UConn bracing for ‘deep cuts’ to sports and academics

[JohnFSilver]

Brown Bear football is 5-25 over the last 3 seasons. Absolutley incomprehensible that they're sacrificing track for that dumpster fire.

Waiting on their SI article.

The national football media’s obsession with UConn football is stunning. Forde and company are essentially saying that all non-P5 football programs should be cancelled.

why should ccsu, southern and western have FB? Outside of men’s basketball,none of the sports bring in revenue.

dropping down to fcs doesn’t cut football costs. UConn still has to pay for scholarships, they still have to pay coaches, and they lose all the money.

 

[huskyinfl]

We have the worst team historically. I would rather start fresh if an invite ever comes.

 

[upstater]

Isn't it the job of a reporter to do a little research?

UConn cutting sports within the context of the university losing hundreds of millions of dollars. It's a factor.

At my school, our department was told that the cuts in fungible expenses (which includes things like contingent faculty) are 90%. This literally means that if we had 50 faculty employed and only 25 were tenure or tenure track (which is an excellent ratio given the national average of 20% tenured or t-track), we're only inviting back 2 or 3 of the contingent faculty out of 25.

We'll have furloughs too. After 2008 we took 5% pay cuts, and 1-2% of additional salary went toward our health plan.

 

[freescooter]

ouch. the BE can't be happy that we're cutting sports they actually sponsor in order to try and save one of the worst football programs in history. i'd be pissed if i were Val.

LOL. The big East gives not a single crap about any sport but basketball. Men’s basketball if truth be told.

 

[freescooter]

that's not the point. if we have to cut sports the BE would obviously rather we cut sports they dont sponsor i.e. football and hockey, which dont contribute anything to the conference. but to answer your question i think georgetown and nova both sponsor 24

LOL. Now that’s absurd. We are not cutting football and hockey to save tennis and golf Because the big East sponsors them. That is beyond foolishness. Honestly some people are utterly ridiculous. The big East sponsors sports beyond basketball as a convenience not because they want to.

 

[bendm]

LOL. The big East gives not a single crap about any sport but basketball. Men’s basketball if truth be told.

LOL. Now that’s absurd. We are not cutting football and hockey to save tennis and golf Because the big East sponsors them. That is beyond foolishness. Honestly some people are utterly ridiculous. The big East sponsors sports beyond basketball as a convenience not because they want to.

these two posts are freescooter in a nutshell. wrong on every level with a delightful tinge of lunacy.

first, you missed the point. the BE obviously cares more about men's basketball than all their other sports combined. but the BE also gives a crap less about UConn football and hockey than they do all their other sports. saying that the Big East would rather see UConn cut football and hockey instead of conference sponsored sports isn't even debatable.

second, that's such a token football fan reaction. compounding the problems caused by the worst football program in history that's responsible for almost half of the athletic budget deficit is the definition of utterly ridiculous. you're talking about the UConn football program like it's a sacred cow that can never be sacrificed but this aint Notre Dame scooter.

 

[bendm]

dropping down to fcs doesn’t cut football costs. UConn still has to pay for scholarships, they still have to pay coaches, and they lose all the money.

dropping down from fbs to fcs significantly reduces the expenses associated with running a football program. there's 23 fewer scholarships available, the coaching salaries are greatly reduced, and on and on... just look it up. edsall's salary would be the first thing off the books.

 

[uconnric]

these two posts are freescooter in a nutshell. wrong on every level with a delightful tinge of lunacy.

first, you missed the point. the BE obviously cares more about men's basketball than all their other sports combined. but the BE also gives a crap less about UConn football and hockey than they do all their other sports. saying that the Big East would rather see UConn cut football and hockey instead of conference sponsored sports isn't even debatable.

second, that's such a token football fan reaction. compounding the problems caused by the worst football program in history that's responsible for almost half of the athletic budget deficit is the definition of utterly ridiculous. you're talking about the UConn football program like it's a sacred cow that can never be sacrificed but this aint Notre Dame scooter.

Football is not being cut, period. I doubt that hockey is on the block either.

