The State of Sport

In the Ever-Evolving World of D1 Athletics, UC Santa Barbara AD Kelly Barsky Keeps Her Feet on the Ground and Her Eyes on the Future

By John Zant Wed Nov 20, 2024 | 11:40am

When she ponders the topsy-turvy state of college sports, Kelly Barsky confesses, “My head spins some days.” But UCSB’s athletic director keeps her feet on the ground as she forges a path for the Gauchos to keep up with the competition while adhering to traditional values.

There is no disputing that intercollegiate athletics at the Division I level is a money-driven business. Would four West Coast schools, including UCLA and USC, cast their lot with the Midwest/East-centered Big 10 Conference if it were not for the TV dollars they could scoop up?

The landscape is further shaken up by changes that will put college athletes more deeply into the money-making side of things. A legal settlement with the NCAA to be finalized next April is expected to result in a school spending as much as $22 million a year (if it has a football team) to pay its players, repaying lost income going back to 2016, and implementing revenue-sharing in the future.

For the past several years, players have been indirectly receiving extra compensation through NIL (name, image, and likeness) programs. Along with the loosening of restrictions against transfers, NIL money can be used as enticements for players to switch schools.

UCSB Athletic Director Kelly Barsky | Photo: Ingrid Bostrom

Barsky, in her third year (including an interim year) as UCSB’s first female athletic director, says she’s optimistic that the Gauchos can adjust to future challenges because of what’s already been established.

“I’ve heard lots of concerns about amateurism, concerns where college athletics is going,” she said in a recent interview. “We have to evolve, change, and grow with the times. [But] we still have an opportunity with student athletes to be tethered to academics.”

It is revealing that Barsky continues to use the term “student athlete,” often dismissed as an oxymoron by cynical observers.

In addition to academic support, she said, UCSB athletes receive “high-caliber coaching, sports medicine support, life skills support, even financial management support. … Just because there’s NIL and an opportunity to share revenue does not take away from those skills that are learned from being in a college campus.”

Barsky continued, “Sport is about connection. I get energized talking about this. In addition to supporting and developing athletes, sport at its core is a platform for connection. It brings people together. It brings communities together. It brings exciting nostalgic memories and moments.”

John Arnhold, a 1975 UCSB graduate, has established a high-voltage connection. He and his wife, Jody, with their Arnhold Foundation, have funded the $5.25 million Arnhold Tennis Center on the campus and created the Arnhold Directorship of Athletics — Barsky is the first to hold that position — with a $5 million endowment.

Gaucho men’s basketball coach Joe Pasternack has fostered local connections to create NIL opportunities for his players. “We always have to figure out how to be successful and adjust to the rules,” he said. “Fortunately, we have an amazing community to help us in fundraising.” In turn, the Gauchos go out to participate in service at schools, youth sports, and other community organizations.

In a world where colleges in the “Power Four” conferences find ways to bestow prominent athletes with NIL income in six or even seven figures, UCSB has to offer all the things Barsky enumerates to keep players wearing Gaucho blue.

“Ajay [Mitchell] could have transferred, but he stayed three years,” Pasternack said. Mitchell is playing significant minutes in his rookie year with the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder. “Cole Anderson [a four-year veteran on this year’s team] is not here because of NIL,” Pasternack said. “The number-one goal is to get a degree.”

Barsky said, “We’re still recruiting high-caliber, talented student athletes that come here to work directly with coaches in developing growth.” Besides Mitchell, she cited L.A. Lakers guard Gabe Vincent, a four-year Gaucho, and current UCSB athletes Tyler Bremner, one of the top right-handed pitchers in the country, and Amelia Honer, among the nation’s best collegiate women’s tennis players.

Football is a big money-maker, despite its costs, for the “Power Four” colleges. It’s why the University of Texas athletic department, whose director Chris Del Conte was a Gaucho track and field athlete in 1990, recently raised $1 billion for the university. There is a large gap in resources between the “haves” and the “have-lesses” like UCSB and its fellow institutions in the Big West Conference. But those schools may be doing more to develop Olympic sports like volleyball and water polo. They also compete well in soccer. UCSB has twice hosted the College Cup championships.

“We are positioned being a non-football school to support our programs and be competitive,” Barsky said. “We have to be strategic, thoughtful, and intentional. Baseball is a great example. The ability to play 56 games in four months, and have a significant regional footprint, is a strength for us. The ability to recruit on the West Coast … so that they can play here and families can see them. Those things are benefits.”

UCSB hosted an NCAA baseball regional last spring. “How fun was that?” Barsky said. “Sold-out crowds, first time on our campus. Santa Barbara showed up.”

Along those lines, Barsky said, “We’re having lots of conversations about making sure the resources are there to lean into our strengths, to make sure we’re successful and excellent the way we’ve been for years and years. We’re talking at all levels, coaches, campus leadership, and community.”

Basketball is what brought Barsky to UCSB in 2008. For three years, she was an assistant coach to Lindsay Gottlieb, who now happens to be head coach of a powerhouse women’s program at USC.

“I’m proud of what she’s done,” Barsky said. “I don’t look at it like the rich get richer. What remains for us is access to the [NCAA] championships. The Big West will still have our automatic qualifications in basketball. Our teams will have to continue to work hard to get the right opponents and try to work on having the right seeding in the tournament.”

Pasternack has led the Gaucho men into the NCAA tournament twice in seven years. The Gaucho women’s last appearance was in 2012. Barsky has hired a new coach, Renee Jimenez, whose connection to Santa Barbara goes back to attending camps run by former coach Mark French, who took the Gauchos as far as the Sweet 16 in 2004.

Barsky has a national role as chair of the NCAA Women’s Division I Basketball Oversight Committee, which gives her another reason to be excited about the future, given the sport’s explosion in popularity last season.