Yeah, it's starting to look like the party could be over soon.
Can't run those kinds of deficits. You've got an obligation to students and tax payers. Sorry to ruin everyone's good time, but it's not gonna happen the longer they're in the conference.
My guess is they stick it out and hope they can cover the football deficit in the next round of negotiations. If they don't, football program gets shuttered within ten minutes of them knowing. That's assuming it gets that far.
Can't run $8.7 million and then have everyone else running $7.8 million in travel expenses, largely to keep the football dream alive. At it's peak - men's hoops was generating something like $16 million for the university. That right there would eat that alone. My guess is they beg, borrow and steal to try to get into the Big East, but that'll be that. Even if they can score a big payday of like $14 million in the Big East and cut both the football deficit and trim travel, they'll still have like $15-$16 million they're going to have to make up.
But $41 million is so far past inexcusable at this point, it's hard to know where to begin.