Conference USA is pinched any way you cut it

[smupony94]

Conference USA is pinched any way you cut it

10:22 PM CDT on Tuesday, June 2, 2009

By KATE HAIROPOULOS / The Dallas Morning News
[email protected]

Even the beachside Destin, Fla., setting couldn't camouflage what Conference USA athletic directors, administrators and football and basketball coaches faced at their recent spring meetings.

This much was clear: "The atmosphere down there from the whole group was that we've got to do something," SMU athletic director Steve Orsini said.

Earlier, all 12 C-USA schools had been told to make athletic budget cuts, totaling more than $10 million. Now the Irving-based conference was prepared to help the schools identify cuts at the league level expected to save at least another half-million dollars.

College athletics aren't immune to today's brutal economics, and schools are already feeling or predicting pain from loss of state funding, lower return on endowments and a decrease in alumni giving, corporate spending and licensing revenues.

While some schools in power conferences are also feeling crunched, C-USA schools' budgets are already inherently smaller than the big guys'. They spend annually less than one-third of what powerhouses such as Texas or Ohio State do.

At SMU, as part of institution-wide pullbacks, 10 positions were cut in athletics, leaving a staff of 120. A cap was placed on the number of athletes enrolled in summer school. No C-USA schools cut teams, which has been the answer elsewhere.

As a league, C-USA's cuts – some of the most significant in college sports to date, commissioner Britton Banowsky said – focused on altering conference schedules to reduce travel. That's one of the biggest ways it can help its schools, which stretch from Greenville, N.C., to El Paso. The league also reduced the number of teams that will qualify for postseason tournaments and the size of team travel squads, including football from 70 to 66.

C-USA's presidents and chancellors approved the recommendations from the Destin meetings after convening Monday in Dallas.

"We initiated a process in January when we saw what the economy was doing, and we saw the pain our universities were experiencing," Banowsky said last week. "We wanted to try to make a difference."

Losses abound

Still, a league can do only so much. The heftiest costs to an athletic department are on campus, from coaches' salaries, staff and scholarships. Most departments nationally already lose money; only six schools had positive net revenues each of the last five years, and the estimated average loss in Division I-A ballooned from $4.1 million in 2004 to $5.7 million in 2007.

C-USA schools already operate in a different financial class than those making huge money from mega TV contracts and the Bowl Championship Series. For example, the Big 12 and Southeastern Conference recently announced shared revenues of $130 million each. C-USA expects its total to be about $40 million.

"Our universities are challenged; they have to work harder to stay competitive," Banowsky said. "If you really compare how well some of them do, it's remarkable."

The sticking point in all of C-USA's cutbacks was not relinquishing competitive advantage. For example, the league didn't want scheduling changes in basketball and volleyball to harm Rating Percentage Indexes. Football coaches voiced concern travel limits would be used against them in recruiting.

"We are competitive by nature, and so our minds aren't wired to unilaterally disarm," Banowsky said.

"There's a lot of rhetoric right now [nationally] about the need to contain costs, but when you peel back, what you find are some very modest efforts coupled with a national discussion."

To wit, the Pacific-10 is expected to lead the way in supporting cost-containment measures that the NCAA would implement on a nationwide level, as to avoid competitive disadvantage. The Big 12 has voiced support for some national moves.

Measures discussed include cutting off-season foreign tours and regional track championships, eliminating nontraditional seasons – such as baseball in the fall – and prohibiting home football teams staying in hotels the night before a game.

"There's some things that have grown up over time that are unnecessary but that cost money," said Dr. R. Gerald Turner, SMU president and co-chair of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics.

Warning signs

The Knight Commission has warned that college athletics' current model – spending is increasing much faster than revenues – soon won't be able to support itself, recession or not. But it's the economy that may force hesitant departments to pay more than lip service to cuts.

"There's the old saying, necessity is the mother of invention," Turner said. "The necessity of cutting back is being felt throughout all universities of all sizes."

For the foreseeable future, at least.

"I don't have a crystal ball, but what I'm seeing is a two-, potentially three-year pullback in a lot of areas," said Clayton Hamilton, president of the College Athletic Business Management Association. "Some of it may be by necessity and some just preparing. I do see things turning around."

At SMU, Orsini said he had already trimmed, including in nonconference scheduling. C-USA's moves helped him in areas that he previously couldn't control.

Despite the staff reductions, Orsini said he feels SMU is in line with the rest of C-USA and has an adequate staff.

SMU is in the midst of a five-year plan to reduce the amount the university subsidizes the athletic department.

"With corporate spending and marketing decreasing," Turner said "it just makes for a very difficult time."

WHAT OTHER LEAGUES ARE DOING

ACC: Football travel teams will be limited to 72 players for conference road games; the 2010 baseball tournament will be held in Greensboro, N.C., instead of Boston's Fenway Park; coaches want the league to lobby for an early signing period in football, reducing the work of retaining already committed recruits until they sign national letters of intent.

Big Ten: Gifts for athletes at the league basketball tournament and other events will be eliminated.

