Will college sports survive? As NCAA schools begin dropping sports, many worry about a Tsunami that could end college athletes as we know them. Div. III sports could be history, and football could be on the chopping block at many schools: Part Two
The "Big House," University of Michigan
Will it host more than 100,000 this fall?
Photo: Wikipedia
The moves appeared to be minor and inconsequential, but in the world of the coronavirus and college athletics, the moves were very forboding. The University of Cincinnati ended its soccer program that had been in existence for more than 40 years. Earlier, Old Dominion University dropped its wrestling program.
Meanwhile, at a more fundamental level, colleges and universities throughout the country are wrestling with a basic fundamental component: Continued existence of the schools themselves.
Will sports continue to be dropped?
When it comes to the fall, most college presidents are more concerned with the continued existence of their institutions and the students who attend them, not the athletic programs.
The athletic programs are on very shaky ground whether they are Div. I or Div. III,
The foreboding feeling around the college sports industry is that the cuts have just begun. One athletic director summed up the financial options for schools as ranging “from a haircut to decapitation” amid an environment where athletic department pay cuts and furloughs have become common.
“I think now that Cincinnati just did it, watch the next month,” said another athletic director from an FBS school. “They cleared the way for other people to do it. Cincinnati puts it on a different level. Unfortunately, you’re going to start to see it. When you have to right-size everything, that’s going to become a way out for a lot of these programs.”
Pete Thamel, "With budges tightening due to coronavirus fallout,
will more college sports be cut?" Yahoo Sports, April 14, 1010
If football goes, so will NCAA athletics
Those who are at the top realize that the reality is that college athletics may never be the same, even at the top athletic institutions,
Across the country, administrators like [North Carolina State Athletic Director] Boo Corrigan are grappling with an unprecedented set of challenges—including the realization that life in college athletics may be, at best, temporarily and significantly altered. The impacts of the novel coronavirus to its cash cow, football, could bring a swift, and potentially permanent, end to the golden age of the industry. Just 143 days before its scheduled kickoff, the season’s existence is clouded with uncertainty as a plague hampers the nation, with billions of TV dollars and ticket revenues in jeopardy of disappearing.
Industry executives are already creating contingency plans for a nuclear fall of no football. At Clemson, for instance, Dan Radakovich has commissioned a handful of associates to investigate the what-ifs, calling it a disaster-preparedness committee. “I don’t know that we’ve named it,” he says, “because I don’t have an acronym for doom.”
When it comes to football, the truth is that most colleges and universities lose money on the sport. At the top, coaches can earn more than $8 million a year for coaching football because revenues, primarily from television, continue to fill the coffers,
For years, top-level programs have bathed in cash. They’ve erected lavish facilities, signed coaches to multimillion-dollar contracts and massively increased athletic staff sizes. Revenues have never been greater, giving is at an all-time high and, while attendance has shown a steady decline, premium seating and TV money are taking off. But the gravy train has hit a snag. If it leads to a major downturn in the college football economy, then what? “We’re all effed,” says one Power 5 athletic director who wished to remain anonymous. “There’s no other way to look at this, is there?”
A total or partial loss of the sport could send some athletic departments so deep into the red that one administrator predicted even Power 5 football programs shuttering. But the absence of football is only one piece. The long-term and severe financial impacts from an economic recession could not only reform forever how departments operate but also could spell sweeping changes to the landscape of college athletics—from the formation of a super division to a new wave of conference realignment, from money-saving travel modifications to football scheduling alterations, from discontinued sports to thousands of lost jobs.
Colleges are asking for relief
Schools, particularly those in the mid-major conferences, are really struggling. They are seeking relief from some of the NCAA regulations,
A letter to NCAA president Mark Emmert from the Group of Five commissioners obtained by Yahoo Sports on Tuesday offers searing insight into the financial constraints felt at that level and the potential for a landscape that could look much different when sports return to campus. The fallout being discussed by those commissioners includes the potential elimination of postseason conference tournaments and shortened seasons in non-revenue sports.
