CEDAR FALLS - Like every coach and player in the University of Northern Iowa baseball program, Jeff Taliaferro held out hope.

With only one year of eligibility remaining, the Panther catcher and junior college transfer didn't want to change addresses for his senior season.

"I thought I had two guaranteed years here," Taliaferro said, "but now I'm back in the same spot I was coming out of junior college in searching for a new school.

"It's hard."

Wednesday, the campaign to save baseball at UNI came to a halt. Once the final out is recorded in UNI's 2009 season, the Panthers will no longer field a varsity baseball team.

"We did everything we could do," UNI head coach Rick Heller said. "It was apparent they didn't want us. If we can't come up with $100,000 to save the baseball program, there is something seriously wrong.

"To me, it's not about money. It's been political from the beginning. For that, I feel sick for our players, alumni and boosters."

Due to a 9 percent reduction in state funding that would create an estimated $500,000 to $600,000 deficit in next year's athletic budget, director of athletics Troy Dannen made the decision Feb. 23 to drop baseball.

However, he did say if boosters could raise $1.2 million by April 5 to finance the next three years and work toward a $10 million endowment, the program could be kept.

Since that announcement, a group of supporters have tirelessly worked to keep the 103-year-old program alive.

Initially, baseball supporters tried to raise the money through pledges at www.supportunibaseball.com. They were able to generate $258,000.

Then, supporters proposed to raise $200,000 on an annual basis to self-fund the program. That plan was rejected by UNI administration.

"They talked about cutting other expenses from the program, but there was still a significant amount of the program's operations we could not fund externally," Dannen said. "That was the mandate from the beginning."

Represented by Des Moines attorney Doug Gross, a committee of supporters - which included Heller, Perfect Game USA president Jerry Ford, Cedar Valley Medical Specialist Chief Executive Officer Gil Arey and committee chairman Gary Sharp - met with Dannen Tuesday in his office.

The group upped its offer to $250,000 yearly, asking UNI to contribute roughly $100,000 from its scholarship fund for eight in-state scholarships. Once again, they were denied.

"This was one of the most frustrating negotiations in which I have been involved," said Gross, Iowa's Republican nominee for governor in 2002. "A group of supporters made an unprecedented offer to save UNI baseball without spending any state money."

Gross said that non-scholarship baseball players bring in at least $300,000 annually in tuition to the university.

"Keeping baseball would have resulted in UNI having over $300,000 more money available each year to pay faculty salaries and academic needs," he said. "Now that money is lost.

"The administration was bound and determined to get rid of baseball no matter how much it costs its faculty and students."

Committee members believe the major obstacle was that 100 percent of the program needed to be funded through private sources.

"Dannen insisted on every dime coming from outside interests," Ford said in a media release issued by the committee of supporters.

Asked if he anticipated any further discussions, Dannen didn't think so.

"There are none scheduled, and I have no reason to believe we'll have any more going forward," Dannen said.

Heller broke the news to his team Tuesday night.

"It still hurts just as much right now as the day we found out," senior captain Brett Douglas said.

"A lot of kids' dreams to play Division I baseball in the state just got ripped away," Taliaferro noted. "It's very, very sad."

In terms of this season, Douglas believes there is a positive for a UNI team that is 13-16.

"It's good to have the closure now and not have this hang over the team," he said. "We can just concentrate on playing baseball and not worry about things off the field.

"We don't want to end this on a bad note. We're playing for each other."

Heller said the next challenge is finding a place for all his underclassmen to play next season.

In Wednesday's release, it said several parents of UNI players are exploring the possibility of suing the university, claiming they weren't given enough time to help their sons find new teams and scholarship opportunities for next season.

"Our No. 1 priority now is finding a place for all of them to play," Heller said. "We've made a lot of groundwork already."

Contact Matt Coss at (319) 291-1468 or matt.coss@wcfcourier.com