 

[bendm]

Football is not being cut, period. I doubt that hockey is on the block either.

not this year, and maybe not next year or the year after, but one can hope cooler heads will eventually prevail

 

[navery12]

not this year, and maybe not next year or the year after, but one can hope cooler heads will eventually prevail

Cooler heads will prevail but spoiler alert, that won't result in football being cut

 

[JohnFSilver]

dropping down from fbs to fcs significantly reduces the expenses associated with running a football program. there's 23 fewer scholarships available, the coaching salaries are greatly reduced, and on and on... just look it up. edsall's salary would be the first thing off the books.

the 23 fewer scholarships is a soft savings. That is what I am trying to tell you people. That isnt going to get it done. Cutting scholarships doesn’t save the university any real money.

They need hard cash out. Salaries, marketing, travel, systems, vendor contracts, equipment etc.

Selling, General and Administrative expenses need to be cut. The biggest savings with eliminating a sport is coach salaries, travel and other overhead.

scholarships? That is just a chargeback.the university as an organization doesnt save anickel with a cut scholarship. No teachers are getting paid less because less students, it doesn’t open up another slot for a non-athlete to fill.

 

[bendm]

They need hard cash out. Salaries, marketing, travel, systems, vendor contracts, equipment etc.
Selling, General and Administrative expenses need to be cut. The biggest savings with eliminating a sport is coach salaries, travel and other overhead.

i cant tell if you're arguing UConn lost more than $15 million per year when they were an FCS program or not... but i dont care. i havent been arguing that football should drop back to FCS, it should be cut all together

Cooler heads will prevail but spoiler alert, that won't result in football being cut

randy thanks you for your tax dollars

 

[UCTitleTown]

Brown Bear football is 5-25 over the last 3 seasons. Absolutley incomprehensible that they're sacrificing track for that dumpster fire.

Waiting on their SI article.

And elevating sailing. Sailing???

 

[UCTitleTown]

I heard the other day that the average P5 football program brings in $60 million per year. Meanwhile, our program loses millions. A tale of two cities indeed.

 

[Chin Diesel]

I heard the other day that the average P5 football program brings in $60 million per year. Meanwhile, our program loses millions. A tale of two cities indeed.

I would think the "$60m average" would be a mean average as compared to the median. I would suspect more than half the P5 program have revenue of less than $60m. I can guarantee less than half net $60m. None of them net that much.

 

[CTBballfan243]

I heard the other day that the average P5 football program brings in $60 million per year. Meanwhile, our program loses millions. A tale of two cities indeed.

BS.............. BC, Syracuse or Pitt are not bringing in 60 million/year. Maybe Clemson, but even that is a stretch.

 

[JohnFSilver]

i cant tell if you're arguing UConn lost more than $15 million per year when they were an FCS program or not... but i dont care. i havent been arguing that football should drop back to FCS, it should be cut all together

randy thanks you for your tax dollars

I don’t think it should be cut. It brings in revenue. And has the potential to bring in much more revenue. It also has the most potential ofany other program to drive revenue.

add in the buy games that will help cut those deficits, better travel, Watch the expenses, there is a roadmap there.

 

[87Xfer]

The national football media’s obsession with UConn football is stunning.

I'm not sure about that. Any D1 FBS football program that's as big a train wreck as ours is gonna (and should) attract attention. The ineptitude has been stunning.

 

[bendm]

I don’t think it should be cut. It brings in revenue. And has the potential to bring in much more revenue. It also has the most potential ofany other program to drive revenue. add in the buy games that will help cut those deficits, better travel, Watch the expenses, there is a roadmap there.

it brings in a couple million in revenue but loses 6x that. the only thing it will ever drive is the budget deficit... whatever. it's been debated ad nauseam. i only brought it up now because it's continued existence is forcing other sports into extinction. we'll see what happens after a few years of football independence.

 

[freescooter]

not this year, and maybe not next year or the year after, but one can hope cooler heads will eventually prevail

Cut basketball. Hurley earns 3 times what Edsall does. You got your wish. We are in the Big East. We get to play Seton Hall and St Johns and you get to have wet dreams about Madison Square Garden. You are right. The Big East doesn’t care about UConn football or hockey. But they don’t much care about women’s tennis either. Truly they don’t. If everyone dropped women’s tennis Val Ackerman wouldn’t lose 10 seconds sleep. If every school dropped women’s basketball she’d be worried about one thing. Would there be a title IX issue with men’s basketball. That is all.

you know in some ways it is in UConn hockey’s best interest to not get too successful. If they are the hoops Fans will work really hard to undermine them. If we ever got an invite to a real P5 conference the hoopsters would whine that we have to play Ohio State and Michigan and miss out on Creighton and DePaul. It is totally weird how small time UConn fans are in their world views. They see UConn as a modest regional school like St Johns or Providence when it is a major national university. Sad really

 

[UCTitleTown]

BS.............. BC, Syracuse or Pitt are not bringing in 60 million/year. Maybe Clemson, but even that is a stretch.

