UConn Athletic Dept continues to hemorrhage money; Benedict, Edsall, Auriemma and Hurley continue to get massive raises

[8893]

Yes, I get that their salaries are all part of their contracts, but holy cow Benedict finagled a sweet deal for himself: he made more than $1.3M in 2021.

Why UConn athletics has the highest-paid state employees

The UConn athletic department had the four highest-paid employees in Connecticut last...

www.nhregister.com

 

[Ts5034]

Nothing new here. This is the case with every major D1 program in the country. If you want to attract good candidates at the coaching and administrative level, you need to pay them a competitive salary.

 

[8893]

Nothing new here. This is the case with every major D1 program in the country. If you want to attract good candidates at the coaching and administrative level, you need to pay them a competitive salary.

Agreed. I guess my question is whether the expectation at the other major D1 schools is that their athletic departments will operate at a budget deficit in the tens of millions of dollars.

And yes I understand that Covid has had an impact.

It was just staggering to me to see the numbers.

Oh and sign me up for getting paid a bonus equal to Geno’s every time the women’s team wins a conference championship and makes the NCAAs.

 

[BigTenFan]

Don't forget we have gone through 3 Presidents in 4 years- and 2 are still on state payroll

 

[Kathy]

Yes, I get that their salaries are all part of their contracts, but holy cow Benedict finagled a sweet deal for himself: he made more than $1.3M in 2021.

Why UConn athletics has the highest-paid state employees

The UConn athletic department had the four highest-paid employees in Connecticut last...

www.nhregister.com

Can't read

 

[SubbaBub]

Follow a DIII school or shut up.

 

[8893]

Follow a DIII school or shut up.

GFY. It's a news article about our athletic department, which has been the subject of much discussion here.

 

[8893]

Don't forget we have gone through 3 Presidents in 4 years- and 2 are still on state payroll

Yes, but not part of the athletic department budget.

 

[John]

Follow a DIII school or shut up.

I prefer athletic departments that have half a clue

 

[BigTenFan]

Yes, but not part of the athletic department budget.

Understood- but we are all paying for 4 Presidents in 5 years. How many other major Universities have had this kind of turnover?
Not a good look......

 

[8893]

I prefer athletic departments that have half a clue

Amazingly, his point appears to be that it's wrong to even evaluate or discuss the performance of state employees whose salaries we are funding.

 

[8893]

Understood- but we are all paying for 4 Presidents in 5 years. How many other major Universities have had this kind of turnover?
Not a good look......

Agreed. There is a problem.

And part of that problem is the attitude of many we have no right to question it; nor should we care how much money it is costing us, or how that money is being spent.

 

[aburks41]

P5 schools have $40M paychecks coming in every year. If they didnt, 99% of them would have the exact same issue we have. Half of those schools got lucky they stumbled ass backwards into a major conference. What have schools like Wake Forest, Northwestern, etc done to deserve that money? Nothing.

 

[uconnfan68]

Can't read

I thought you went to UConn?

 

[Fatroony5]

Understood- but we are all paying for 4 Presidents in 5 years. How many other major Universities have had this kind of turnover?
Not a good look......

Can’t imagine very many…. UConn had had poor leadership for some time now, kind of amazing the amount of success they’ve had in spite of it. UConn is a unicorn for so many reasons, there just aren’t many major universities who ended up where UConn did.

 

[8893]

P5 schools have $40M paychecks coming in every year. If they didnt, 99% of them would have the exact same issue we have. Half of those schools got lucky they stumbled ass backwards into a major conference. What have schools like Wake Forest, Northwestern, etc done to deserve that money? Nothing.

Yep, some got lucky, and some outworked others to get the P5 invites that generate those paychecks.

Everyone was sleeping when one of our ADs in particular got outworked; but some apparently believe it’s best for us to remain asleep.

 

[ScottVib]

UCLA ran a 62.5 million dollar deficit last year and over 100 million over the last three years.

Slammed by double whammy, UCLA posts record $62.5 million in athletic department debt

The Bruins' record $62.5-million deficit for the 2021 fiscal year reflects the many ways in which COVID-19 has affected schools from coast to coast.

www.latimes.com

 

[8893]

UCLA ran a 62.5 million dollar deficit last year and over 100 million over the last three years.

Slammed by double whammy, UCLA posts record $62.5 million in athletic department debt

The Bruins' record $62.5-million deficit for the 2021 fiscal year reflects the many ways in which COVID-19 has affected schools from coast to coast.

www.latimes.com

Thank you for posting. I am genuinely curious how what has happened to our athletic budget compares to other D1 state schools.

 

[Fatroony5]

Thank you for posting. I am genuinely curious how what has happened to our athletic budget compares to other D1 state schools.

Rutgers athletics rang up a $73M deficit last year. Students, taxpayers were on the hook.

Rutgers athletics spending reached an all-time high of $118 million in 2020-21. Direct university subsidies more than doubled, to nearly $28 million.

www.google.com

 

[ScottVib]

One thing also worth remembering a chunk of the deficit is the charge to the athletics department for the cost of full, unaided (i. e. no federal need based reimbursement for those students) out of state tuition for each scholarship. The actual cost to the school to bring those student athletes in is much lower. In the process it adds ‘revenue’ for that full unaided tuition to other department budgets at the university

 

[methodology]

Amazingly, his point appears to be that it's wrong to even evaluate or discuss the performance of state employees whose salaries we are funding.

Maybe he lives in another state so it doesn’t concern him. This is a big point of discussion because this can’t continue like this. It’s going to end badly and probably end UConn athletics as we know it

 

[cohenzone]

I prefer athletic departments that have half a clue

Virtually every major program runs a decent deficit in the country and football has a lot to do with it. The idea that UConn doesn’t run a really good athletic program is dead wrong. Football has been an obvious outlier. Baseball, basketball, hockey representative, soccer, sports you probably pay no attention to like track and field Tons of schools would love to have the overall success of our programs.

 

[Fatroony5]

Maybe he lives in another state so it doesn’t concern him. This is a big point of discussion because this can’t continue like this. It’s going to end badly and probably end UConn athletics as we know it

They have to execute, the margin of error is just smaller now because they aren’t getting these infusions of cash like the P5 schools get. Sure would make the equation easier if you’re getting $30-50 million payouts.

 

[Palatine]

As long as universities refuse to add the value of earned media to the value of athletics, their true value is vastly under rated.

 

[scotty0330]

Don't forget we have gone through 3 Presidents in 4 years- and 2 are still on state payroll

This. I would rather over pay Benedict than whatever the hell deal Herbst and the other guy who was president for 15 min are getting. At least Benedict is working full time.