The letter from the commissioners of the AAC, Mountain West, MAC, Sun Belt and Conference USA asked for alterations of NCAA bylaws in the wake of COVID-19 in order to save money. The letter asks for “temporary relief from several regulatory requirements for a period of up to four years” in order to provide “short-term relief.” The letter hopes that this relief will provide “opportunity for institutions to retrench and rebuild the financial structures of the institution.”
The requirements the conference commissioners asked for relief from hint at the fiscal peril of schools and leagues outside college athletics’ so-called Power Five. The most relevant among them is relief from the minimum number of “Sports Sponsorships,” as every FBS school is required to have a “minimum number of 16 varsity intercollegiate sports.”
The 16 sports that are required are ones that they want lifted. What that means is that the schools want to drop as many “minor” sports as possible in order to save as much money as possible. The truth is that those sports are expendable in their minds since they bring in no money.
Colleges that participate in NCAA Div. I must field 16 teams. That drives up the cost of running an athletic department. This is a major concern for schools at every level.
Ridiculous conference alignments
One of the problems that has existed for many years is that of participation in “elite conferences.” For instance, what sense does it make for a Boston College or Syracuse program to send its non-revenue-producing sports to Miami or Florida State? Absolutely none.
But, that is what membership in the Atlantic Coast Conference entails, though it could be changing. Now, some discussions are being held to change that,
One issue being heavily discussed, especially on the Eastern seaboard, is scheduling alliances to save travel costs for non-revenue sports. Using Old Dominion as an example, it makes little sense for its baseball team to travel in Conference USA league games to play at Rice (in Houston), FIU (in South Florida) and Louisiana Tech (in Ruston). Why not James Madison, Richmond and Georgetown? They are all in different leagues, but it would make much more sense.
The same could be said for schools in the Northeast, as it makes more sense for Boston College, Rhode Island, Holy Cross and UConn to play each other in non-revenue sports than many of their far-flung geographic league peers. “You would have to get to a place where people put a lot of ego aside,” said another AD in the Group of Five. “Sports is driven more by ego than common sense.”
One athletic director in a non-football league said of scheduling more geographically friendly games instead of league schedules: “We are having those discussions.” He said limiting costs on conference road trips in non-revenue sports would save his athletic department hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. In leagues outside the Power Five, that money matters.
“Can you imagine being Conference USA or the AAC and you’re sending your baseball team to UTEP or Tulsa,” the AD said, using hypothetical geographic outliers. “It doesn’t make any sense. Much like everything, we’ve done this to ourselves. For us to not think about regional scheduling alliances is complete lunacy.”
However, the truth is that college administrators may be more interested in keeping students enrolled than in having fans in the stadiums, and with budget time approaching, many changes are obviously going to be on the horizon.
Those who are at the top realize that the reality is that college athletics may never be the same, even at the top athletic institutions,
Across the country, administrators like [North Carolina State Athletic Director] Boo Corrigan are grappling with an unprecedented set of challenges—including the realization that life in college athletics may be, at best, temporarily and significantly altered. The impacts of the novel coronavirus to its cash cow, football, could bring a swift, and potentially permanent, end to the golden age of the industry. Just 143 days before its scheduled kickoff, the season’s existence is clouded with uncertainty as a plague hampers the nation, with billions of TV dollars and ticket revenues in jeopardy of disappearing.
Industry executives are already creating contingency plans for a nuclear fall of no football. At Clemson, for instance, Dan Radakovich has commissioned a handful of associates to investigate the what-ifs, calling it a disaster-preparedness committee. “I don’t know that we’ve named it,” he says, “because I don’t have an acronym for doom.”
Ross Dellenger and Pat Forde, “Coronavirus has college football season,
NCAA future, up in air,” Sports Illustrated, April 8, 2020
When it comes to football, the truth is that most colleges and universities lose money on the sport. At the top, coaches can earn more than $8 million a year for coaching football because revenues, primarily from television, continue to fill the coffers,
For years, top-level programs have bathed in cash. They’ve erected lavish facilities, signed coaches to multimillion-dollar contracts and massively increased athletic staff sizes. Revenues have never been greater, giving is at an all-time high and, while attendance has shown a steady decline, premium seating and TV money are taking off. But the gravy train has hit a snag. If it leads to a major downturn in the college football economy, then what? “We’re all effed,” says one Power 5 athletic director who wished to remain anonymous. “There’s no other way to look at this, is there?”
