The endowment committee met at 3:30 p.m. in a conference room at an office building in north Fresno. BDF officials admitted they hadn't expected me to show up. But they let me stay.

They didn't let me stick around for the BDF board of directors meeting in the same place immediately after the endowment committee gathering.

BDF Executive Director/Associate Athletic Director Coleman Barnes on Tuesday evening was kind enough to leave me a message on my phone saying the BDF board approved the disbursement.

Back to the Endowment Committee meeting. Most of the committee's members are getting up there in years. They are the folks whose hard work in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s turned the BDF into one of college athletics' most successful fundraisers. They are the folks who created the endowment and helped it grow.

But the BDF is a much different entity these days. In the not too distant past, the BDF was an independent partner with Fresno State. Today, it is a fund-raising conglomerate that in practice is merely a part of the much larger conglomerate that is California State University, Fresno. It's safe to say that the organizational charts of those interlocking trusts of the late 19th and early 20th centuries would look simple compared to Fresno State's.

That's the backdrop to Tuesday's meeting.

Now, don't get me wrong. Endowment committee members understand the long-standing ground rules. The BDF is responsible each year for covering every cent of the Bulldogs' 250 or so athletic scholarships. BDF volunteers try to pay this bill with the so-called "annual fund drive" -- fans buy football and basketball season-tickets and also make a donation toward scholarships. If a lot of tickets are sold, the operations side of Bulldog athletics is happy. If a lot of donations are made, the full tab for scholarships is covered with ease.

If the donations fall short, Fresno State asks the BDF endowment to make up the difference. The annual fund drive has been falling short in recent years. It fell short again this year.

Barnes on Tuesday told the endowment committee members that he had called this emergency meeting because Fresno State immediately needed $1,325,000 for scholarships. (A distribution of nearly $270,000 has already been made.)

"We'll need another $700,000 later," he said.

Actually, about $725,000.

Committee members were handed a two-page report that explained the problem. Fresno State in the 2010-11 school year faces an athletic-aid bill of $4,484,082.20. But there's only $2,169,405.38 available for scholarships.

Short of a fund-raising miracle in the next few weeks, the BDF and its endowment need to produce $2,314,676.82 to cover the bill for athletic scholarships.

Endowment committee members gulped. For starters, that's a lot of money for an endowment that was at $13 million four years ago and now is between $10 million and $11 million. And, perhaps most frustrating, Fresno State was asking them merely for a non-binding recommendation. The BDF board of directors would have the final say.

Two points are worth noting, and they might be connected.

First, there's the financial report that committee members received. I don't recall anyone mentioning it in the meeting, but from my interpretation of the numbers it appears that this year's annual fund drive generated only $1,621,698.62 in scholarship donations. That's compared to $2,502,648 in ticket sales.

I know times are tough, but those are eye-opening numbers. Just four years ago, I wrote a story about the 2007 annual fund drive. According to a BDF official at the time, the drive produced $3.7 million in scholarship donations. It appears that scholarship donations this year fell by more than 56% compared to 2007.

And one other odd thing. In 2007, the BDF official said scholarship donations and ticket sales during the fund drive were about equal. In other words, scholarship donations were close to being 100% of ticket sales.

But in 2011 it appears that scholarship donations amounted to only 65% of ticket sales.

That brings up the second point worth noting. Endowment committee members both during Tuesday's meeting and after it voiced concerns that the endowment is being manipulated by Fresno State officials for purposes other than scholarships and recruiting.

Perhaps for planned capital projects as Fresno State prepares in just 14 months to join the Mountain West Conference, a much tougher conference than the Western Athletic Conference.

Fresno State Athletic Director Thomas Boeh at Tuesday's meeting and Barnes in an email to me emphasized that the endowment -- principle and interest -- by law can go only toward scholarships and recruiting. They emphasized even more strongly that Fresno State follows the law. Every cent of BDF endowment money that finds it way to Fresno State is spent on scholarships and recruiting, they said.

But an endowment committee member told me he wonders if the law is being followed to the letter, but the endowment is still being leveraged for the benefit of an ambitious capital projects program.

Could red-clad John Doe -- or a bunch of red-clad John Does -- be buying his usual season ticket and making his usual tax-deductible donation during the annual fund drive (a drive that now is pretty much year-around), but then is encouraged to earmark his donation for something other than athletic scholarships?

This wouldn't hurt anyone. The donation would still be going to a worthy cause in the eyes of the donor, Fresno State and the IRS. And Fresno State's student-athletes could rest easy knowing that the Bulldog Foundation endowment -- with nearly $11 million in principle and money managers who are generating an annual return on investment of well over 15% -- is always there to pay the rest of the scholarship bill.

This would have the effect of turning the endowment, despite the legal restrictions on its uses, into a Fresno State athletic budget reserve that, rather than just sitting there, is an active agent for the program's growth. And this might be a way to speed along the purchase of a new playing surface for Bulldog Stadium and the construction of a new soccer/lacrosse facility.

The Bulldog Foundation Endowment Committee member said he doesn't know if this is what's going on. I told him I don't know either.

He emphasized that he isn't accusing anyone of doing anything wrong. I'm not accusing anyone of doing anything wrong.

But something interesting may be going on with the Bulldog Foundation endowment. Something dynamic and innovative, according to one interpretation. Or something frustrating, according to another.

If so, I wish the BDF board of directors had allowed me to stick around for its meeting on Wednesday. Perhaps we'd all know for sure.