No more chartered flights: College sports cut back
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — The Atlantic Coast Conference won’t hold its baseball championship at Fenway Park next year, choosing a North Carolina venue over far-flung Boston.
Michigan, Ohio State and Wisconsin aren’t printing media guides. The Miami Hurricanes will be busing players to games.
As the recession drags on, many big schools are drawing attention for cutting sports outright — Washington expects to save $1.2 million by eliminating swimming, for example. But college athletic departments throughout the country also are taking smaller, less obvious steps to trim costs in the sluggish economy.
“You seldom find a silver bullet that saves you all the money you need,” said Bob Bowlsby, the athletic director at Stanford, whose athletic endowment has dropped to $410 million from $520 million in the past three years.
“Instead you find a hundred areas where you save a little and you eat the elephant one bite at a time.”
To that end, Cincinnati will no longer offer new scholarships for men’s cross country, track and swimming, a move expected to save $400,000 a year.
Virginia Tech is asking its teams to try to travel no farther than two states away for non-conference games. Athletic director Jim Weaver said that’s expected to save $50,000.
Miami will save about $140,000 by busing its football team to South Florida in Tampa and Central Florida in Orlando instead of flying.
Even Notre Dame, which has a lucrative deal with NBC to televise its football games, is asking its coaches in sports other than football to schedule games with opponents closer to home, athletic director Jack Swarbrick said. He said the football staff saved $20,000 from April 15 to May 31 by booking earlier and less convenient flights.
State schools are facing budget reductions handed down by lawmakers while private schools’ endowments are shrinking. Both are dealing with dwindling contributions.
It all runs counter to a culture of ever-more resources being devoted to college sports. In May, the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics said declining athletics revenues have been unable to keep up with a “runaway train of spending.”
In the five-year period through 2008, only 18 of 119 Division I athletic departments operated in the black, according to preliminary numbers compiled by Dan Fulks, an accounting professor at Transylvania University in Lexington, Ky., who has been an NCAA consultant for 20 years. Those numbers were before the economic downturn.
“What we’re seeing is that schools that are making money are typically making more money and schools that are losing money are losing more money,” Fulks said. “The gaps between the haves and have-nots has been getting wider. Over a 10-year period that’s been pretty consistent.”
UNLV plans to save about $50,000 by doing away with some chartered flights for its football and basketball teams and instead will fly commercial. UNLV also plans to save $75,000 by not providing primary insurance to walk-ons and another $10,000 in lighting costs and staff overtime by scheduling more daytime practices and games.
The Big 12 has eliminated the majority of its coaches’ meetings and instead will hold them via teleconference, saving schools the travel costs, Big 12 spokesman Bob Burda said.
At least eight schools, including Michigan, Ohio State and Wisconsin, are doing away with printed media guides, expensive tomes that can reach hundreds of pages and are filled with glossy pictures and graphics.
The Pac-10 has proposed NCAA legislation that would ban printed media in all sports, and is calling for a ban on international tours for teams and on schools paying for football teams to stay at hotels the night before home games.
Officials at many schools say they expect the struggles to continue until the economy turns around.
“I have confidence that it eventually will, but it’s going to be a while,” said Bowlsby, the Stanford athletic director. “There’s no doubt about that."
Jul 14, 2009 at 11:02 a.m.
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Whatever happened to playing for the love of the sport? Ya maybe get free tuition because you play well but why do we have to have all these "perks"? Play because you love it and if you happen to make it to the professionals then get what you can, that's how it should work. but we even pamper our high school kids now,letting them pass because they play sports, even though they don't deserve to play. We breed this in the kids early!
Jul 14, 2009 at 10:34 a.m.
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In 2000, a 3 credit class at a state university cost $345.00. In 2006 the same class cost $778.00. The "elite" people that administrate these institutions are void of any reality. Why would anyone think sports could be any different. For the most part the liberal administrations that run our colleges and governments have absolutely no idea the differences between NEEDS and WANTS. Oh, and in 2000 I was a debt free homeowner looking to complete my business degree. They actually priced me out of the system about 12 credits short.
Jul 14, 2009 at 10 a.m.
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I think just_hype was more correct then you are giving credit for. what was said is that basketball and football players are used to generate profit, which if you look at most major universities, those are the top 2 money generating sports that allow them to have programs in less revenue generating sports like volleyball, swimming, softball, rowing...
Jul 14, 2009 at 5:55 a.m.
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hype-see joe flint's post-my thoughts exactly. I am not bitter at all towards the kids and I know who's fault it is, just commenting that what they used to know and love isn't what to expect out of the real world.
Jul 14, 2009 at 2:24 a.m.
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And now it's time for another exciting round of reading for comprehension...!
> Many of the D-I athletes who play basketball or football are often used by their universities for profit.
From the article...
"In the five-year period through 2008, only 18 of 119 Division I athletic departments operated in the black..."
Thanks for playing! Join us again next time for another exciting round of ...
Look, I have NOTHING against athletes. I competed at both the D-III level and the D-1 level in cross country and track and roomed with a D-I football player for two years.
Even at the D-III level many, many years ago, there were GREAT perks for being an athlete. Personal trainers, massages, separate weight room, generous travel allowances for away meets. But I also knew a few guys and girls that went all out in "club" sports and played just as hard and just as well as any D-I athlete at an elite program. No perks and no complaints from them -- they played because they had the love. They would all pile into a car or van and split costs to go play away games. The fact of the matter is that less than 1% of all D-I athletes ever play at any kind of "pro" level; these are the last perks these athletes will ever receive and yes it is sad to see this happen.
But perks are just that -- perks. They get eliminated in lean times.
When most universities have already resorted to unpaid furloughs for faculty, staff, and maintenance staff (Arizona, UCLA, shall I go on...?), outright eliminating or consolidating departments, doing simple things such as finally turning lights off at night, etc. it's about time that the sports programs share in the economic pain.
To have not seen this coming is absolutely obtuse. State legislatures have cut land grand university funding to the bone in the past few decades. Some larger land grant schools have started RELYING on private donations from local businesses as well as wealthy alumni (*). If the states will not pay for their higher educational system (something with which I agree -- universities have lost sight of their raison d'etre), something has to give...
The only concern that I still have is that for students today, the tuition cost continues to balloon far faster than inflation. College, if not university, tuitions were reasonable 20-30 years ago. Maybe our next dose of common sense as a culture is that not everyone is ready for college or university straight out of high school nor should a higher education be prerequisite for the workforce.
(*) http://www.al.arizona.edu/campaz/
Jul 13, 2009 at 10:24 p.m.
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MrBlack - Why so bitter about kids who provide you with so much entertainment? These are good kids who have worked hard at their sport. 99.9% have done the right things in school to be afforded the opportunity to continue playing in college. Many of the D-I athletes who play basketball or football are often used by their universities for profit. These kids don't ask or set out to be what you considered pampered. If you want to blame what you consider excessive on someone, blame the universities and conferences they are part of, not the kids.
Jul 13, 2009 at 8:53 p.m.
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welcome to the real world kids
Jul 13, 2009 at 7 p.m.
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Good about time......
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