https://www.the562.org/2024/10/28/podcast-ncaa-rule-changes-with-long-beach-state-athletic-director-bobby-smitheran/

Long Beach State AD Bobby Smitheran joins The 562.org podcast and explains why the Beach hasn’t hopped on the conference realignment carousel: “Everything has been football-motivated. That’s where you're seeing the carousel in terms of conference realignment. So, as a non-football-playing institution, we would have to find a conference that would make sense for us, but we are proud members of the Big West Conference. Now with the departure of Hawaii, we’re a California-based conference, and as we think about those like-minded institutions, whether it's academically, how we're being resourced financially, it's the right fit for us to compete at a high level and compete for championships.” Smitheran also notes that the scholarship rules as proposed by the House settlement complicate the Beach’s financial situation. He explains the university’s tuition is set to increase by 6% in each of the next five years, and “as that goes up our scholarship bill goes up. And as the NCAA is talking about enhanced scholarship numbers for every sport, that has a real impact on our bottom line because the sports just got more expensive. The cost of scholarships increases. So, we've got to look at that in a holistic perspective.” Asked about Long Beach State’s long-term value proposition to the NCAA, Smitheran explains that March Madness “was built upon the idea of Cinderella arriving to the dance, and that CBS contract has been built on the success of March Madness and that concept, that idea that the Long Beach States of the world can have an opportunity to slay Goliath and make a run. So, I think that's still out there for us. You look at Dirtbag Nation and a run to the College World Series and what that would mean for the sport of baseball because the Dirtbags are a national brand. You look at how women’s basketball is increasing in profile. There are opportunities out there. It’s incumbent on us to seize those opportunities