Big 12: The conference supports national legislation on some cost-containment measures, such as eliminating regional track and field championships, nontraditional playing seasons and foreign travel.

Mountain West: The budget for the conference office and operations was reduced, corresponding to actions on its schools campuses; basketball media days were slimmed down; officiating fees were frozen in all sports

Pac-10: The conference is considering tightening travel team limits and eliminating gifts at conference tournaments and banquets; it may lead national legislation on several fronts

Across the board: Most leagues are advocating videoconferencing instead of in-person meetings and reducing the number of printed media guides.

Sources: USA Today, wire reports, DMN research

C-USA'S COST-CUTTING MEASURES

• Reduced size of team travel parties in several sports, including football (66)

• Modified regular-season scheduling to reduce days on the road for baseball and women's soccer. Still under discussion is going to divisional play in men's and women's basketball for the 2010-11 seasons. Increasing the number of games to 18 from 16 would allow for fewer consecutive games on the road.

• Reduced number of teams participating in postseason championships: women's soccer (6), baseball (6), men's soccer (4), softball (8), volleyball (8). The volleyball championships could be eliminated for the 2010 season.

• Combined the 2010 men's and women's basketball tournaments during March 10-13 at the BOK Center and Reynolds Center in Tulsa.

• Planned a minimum 4 percent reduction in the conference operating budget, including a hiring freeze.

[Insane_Pony_Posse]

Hey it's like clockwork.....SMU gets lots of DMN ink if it's something negative!

Wow big front page of the Sports Section of the soon to be dinosaur Dallas Morning News wanting to place some doubt in a recruits heads about SMU's conference & athletic departmant financial stability.

But we all know if the news would have been positive out of the CUSA meetings
then...yeah sure....the Dallas Morning News would have been just as generous with space.

Thanks Kate!

[smupony94]

This is not a super secret issue that nobody knows about especially schools we compete against for recruits.

[BUS]

It did have cutbacks from other BIG conferences listed.

[Insane_Pony_Posse]

Nobody said it's a secret....but say you are correct... if everybody knows it then why run a big front page story?????...But anyway it's just another "piece of the puzzle" for the Dallas Morning News....another way to create maybe some doubt in a kid's head that may be weighing SMU/CUSA against other schools like Oklahoma State, Vandy, Kansas, Kansas State, Missouri, Texas Tech, ect who we now compete with for some recruits. Just like the big deal they made about June running off a few players and they know many other schools do the same thing. Any chance to take a shot. They do not want us to win. It's ok...when June Jones is winning it will make it all the sweeter!....We'll be on the way up and the Dallas Morning Dinosaurs News will be closer to extinction! SMU will be around long after they collapse!

[bagice]

I enjoyed the article and am glad to see that steps are being taken at the conference level to save money.

hopefully with Calipari gone, our conference commish and mates will have the stones to force Memphis into an 18 game conference schedule and hopefully divisions. Will greatly reduce in travel and give us more games against the people we are used to playing.

[Mexmustang]

CUSA would not be responsible to ignore the current economic situation. Alot of bigger conferences face the same problems. I wonder about the Big East's financial condition...but then again, with Memphis' current basketball problems maybe the Big East is better run than we thought...in leaving them out of the conference althogether.

[Stallion]

They did two smaller articles concerning the exact same issue with regard to the Big 12 in recent weeks and this article discussed the economy's effect on all conferences too. If you don't think it is even more noteworthy and an issue of concern to a conference like CUSA then you are blind. Further, there has been no situation on a comparable scale to June Jones' involuntary forced dismissal of what was it 8-10 players. If UT or A&M had done the exact same thing in the exact same matter it would have been an even bigger story-you have problems putting distinguishing facts in perspective-do you listen to FOX News?

[EastStang]

While I listen to Fox News, (who wants to listen to MSNBC), anyway, I thought the article was balanced and pointed out the inequities in the BCS money system. The Big 12 gets over a $130 Million vs. $40 Million for CUSA (and that includes Memphis' NCAA credits which may now get forfeited). Thus Baylor gets $10 Million and we get $3.3 Million. Big difference there. But clearly the Big 12 and SEC are going to get larger TV contracts than CUSA. I think the BE is okay on money for two reasons. New York, Philly, DC, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Cincy markets and basketball. They have a $30 Million per year basketball contract plus NCAA tourney credits, plus splitting the BCS take. Now they have 16 mouths to feed in basketball, but still they're doing okay. Clearly belt tightening is on the way. There have been quite a few rumblings out of Greenville, NC that the conference needs more eastern time zone schools. I also wonder how the MWC is doing?

[PonySnob]

How can the conference tell a football team that when it is playing a home game, its players cannot stay in a hotel the night before the game in an effort to save money? Isn't that something that each school should decide for itself?

[jtstang]

Clearly the Morning News is the number one reason we have been so pathetic for the last twenty years. Can't you people see that???

[smupony94]

Clearly the Morning News is the number one reason we have been so pathetic for the last twenty years. Can't you people see that???

Hope is free