State budget woes causing athletic cuts
By JORDAN BLUM | Advocate Capitol News Bureau
Published: Jul 13, 2009
Nicholls State University’s Brooke Braun starred on the Colonels' golf team as a freshman this year and thought she was in a “perfect” situation.
Then Nicholls suspended its women’s golf team this spring because of state budget cuts to colleges. Braun found herself losing her scholarship.
“I teared up a lot,” said Braun, 19. “I felt, ‘How could this happen?’ No one asked for this. I was hurt.”
But Braun, a Metairie native, said she took a “glass-is-half-full” approach. With the aid of her coach, she said she is transferring to the University of Central Arkansas on a golf scholarship.
Southern University, Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond and Nicholls State University in Thibodaux are among the schools that have already suspended one or more teams because of budget cuts this year.
The University of New Orleans is eliminating all state funding for athletics. The recession and budget cuts are putting stress on the state’s college athletics programs.
About $40 million in state funds went to college athletics per year before the budget slicing. More than $30 million of the total was used by the eight schools in the University of Louisiana System.
Nineteen public colleges in Louisiana have athletics programs. LSU is the only one in the state and one of just a handful nationwide that do not use state funds or student fees for athletics.
Barry Erwin, president of the Council for A Better Louisiana, said serious discussions should be had about how much the state should subsidize college sports.
“Particularly when looking at smaller, four-year institutions and community colleges, do community colleges really need baseball?” said Erwin, whose nonprofit lobbying group advocates public policy positions.
“But whether we like it or not, athletics has become part of the fabric of higher education,” Erwin said. “It’s part of the community.”
In 2007, the Louisiana Board of Regents approved a policy change to allow more state funds to be used for athletics.
The decision was made with the argument that schools like the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the University of Louisiana at Monroe had among the lowest-funded athletics programs nationwide in what was then NCAA Division I-A.
Half of UL-Lafayette’s $10 million athletics budget came from state funds, which has already been cut by $1 million.
UL-Lafayette President Joseph Savoie said state funding for athletics in Louisiana is still below the national average.
“Athletics is part of the college experience,” Savoie said. “In many ways, it’s the front porch of an institution. It’s the regional and national exposure you wouldn’t get otherwise. It’s a source of pride for the students and the community and it’s an economic development tool.”
Southern University in May decided to cut its men’s tennis and women’s golf teams, leaving Southern with 16 teams. The NCAA requires at least 14 teams to compete at the highest level.
Southern Athletic Director Greg LaFleur said the budget-cutting is devastating. Predictions that the cuts could worsen through 2012, because of declining state revenues and the eventual loss of federal stimulus dollars, are “scary,” he said.
“It’s extremely difficult to manage now because we were already bare bones, and we’re cutting beneath the surface,” LaFleur said. “It will take a commitment from the school to maintain the level we’re at.”
Increasing sponsorships and fundraising during a recession is challenging, he said, and the goal is to avoid increasing fees and football ticket prices.
In the UL System, Southeastern Louisiana University was using the largest percentage of state funds for athletics — nearly $5 million of the $7 million athletics budget before cuts.
SLU President John Crain said suspending the men’s tennis team was purely a “budget decision” because the university’s total athletics budget has shrunk by $1 million from budget cuts.
But will the Lions’ new football program remain sustainable if there are more budget cuts?
“I think that’s a very difficult question to answer,” Crain said, calling eliminating football only a “worst-case scenario.”
UNO is down to nine sports with NCAA permission after several were suspended in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
More than half of UNO’s athletics budget was state funds. But UNO Chancellor Tim Ryan is pledging to completely eliminate state funding for athletics without reducing any more teams.
“It’s going to be a no-frills program,” Ryan said.
UNO is even looking at cost-saving measures, such as “virtual swimming,” he said. The swim team would compete in its own pool and simply compare times to other swimmers at their own pools.
UNO may have two other options though. New Orleans Hornets owner George Shinn is leading a fundraising drive for UNO athletics. Also, the recent death of New Orleans millionaire Wick Cary may have left UNO athletics with up to a reported $50 million in his will.
Even UNO’s big brother, LSU, with its profitable athletics program, is tightening its belt while giving more than $3 million back to the university. Football is the big breadwinner, but baseball and men’s and women’s basketball also produce profits.
LSU Athletic Director Emeritus Skip Bertman said he believes LSU can sustain all 20 of its teams as long as the big-four sports keep raking in money.
But the department’s budget increases 4 percent every year “just to keep the doors open” because of increasing costs in scholarships, travel and benefits, he said. So the thought of cuts is possible, he said.
“It’s a very, very tough call,” Bertman said. “There’s a great deal of fan ownership. The psyche is woven into the fabric. They root like heck, they’re very loud and, of course, they’re very numerous.”
It is a tough balance, Bertman said, maintaining support for programs like the successful track-and-field teams. “But they don’t make any money at all,” he said.
In the last 10 years, LSU’s annual athletics budget has ballooned from $30 million to more than $75 million, largely because of two football national championships. The rise of the private fundraising arm, the Tiger Athletic Foundation, has been key, Bertman said.
The last time the department lost money was in 1987 and LSU athletics has reaped profits throughout this decade, according to LSU.
Another school bucking the trend is one young college that is adding sports.
Baton Rouge Community College had baseball and is now adding men’s and women’s basketball.
Looking to the future, Nicholls Athletic Director Rob Bernardi said the keys to survival are boosting fundraising, cutting travel costs, operating with smaller staffs and collecting big paychecks in “game guarantees” by playing top-ranked schools.
Bernardi said he is hoping the state Legislature realizes the importance of higher education and the value of graduating student athletes.
Cutting the golf team went relatively smoothly, he said, because it happened soon enough for players to transfer.
Braun agrees.
“I believe everything happens for a reason,” she said.
This article appeared on the Baton Rouge Advocate website on Monday, July 13, 2009.
