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With budgets tightening due to coronavirus fallout, will more college sports be cut?


Harry

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Regional pragmatism vs. ego

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.”

Athletic directors are doing everything possible to save sports, which means non-revenue sports could look much different whenever the sports calendar returns to normal.

Cincinnati’s decision on Thursday could end up being remembered as a tipping point. In a time of fiscal uncertainty on campuses, more cuts of sports from schools are expected to follow. 

 

 

Read more:  https://sports.yahoo.com/with-budgets-tightening-will-more-college-sports-be-cut-204423901.html

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Forget the drawn in Photoshop realignment maps. Temporary problem, temporary solution.

Leave football alone. Football when it travels does so by charter bus or charter aircraft and can control for the most part who players and coaches are exposed to.

Leave the individual sports alone. (ie those without a conference schedule, just an end of season championship event). One trip isn't enough to sweat.

Hoops, volleyball, softball, baseball, women's soccer and maybe men's soccer (all the affiliates make it messy) should realign for two seasons. CUSA East and Sun Belt East in one group administered by the Sun Belt and CUSA West and Sun Belt West in one group administered by CUSA with either UAB shifted East or South Alabama shifted West so we don't have 13/13 but some 12/14 combination.

Get past the emergency. Get the financial situation worked out and everyone goes back to where they came from.

https://247sports.com/college/arkansas-state/Article/COVID-Money-Strain-Demands-A-Temporary-Realignment-146066749/

 

Edited by Coach Andy Mac
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1 hour ago, Arkstfan said:

Forget the drawn in Photoshop realignment maps. Temporary problem, temporary solution.

Leave football alone. Football when it travels does so by charter bus or charter aircraft and can control for the most part who players and coaches are exposed to.

Leave the individual sports alone. (ie those without a conference schedule, just an end of season championship event). One trip isn't enough to sweat.

Hoops, volleyball, softball, baseball, women's soccer and maybe men's soccer (all the affiliates make it messy) should realign for two seasons. CUSA East and Sun Belt East in one group administered by the Sun Belt and CUSA West and Sun Belt West in one group administered by CUSA with either UAB shifted East or South Alabama shifted West so we don't have 13/13 but some 12/14 combination.

Get past the emergency. Get the financial situation worked out and everyone goes back to where they came from.

https://247sports.com/college/arkansas-state/Article/COVID-Money-Strain-Demands-A-Temporary-Realignment-146066749/

I would've put money down that a global pandemic would happen before common sense in college athletics. It's practical but call me skeptical. 

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7 minutes ago, meanrob said:

I would've put money down that a global pandemic would happen before common sense in college athletics. It's practical but call me skeptical. 

Well common sense rarely takes the lead but we are at the point where our commissioners are asking permission to drop to sports, get waivers from the minimum scholarship requirements, and maybe minimum scheduling. If they can cut costs without cutting scholarships they need to do so.

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11 minutes ago, NorthTexasSportsNetwork said:

We have like 3 less men's programs than women's right? That would be stupid if they drop one of the few we have. 

Agree, but logic will not play a role. I could see schools "dropping/furloughing" things like men's track, baseball to keep women's rowing, bowling, etc. to keep legally compliant.  

Would not be surprised to see some schools do the "UAB" and drop football to clean house and restart it in another year.

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4 minutes ago, El Paso Eagle said:

Agree, but logic will not play a role. I could see schools "dropping/furloughing" things like men's track, baseball to keep women's rowing, bowling, etc. to keep legally compliant.  

Would not be surprised to see some schools do the "UAB" and drop football to clean house and restart it in another year.

What UAB and UTSA dd was criminal and should never be allowed again.

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Unless they change the rules, if we cut any teams we would drop a classification.  The FBS requires 16 teams which is exactly what we have.  

We have six men's sports...football, basketball, track & field indoor & outdoor, cross-country, and golf.  We have ten women's sports...basketball, soccer, softball, track & field indoor & outdoor, cross-country, tennis, swimming & diving, volleyball and golf.

My memory's a little fuzzy and I'm too lazy to look it up.  It could be only 14 if track & field indoor and outdoor are not considered separate sports.

So, I don't see us dropping a sport but others in Division 1A/FBS might be compelled to do so.  It is possible that we could swap a women's sport for one less expensive...say women's bowling for swimming & diving.

Edit:  The number of sports for FBS/Division 1A is 16 and indoor and outdoor track & field are considered separate sports.

 

Edited by GrayEagle
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On 4/17/2020 at 1:34 PM, GrayEagle said:

Unless they change the rules, if we cut any teams we would drop a classification.  The FBS requires 16 teams which is exactly what we have.  

