Some small schools are cutting athletic programs, but that’s a last resort for UTA
Every college, whether it’s a Power Five program or a smaller school, is tightening its athletic budgets these days.
The coronavirus pandemic has created an uncertain financial future for athletic departments across the country. We’ve seen a number of colleges eliminate non-revenue programs such as St. Edward’s University in Austin cutting six programs.
For most of the DFW-based colleges, though, eliminating programs remains a last resort option.
“That’s too far down the line,” UT Arlington athletic director Jim Baker said. “Right now, our two biggest things at the university is they haven’t furloughed full-time employees yet and the goal is to keep all full-time people employed. As far as our department, we’re focused on taking care of student-athlete needs and their welfare.”
Added Texas Wesleyan athletic director Ricky Dotson: “We have no plans to cut any Texas Wesleyan athletic programs. We look forward to having all our students back on campus, and all our student-athletes back playing the games they love.”
Spokespeople for schools such as Tarleton State in Stephenville and the University of Texas-Dallas, as well as junior colleges such as Navarro College in Corsicana, Ranger College, Hill College in Hillsboro and Weatherford College all said there are no plans to cut sports.
Navarro has plans to actually expand its department with an Esports team in the fall. Tarleton, meanwhile, is preparing for its transition to Division I and joining the Western Athletic Conference on July 1.
“Being a public school and under the Texas A&M University umbrella, we don’t have any plans to cut any sports,” said Ryan Cox, assistant athletic director for media relations. “But I think that Division III, NAIA schools and smaller schools will likely take a bigger hit.”
Most of the smaller colleges in the area are focused on saving money through different avenues.
UTA, for instance, is looking at its marketing and travel budgets. The department does not want to reduce costs that affect the day-to-day life of student-athletes such as sports medicine, sports training and academics.
But UTA could explore playing more nonconference games within the region. Or possibly implement more softball and baseball doubleheaders to eliminate a day of travel.
Baker said those conversations are happening within the Sun Belt Conference, although nothing has been finalized.
“We’re all looking across the country at how you can get your trips and flights as few as possible to keep the trips down and to keep the [possible coronavirus] exposure down,” Baker said. “But we’re looking at everything that makes sense such as games where you can get on a bus instead of flying across the country.
“Possibly it’s just a one-year deal, but it may make sense to do it that way going forward. Where regional play is not a bad thing. Get some rivalries going and fan bases driving across town or driving an hour instead of having to get on a plane.”
Baker said UTA already schedules several local games for a number of sports such as men’s and women’s basketball playing North Texas every year, or the baseball program playing TCU.
The other hurdles facing smaller schools is the ripple effect from Power Five schools tightening their budgets and reducing pay for “guarantee” games to smaller schools, or if football season is canceled.
A school such as Kent State received $1.9 million to get crushed 55-16 at Auburn last season. Texas A&M paid Texas State $1.3 million to whip it 41-7 to start the 2019 season.
The payday for “guarantee” games in college basketball isn’t that high, but it’s still a nice six-figure paycheck coming back. Those guarantee games are sometimes viewed as the lifeblood of the smaller schools, but Baker said UTA has made a conscious effort to reduce the number of “guarantee” games in men’s basketball.
“We’ve gone down on those because Coach [Chris] Ogden has played a tough schedule these last two years,” Baker said. “We’re looking at doing the best schedule we can. We’re not looking for more guaranteed games, we’ve got a couple more, but since we’re trying to do fewer, we should be fine.”
Baker went on to say that he’s watching the developments of what happens with a fall football season as closely as anyone. UTA doesn’t play football, but those decisions will impact every college at every level.
“If we didn’t have a football season, or played without fans, that would affect schools everywhere, especially the Group of Five because that’s what keeps them afloat,” Baker said. “What’s bad for them is bad for us. If it happens, then to stay afloat, they’d have to drop sports, which would affect us because those are less teams we can play. It’s not a good situation for anyone if football isn’t played.”
This story was originally published April 30, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