Average means some generate less and some more, not that all schools would bring in that much. Alabama, Clemson, Michigan, Clemson, Oklahoma and some others are basically professional organizations masquerading as college programs.

 

[navery12]

Numbers are 2 years old but $60M seems about right looking at these numbers

Which are the richest and poorest Power Five college football programs? Here are all 65, ranked bottom to top

For the first time, Penn State football amassed $100M in gross revenue in 2017-18, but where does that rank among the monetary heavy-hitters?

www.pennlive.com

 

[dvegas]

I played and captained a minor sport at UConn in the mid-1980's (one coach plus assistants shared by both men and women), and have donated specifically to that sport ever since (in addition to seat donations). A Zoom conference has been scheduled by the current coach on Monday 6/1. An email was sent to his entire list last week (current and former athlets, and donors). Should be interesting.....sure we'll be asked to open the checkbooks a bit wider....

follow up - the coach told us that there are no sports on the chopping block, but that budgets for the "Olympic" sports have already been tightened by up to 50% (a lot of which is in reduced travel costs b/c of the move back to the Big East, and some by charging all scholarships at the in-state rate), and that is still ongoing. Title IX is a huge issue. It was also noted that for some of the Olympic sports that have limited scholarship (mostly men's), the programs actually "profit," in that if the costs of attendance for the non-scholarship athletes are considered revenue, they do not "lose" money. Specifically told we were not being asked to open our checkbooks at this time (that may come down the road), but to brainstorm ways to raise money, and reach out to others (former teammates) and get non-donors to start contributing

 

[upstater]

dropping down from fbs to fcs significantly reduces the expenses associated with running a football program. there's 23 fewer scholarships available, the coaching salaries are greatly reduced, and on and on... just look it up. edsall's salary would be the first thing off the books.

I don't know how they cook up those ingredients, but whatever happens in the move to D1, the costs skyrocket, and then no one can point out why. My school's AD budget tripled overnight when football went d1 20 years ago. Nothing else changed for them.

 

[Fatroony5]

not this year, and maybe not next year or the year after, but one can hope cooler heads will eventually prevail

Cut basketball. Hurley earns 3 times what Edsall does. You got your wish. We are in the Big East. We get to play Seton Hall and St Johns and you get to have wet dreams about Madison Square Garden. You are right. The Big East doesn’t care about UConn football or hockey. But they don’t much care about women’s tennis either. Truly they don’t. If everyone dropped women’s tennis Val Ackerman wouldn’t lose 10 seconds sleep. If every school dropped women’s basketball she’d be worried about one thing. Would there be a title IX issue with men’s basketball. That is all.

you know in some ways it is in UConn hockey’s best interest to not get too successful. If they are the hoops Fans will work really hard to undermine them. If we ever got an invite to a real P5 conference the hoopsters would whine that we have to play Ohio State and Michigan and miss out on Creighton and DePaul. It is totally weird how small time UConn fans are in their world views. They see UConn as a modest regional school like St Johns or Providence when it is a major national university. Sad really

What? UConn fans would welcome a P5 invite but that ship has sailed. I don’t get why people are still clinging to that pipe dream. I mean yes it could happen, but it’s even more likely the conferences eventually break away from the NCAA. That seems to be the more likely scenario.

the football team is bleeding money, there’s no way to sugar coat that. It’s one thing if they’re consistently winning and losing money as a state university, you can justify that cost as a form of entertainment, branding for the state, whatever you wanna label it. That would bring a certain value and is worth the cost. But they’re not, they’re bleeding money and they’re losing a ton of games and are not currently competitive. In the past decade they went 30-79 and are 6-30 under Edsall 2.0. They can’t currently justify the costs, it’s brutal, call it what it is. So they either need to get to a place of justifying their budget losses (more winning) or break even budget wise while being terrible. No ones saying they’re actually gonna cut football, but if we’re having this same convo in 4 years as an independent and noP5 deal is imminent, thenyeah, they’ll be revisiting the program.