We have six men's sports...football, basketball, track & field indoor & outdoor, cross-country, and golf.  We have ten women's sports...basketball, soccer, softball, track & field indoor & outdoor, cross-country, tennis, swimming & diving, volleyball and golf.

My memory's a little fuzzy and I'm too lazy to look it up.  It could be only 14 if track & field indoor and outdoor are not considered separate sports.

So, I don't see us dropping a sport but others in Division 1A/FBS might be compelled to do so.  It is possible that we could swap a women's sport for one less expensive...say women's bowling for swimming & diving.

Edit:  The number of sports for FBS/Division 1A is 16 and indoor and outdoor track & field are considered separate sports.

 

The problem with equating men and women sports is they count scholarships not the number of teams.

85 in football is hard to offset.

That is why you have swimming and not bowling.

Title 9 is and always will be political and not practical.

I am all for women to have equal opportunity in athletics. However, to not factor in the cost/benefit ratio is absurd.  Women's sports just do not have the support or visibility of football and men's basketball. 

Although NT best programs are soccer, volleyball and softball, I doubt the combined attendance of all their home games would equal an average Apogee crowd.

 

 

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The University of North Texas has been very generous to its students while keeping student athletics contributions extremely low, especially for a full Division 1 program that includes football, that plays in on-campus facilities that are paid for by the athletic department. No public university in Texas even comes close to offering comparable value.

To put it simply, UNT students, by far, get the most bang for their buck.

Here are the student fees per credit hour as reported by UNT-Dallas this past month.

Athletic fee comparison
of Texas public universities
UNT Dallas -- $7
Angelo State -- $8
University of Texas Arlington -- $8
Lamar -- $10
Midwestern State -- $10
Sul Ross State -- $10
Texas A&M San Antonio -- $10
Texas Southern -- $10
University of Texas Rio Grande -- $11
Texas A&M - Texarkana -- $11
UT El Paso -- $12
UT Permian Basin -- $12
Prairie View A&M -- $12
UNT -- $14
UT San Antonio -- $16
Texas A&M - Kingsville -- $17
Sam Houston State -- $20
Texas State -- $20
Texas A&M Corpus Christi -- $21
Tarleton State -- $22
Texas A&M International -- $23
Texas A&M - Commerce -- $32

 

And yes, that $32 per credit hour at Texas A&M-Commerce is accurate: TAMU-Commerce Athletics Fee raised from $10.99 per credit hour to $32.00 per credit hour

 

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3 minutes ago, greenminer said:

I don't doubt those numbers, @ADLER but I thought I read years ago during our own athletic fee voting that the state put a cap on how high it could be per student @ appx 12-13 dollars.  Maybe I misread or something has changed.

At the time(2008-ish), the state maximum for an athletics fee was $20 per credit hour, and Texas State immediately applied that fee for up to 15 hours per semester. North Texas started at $10, but only after Apogee was opened, and has a provision that they can raise the fee by $1 (10% of original fee) per year until the $20 per credit hour is reached. North Texas has only raised the fee $4 during the last nine years.

Meanwhile, the parameters of the fees have been changed on the state level, allowing schools to charge more than twice as much as North Texas students contribute. Most of these schools don't have Div 1 sports, and many don't even have on-campus facilities.

And the schools that have raised the fees the most, contrary to some arguments, have not had it impact their enrollment figures. North Texas, while keeping the athletics fees extremely low, has seen less enrollment increase than many of it's peer institutions.

