YOu know, I like to talk a lot smack. Not afraid to admit it. I try to be able to back it up, when I can.
One thing I can not do, is try to make some kind of numbers argument like gets thrown around here, without references. Unless somebody around here has actually access to the books at UCONN, these numbers are meaningless without some kind of reference.
With regard to the issue of stipends, it's pretty clear, that issuing stipends, in whatever form - will involve another line item on the "expense" side of a budget. Adding such an expense, by necessity, requires finding a source on the other side called "income".
The bottom line, is that the university has every outward appearance of growth, there is a dangerous kind of bubble, because tuition for students has skyrocketed, and that's an issue that has incredibly significant both short term and long term affects, but that's a different story - we're talking about adding a line item to the athletic deaprtemnt budget.
All this talk about where money comes from, on the "income" side, and where it si going on the "expense" side? It's really meaningless unless you can reference it.
I don't need to reference the following though, because it is common knowledge fact - the only thing missing that I'll write is the actually numbers because I don't feel like researching the existing BIg East contract and the terms of the new AAC contract. SUffice to say, that it is significantly less we'll be getting in television revenue by more than a million, and less than 10 million on the "income" side of the budget, and we have money coming in from "exit fees" for a number of years.
The athletic department, has taken a significant hit in television broadcasting revenue for sports, with the new contract. Now - the story is that the money incoming from conference exit fees will balance that out for the duration of the next contract - which means that if we aren't being completely snowed by the information out there, the university of Connecticut athletic department, if so desired, will be able to continue to operate for the immediate future with essentially the same income/expense budget that they've had for the recent past without a hiccup. That's what the story is. Now - if you add stipends? you need to find an additional source of income, from somewhere.
The university athletic department budget will change in the future, of course, when the exit fee money stream dries up. There needs to be a plan in place for that, when it happens, because it's not an IF - it's a when. You'd hope that such things have been long discussed already, and strategies are in place, working with the assumption that if we're going to be in this athletic conference, our next televsision revenue contract in several years will not be much different than we have now, so either things will need to be cut, or additional revenue sources need to be found to offset the loss.
IF for whatever reason we hit the jackpot that Rutgers and Maryland got, things would be great, and stipends wouldn't be an issue at all, because we are no where near as in dire straits financially that both Maryland and Rutgers were, and there is no reason to think that we will ever get there - unless management is a complete clusterduck and sends our athletic budgets and by extension the overall university budget into budget hell.
The key factor in it all - is the tuition and fees though for all students. It's a risky thing that has been done for the future, by jacking up tuition and fees as much as it has been recently. If the student body numbers and quality of student starts going in the wrong directions, that is a problem that will affect everything.
The real difference moving forward, is the change in the television contract revenue for the athletic department.
