get on the same playing field with the big boys.

A year ago today, school trustees voted to return the school to Division I status. It's currently Division II.

It was a big step for this small school and it could mean big bucks down the road.

"It's a great time for the institution," said Rob Kelly, vice president for student development. "We're going to give our students and alumni what they want."

He's been leading the effort to make Seattle U an NCAA Division I school again. The Central District campus has been there before.

Its great basketball teams - led by Hall-of-Famer Elgin Baylor and All-Americans Johnny and Eddie O'Brien - once filled up the old civic auditorium. But in 1980 the school disbanded the program for financial and other reasons.

It's now pumping in money to go "big-time" again.

"A million dollars a year over the next couple of years so we reach a $10 million athletic budget," Kelly said.

The return on the investment could be huge. Another small Jesuit school, Gonzaga University, kicked off a successful basketball run in 1999, and the Spokane campus has dramatically changed since.

Enrollment is up more than 50 percent. University donations have nearly doubled.

And thanks to the money - and school president father Robert Spitzer, a former Seattle U trustee - there has been a multi-million-dollar construction boom, with academic buildings, residence halls, apartment complexes, and a new arena.

Seattle U believes it is now on pace to begin partial or full Division I play this fall for all its teams.

"We're looking forward to playing UW and playing the Cougs, and playing Gonzaga and everyone else," Kelly said.

KING

Rob Kelly, vice president for student development, is leading the effort to make Seattle University an NCAA Division 1 school again.

This is really year one of what is a complicated re-classification process.

The golf, tennis, and baseball programs will all be resurrected.

As long as the school jumps over certain NCAA hurdles - the soccer teams will be eligible to play for Division I championships in 2010.