University 2018[1] 2017[2] 2016[2] 2014[3] 2013[3] 2012[4]
Texas A&M University 63,694 62,915 60,435 60,507 58,219 56,378
The University of Texas at Austin 51,684 51,427 51,281 51,312 52,059 52,213
University of Houston 46,324 42,704 43,774 40,914 39,540 40,747
The University of Texas at Arlington 42,496 41,712 39,706 34,868 33,329 33,267
Texas State University 38,644 38,694 38,808 36,739 35,546 36,790
University of North Texas 38,087 38,094 37,979 36,164 36,168 36,216
Texas Tech University 37,845 37,010 36,225 34,843 32,797 32,611
The University of Texas at San Antonio 32,101 30,680 28,959 28,628 28,623 30,607
The University of Texas at Dallas 28,755 27,638 26,793 23,095 21,193 23,095
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley 28,489 27,504 27,722      
The University of Texas at El Paso 25,063 25,078 23,888 23,043 22,926 22,749
The University of Texas–Pan American       21,015 20,053 19,263
Sam Houston State University 21,025 20,938 20,477 19,573 19,210 18,396
Texas Woman's University 15,364 15,322 15,511 14,889 14,899 14,909
University of Houston–Downtown 14,261 13,919 14,245 14,436 13,754 13,916
Lamar University 14,176 13,866 14,391 14,452 13,762 14,469
Tarleton State University 13,118 13,011 13,052 11,681 10,937 10,271
Stephen F. Austin State University 13,058 12,614 12,653 12,644 12,584 12,999
Texas A&M University–Commerce 12,072 13,065 12,385 11,490 11,068 12,052
Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi 11,929 12,202 12,202 11,234 10,913 10,538
Angelo State University 10,242 10,362 9,475 6,389 6,430 6,921
West Texas A&M University 10,030 10,169 9,901 8,970 8,381 7,955
Texas Southern University 9,732 10,238 8,862 9,233 8,703 9,967
The University of Texas at Tyler 9,716 9,938 9,416 8,036 7,476 6,858
Prairie View A&M University 9,516 9,431 8,762 8,343 8,250 8,485
University of Houston–Clear Lake 8,961 8,542 8,886 8,665 8,164 8,153
Texas A&M University–Kingsville 8,541 8,682 9,278 8,728 7,730 7,231
Texas A&M International University 7,884 7,654 7,390 7,554 7,431 7,331
The University of Texas at Brownsville       7,477 8,570 8,009
Texas A&M University–San Antonio 6,616 6,470 5,474 4,521 4,512 4,133
The University of Texas of the Permian Basin 5,834 7,000 6,524 5,560 5,131 4,074
Midwestern State University 5,712 6,080 5,682 5,589 5,548 5,913
University of Houston–Victoria 4,381 4,427 4,144 4,407 4,491 4,335
University of North Texas at Dallas 3,757 3,513 3,030 2,575 2,140 2,106
Texas A&M University–Central Texas 2,464 2,611 2,619 2,316 2,404 2,259
Texas A&M University–Texarkana 2,067 2,066 1,993 1,812 1,805 1,966
Sul Ross State University 1,885 2,012 2,071 1,897 1,889 1,834
Texas A&M University–Galveston 1,806 2,483   2,174    

 

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1 minute ago, DeepGreen said:

I wish someone would dig into Louisiana Tech to see "if" they have a student athletic fee.  LT fans say no way.  Several years ago I seem to recall running across something where they did charge students a per semester athletic fee.

They don't. The athletic departments at state schools are funded by the (cough, cough) State of Louisiana.EOWPN2tX4AMicqw?format=jpg&name=4096x4096

 

As a matter of fact, very few in-state students at Louisiana state schools even pay tuition, it too is paid by the state.

And somehow, in typical Louisiana bureaucratic fashion, the majority of those cost are somehow passed on to the taxpayers of the United States.

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7 hours ago, ADLER said:

The University of North Texas has been very generous to its students while keeping student athletics contributions extremely low, especially for a full Division 1 program that includes football, that plays in on-campus facilities that are paid for by the athletic department. No public university in Texas even comes close to offering comparable value.

To put it simply, UNT students, by far, get the most bang for their buck.

Here are the student fees per credit hour as reported by UNT-Dallas this past month.

Athletic fee comparison
of Texas public universities
UNT Dallas -- $7
Angelo State -- $8
University of Texas Arlington -- $8
Lamar -- $10
Midwestern State -- $10
Sul Ross State -- $10
Texas A&M San Antonio -- $10
Texas Southern -- $10
University of Texas Rio Grande -- $11
Texas A&M - Texarkana -- $11
UT El Paso -- $12
UT Permian Basin -- $12
Prairie View A&M -- $12
UNT -- $14
UT San Antonio -- $16
Texas A&M - Kingsville -- $17
Sam Houston State -- $20
Texas State -- $20
Texas A&M Corpus Christi -- $21
Tarleton State -- $22
Texas A&M International -- $23
Texas A&M - Commerce -- $32

 

 

UNT is $16.25 per hour. 

https://sfs.unt.edu/explanation-fees

 

Edited by MCMLXXX
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5 hours ago, DeepGreen said:

I wish someone would dig into Louisiana Tech to see "if" they have a student athletic fee.  LT fans say no way.  Several years ago I seem to recall running across something where they did charge students a per semester athletic fee.

 

4 hours ago, ADLER said:

As a matter of fact, very few in-state students at Louisiana state schools even pay tuition, it too is paid by the state.

And somehow, in typical Louisiana bureaucratic fashion, the majority of those cost are somehow passed on to the taxpayers of the United States.

A breakdown of LaTech revenues.

http://cafidatabase.knightcommission.org/fbs/c-usa/louisiana-tech-university#!quicktabs-tab-where_the_money-1

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