A total or partial loss of the sport could send some athletic departments so deep into the red that one administrator predicted even Power 5 football programs shuttering. But the absence of football is only one piece. The long-term and severe financial impacts from an economic recession could not only reform forever how departments operate but also could spell sweeping changes to the landscape of college athletics—from the formation of a super division to a new wave of conference realignment, from money-saving travel modifications to football scheduling alterations, from discontinued sports to thousands of lost jobs.
Ross Dellenger and Pat Forde, Sports Illustrated, April 8, 2020
Colleges are asking for relief
Schools, particularly those in the mid-major conferences, are really struggling. They are seeking relief from some of the NCAA regulations,
A letter to NCAA president Mark Emmert from the Group of Five commissioners obtained by Yahoo Sports on Tuesday offers searing insight into the financial constraints felt at that level and the potential for a landscape that could look much different when sports return to campus. The fallout being discussed by those commissioners includes the potential elimination of postseason conference tournaments and shortened seasons in non-revenue sports.
The letter from the commissioners of the AAC, Mountain West, MAC, Sun Belt and Conference USA asked for alterations of NCAA bylaws in the wake of COVID-19 in order to save money. The letter asks for “temporary relief from several regulatory requirements for a period of up to four years” in order to provide “short-term relief.” The letter hopes that this relief will provide “opportunity for institutions to retrench and rebuild the financial structures of the institution.”
The requirements the conference commissioners asked for relief from hint at the fiscal peril of schools and leagues outside college athletics’ so-called Power Five. The most relevant among them is relief from the minimum number of “Sports Sponsorships,” as every FBS school is required to have a “minimum number of 16 varsity intercollegiate sports.”
Pete Thamel, Yahoo Sports, April 14, 2020
The 16 sports that are required are ones that they want lifted. What that means is that the schools want to drop as many “minor” sports as possible in order to save as much money as possible. The truth is that those sports are expendable in their minds since they bring in no money.
Colleges that participate in NCAA Div. I must field 16 teams. That drives up the cost of running an athletic department. This is a major concern for schools at every level.
Ridiculous conference alignments
One of the problems that has existed for many years is that of participation in “elite conferences.” For instance, what sense does it make for a Boston College or Syracuse program to send its non-revenue-producing sports to Miami or Florida State? Absolutely none.
But, that is what membership in the Atlantic Coast Conference entails, though it could be changing. Now, some discussions are being held to change that,
One issue being heavily discussed, especially on the Eastern seaboard, is scheduling alliances to save travel costs for non-revenue sports. Using Old Dominion as an example, it makes little sense for its baseball team to travel in Conference USA league games to play at Rice (in Houston), FIU (in South Florida) and Louisiana Tech (in Ruston). Why not James Madison, Richmond and Georgetown? They are all in different leagues, but it would make much more sense.
The same could be said for schools in the Northeast, as it makes more sense for Boston College, Rhode Island, Holy Cross and UConn to play each other in non-revenue sports than many of their far-flung geographic league peers. “You would have to get to a place where people put a lot of ego aside,” said another AD in the Group of Five. “Sports is driven more by ego than common sense.”
One athletic director in a non-football league said of scheduling more geographically friendly games instead of league schedules: “We are having those discussions.” He said limiting costs on conference road trips in non-revenue sports would save his athletic department hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. In leagues outside the Power Five, that money matters.
“Can you imagine being Conference USA or the AAC and you’re sending your baseball team to UTEP or Tulsa,” the AD said, using hypothetical geographic outliers. “It doesn’t make any sense. Much like everything, we’ve done this to ourselves. For us to not think about regional scheduling alliances is complete lunacy.”
Pete Thamel, Yahoo Sports, April 14, 2020
However, the truth is that college administrators may be more interested in keeping students enrolled than in having fans in the stadiums, and with budget time approaching, many changes are obviously going to be on the horizon.
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