(UPDATE: As of Monday afternoon, a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for the University of Antelope Valley’s basketball programs had brought in more than $45,000, exceeding its original target of $40,000. Its contributions included one anonymous donation of $18,000.)
The University of Antelope Valley men’s basketball coach Jordan Mast expressed confidence Sunday that the financially imperiled NAIA school will at least be able to send both his team and the school’s women’s team to their upcoming conference and national tournaments.
This had been in grave doubt since leaders of the private, for-profit school, based in Southern California, informed staff and faculty in an emergency meeting two weeks ago that the school would be losing its on-ground campus and could no longer pay all of its employees.
On Sunday morning, a GoFundMe campaign that Mast launched three days earlier had already raised $24,000 of its $40,000 goal to cover its post-season hoops expenditures.
Hours later, Chegg, the education technology company headquartered in California, called Mast to pledge that it would cover any shortfall of funds the teams needed to compete, which were not raised in the GoFundMe.
“As a student-first company, we were inspired by the incredible hard work and resilience of the Antelope Valley basketball teams,” Dan Rosensweig, President & CEO of Chegg, said in a statement. “These young student athletes earned and deserve the opportunity to compete in the post-season tournaments and we are happy to contribute towards their success.” (Since the pandemic, Chegg has been the subject of public criticism and litigation brought by multiple investors over whether its business model is based on the facilitation of academic cheating.)
The stopgap funding has offered a rare bit of welcome news in a long string of bad tidings for the school, which had been placed on probation by its accrediting agency last summer following its acquisition by the Singapore-based education technology company, Genius Group. The school now appears to be on the brink of collapse, making their winning basketball teams one of its last remaining lifelines.
Both Antelope Valley basketball programs have claimed the top seed in their respective brackets for next week’s California Pacific Conference tournament, as well as berths for the NAIA championships that commence late March. On Saturday, Mast’s men’s program won its senior night game, bringing its season record to 24-4. Mast, a former walk-on player at Gonzaga, is currently in his seventh—and, presumably, final—season as head coach the Pioneers.
In an interview with Sportico, Mast said the recent “outpouring of support” had put both basketball teams in position to confidently carry forth into the post-season, provided they don’t have to travel too far.
The NAIA selection committee meets March 6 and 7 to determine the bracket.
“Overall cost reduction for traveling teams is always a priority during the process to set the field,” Jim Carr, president and CEO of the NAIA, said in a statement. “The committee and staff will try to assist (Antelope Valley) if we can, but we also are bound by policy regarding fairness for all qualifiers and the limited options within driving distance for their men’s and women’s teams.”
The Pioneers’ penurious saga provides a stark contrast to many of the recent headlines dominating NCAA Division I college sports, including the explosion of NIL money for players. NAIA is most comparable to NCAA Division III, although its members tend to have smaller budgets than D-III schools.
As is typical for NAIA programs, none of Mast’s players are on full headcount scholarships, though some receive partial rides. According to data the school provides to the Department of Education, the Pioneers’ men’s basketball expenses were $321,000 in the Fiscal Year 2022, out of an entire athletic department budget of $2.3 million. Of Antelope Valley’s 516 enrolled students that year, almost half of them competed on one of the Pioneers’ 11 different sports teams.
Last week, Mast agreed to take 75% of his remaining pay in the form of Genius Group stock, with little expectation that this will make up for his salary.
“To be honest, we had a lot of people quit over this,” Mast said. “I just told them, ‘I don’t care right now if my entire salary needs to be donated to the team.’”
Genius Group, which trades under the ticker GNS on the NYSE American, has seen its stock price crater nearly 90 percent over the last six months. The company, which closed last week trading at 35 cents per share, filed its initial public offering at a price of $6 per share in April 2022. It was composed of four separate education companies prior the IPO, and then acquired four other entities at the time of the closing—including Antelope Valley, which it purchased from Marco and Sandra Johnson for $30 million in stock and cash.
The Johnson couple had originally founded UAV in 1997. As part of the sale, the Johnsons maintained ownership of the campus facilities—including the Pioneer Event Center, where both basketball teams play—which it then leased back to Genius Group.
In an interview, Marco Johnson, a former collegiate and NFL football player, said Genius Group has been months behind on making its lease payments, leading to the eviction process. However, Johnson said, the company is the party that “self-imposed” its date to vacate the campus this week and expressed exasperation that the company never informed him or his wife of the UAV’s dire predicament prior to the news becoming public.
“If somebody had asked us for help, we could have jumped in several times,” Johnson said. “But nobody asked us for help.”
A spokesperson for the Genius Group did not respond to an email seeking comment.
Initially, Mast said the team had been informed by UAV leadership that all students, including his athletes, would have to abandon their school dorms by Sunday, though that deadline has since been pushed to this coming Thursday. Johnson says he intends to do whatever is in his power to keep the students housed through the end of the semester.
After starring as a wide receiver and running back at Hawaii, Johnson was taken by the Houston Oilers in the 10th round of the 1988 NFL Draft. His cup of coffee in the pros ended when he was traded to the Los Angeles Rams, after which Johnson became a became a Los Angeles City firefighter and paramedic. He and his wife originally founded UAV in 1997 as a medical training college, before it later received its accreditation to offer undergraduate and graduate diplomas.
“My wife and I founded this institution on our backs, for our community,” Johnson said. Prior to selling the school to Genius Group, Johnson said he had been approached by several groups interested buyers.
“We decided to go with Genius based on what they said they would do, which is to not change anything,” Johnson said. “It crushes us. This was not at all what we hoped would happen. What we can do at this point is help kids the best we can without stepping outside our purview.”
Johnson said that he expects to take control of the campus facilities on Thursday, and expressed a willingness to do what it takes to keep the lights on in the dorms and gym, even if that means initially going into his own pocket.
Given the obvious, it’s tough for Mast to see a future beyond this current basketball season.
“I am on the job market,” Mast said. “I love coaching and want to continue in any capacity. I don’t know where that it will be but my gut is it won’t be the University of Antelope Valley.”
Johnson said he hopes the school he and his wife built will be able to survive, but was circumspect. He noted the years it took for UAV to originally receive its regional accreditation, a process that would potentially have to be repeated if it were to be sold by Genius.
For now, Johnson says he’s glad that the basketball teams’ successes have given the school desperately needed attention—including his.
“I know the importance of athletics,” Johnson said. “And thank God we bought in athletics [to UAV] because now the attention is here. My wife and I may not have otherwise found out about this.”
(This story has been updated in the fourth paragraph with details of Chegg’s pledge to the basketball program and a quote from company CEO Dan Rosensweig.)