Athletic Budget Update #52


Quinnipiac's volleyball team may still face elimination after a court injunction prevented the school from dropping the team.  It appears that the addition of "competitive cheer" has exceeded expected participation numbers and that the school may still consider dropping the team since compliance with Title IX may no longer be in question.  Particularly noteworthy are the comments of the University's president, John Lahey "Volleyball, you can look at it as just a volleyball and athletic program as most people have done. For me, its five additional full-time professors that we can add or retain here at Quinnipiac, and I still believe students come to Quinnipiac to get an education," he said. "While sports, I understand, are important, we still have 18 remaining sports. I do think making reductions in sports athletic programs is an appropriate thing and helped us last year, and in the future will protect the academic institution and have more faculty for our students."


Demonstrating the difference between the "haves" and the 'have-nots", Idaho's football coach has their team bowl eligible after reaching their 6th win and will now receive a bonus for the achievement - $11,923.20. 

Harvard's budget cuts, which eliminated hot breakfasts for students and cookies for faculty, have also hit student athletes more directly with the elimination of sweatsuits and gear for student athletes and a reduction of individual competition opportunities for athletes from teams such as tennis. 

Elsewhere in the Ivy League, Cornell is dealing with a $915,000 budget cut on top of a two-year, $1.3 million endowment payout reduction.  Cornell has eliminated 15 staff positions, reduced travel and cut media guides.  Cornell also anticipates further budget cuts in the next fiscal year. 

The Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (Division III) is changing its scheduling format in football.  Effective in 2011, each conference member will play a second game against a WIAC member.  The second game will be considered a non-conference game.  The arrangement will reduce travel costs.  They also plan to establish later start times to eliminate overnight travel and are freezing officials fees.

Central Florida is trying to negotiate a compromise with adidas over their $3 million apparel contract. Freshman Marcus Jordan (son of Michael) is refusing to wear school issued shoes in deference to his father's longstanding ties with Nike. The adidas deal had been in place at UCF years prior to Jordan's arrival on campus.

I'm not sure how the Jordans missed this when choosing a school after dad's prior experience in this area.  The elder Jordan needed to conveniently drape an American flag over his shoulder during the medal ceremony at the 1992 Olympics to hide a Reebok logo on the Team USA sweatsuits.  And in an age where sneaker money (funnelled through AAU basketball) influences where many prospective student athletes go to school, how someone whose father is so aligned with Nike went to an adidas school is hard to figure out.


Comments

Anonymous said…
The fact that "competitive cheering" (a 'sport' that mostly exists as a female adjunct to another male sport; basketball) is considered the suitable replacement for women's volleyball is absurd. And thats meant as no disrespect to cheerleading squads. Certainly hockey isn't going to suffer.

There is a tendency to blame football for the ills of modern college athletics; the truth is the focus on "fans" and big-ticket sports, as opposed to providing a wide option of sports for college athletes to enjoy. More and more schools should orient their athletic departments to provide more sports opportunities for all students, as opposed to focusing on athletics as something for the majority of the student population to merely watch.
A. G. Dube said…
I agree about opening up opportunities for all/more students to participate in sports. Fitness is a justification for intercollegiate athletics, but if fitness is so important, why are the best fitness opportunities open only to those who are most fit (at least that is the assumption, are 350lb. lineman really all that healthy)? I say less resources for intercollegiate sports and more for intramural and non-sport fitness, but any gains in the intramural realm will happen independently of the intercollegiate side it seems.

As for Jordan, I'm sure they knew UCF is an adidas school. How could they not? My guess is the Jordans think they will get their way and UCF wants the attention. I don't expect to see Jordan wearing anything but Air Jordans. Some agreement will be made. Perhaps Nike will be paying for the rest of the squad's adidas shoes. LeBron James may be the new king of the NBA, but Jordan is still the king of basketball and sports merchandising.
Libby said…
I find it interesting that they are paying tribute to the exceeding numbers to the varsity cheerleading squad over at QU. The field hockey team had quite a few people added to their roster this season as walk-ons so that the numbers would increase. It was all fair. The team kept the walk-ons for the entire length of the season, but wouldn't it be better for the school to keep their varsity volleyball team, than have these teams put walk-ons on that are really just taking up space on the roster and never really seeing play time?

On the Cornell budget cuts, I am wondering--are they planning to cut sports anytime soon? It appears that the horizontal cuts don't seem to be putting a dent in their budget woes. Will they have to make some vertical cuts soon?

As for Harvard, no cookies for you! I did find that article in the NYTimes very interesting to read...and I am glad to see that they are doing something in all departments--even if it as simple as cookies in the faculty department, but it shows that they know where to prioritizes their cuts--on little things first that in the long run won't damage the academics at the school or the extracurriculars. On the sweatsuits being cut--I think that is pretty fair. As an athlete, I can say that my closet is lacking space due to all the sweat apparel I was given through my athlete days.