(04-18-2017 01:15 PM)LatahCounty Wrote: After spending months telling everyone there was no plan to cut down Idaho's athletic department, Chuck Staben was forced to finally acknowledge the obvious today -- moving to FCS is costing us enough money to hurt and cuts will be made, likely including dropping sports. From a letter today:
We will ask the SBOE this week to lift this funding restriction for one year and allow us to use money from our own savings account to balance the athletics budget. This money does not come from academic reserves; it comes from central institutional reserves. But providing additional support alone is not enough. Changes need to be made inside the athletics program to ensure a strong future that is beneficial to our students, student-athletes, staff, faculty and our university.
Accordingly, every line item in the athletics budget is being reviewed. Many potential scenarios have been developed; all including a combination of cost-cutting measures ranging from sports that we sponsor, to scholarships, to administrative and other program costs. The right combination of changes has not been determined and creating a financial strategy is in the early stages. With this SBOE waiver, UI will have time to thoughtfully review each scenario and create an athletics program that complements our prestige and relevance as a leading research university.
Chuck, you filthy liar. Go away and ruin somebody else's school.
The ISBOE agenda for the meeting in Moscow this week is published. In the proposal from UI, the projected losses in the Athletic Department are itemized. They include:
-$525,000.00 in guarantees for away games (this should have been known)
-$350,00.00 in Athletic Department donations (the admission that this is due to the drop to FCS is in the request)
- ? in Student Fee revenue (Staben reported an increase in enrollment at UI for the 2016-2017 academic year but it turns out he counted HS students taking on-line classes or receiving credit through UI for AP type classes as new students. These students of course are not on campus and do not pay fees. UI had a decline in FT degree seeking students for 2016-2017 and has had a decline every year from 2012. UI projects a loss of $528,00.00 from the high of 2012 but strangely has not projected the loss for this year versus last year (which should be a known amount by now).
It appears Staben was not correct about:
1) UI would not have any AD donation loss due to the move down (admit to -$350,00.00 so far);
2) UI would not experience a reduction in the AD (there is no other way to balance the books than to drop sports and/or cut positions and salaries in the AD);
3) UI had a significant enrollment increase (actually decreased enrollment for degree seeking students), and
4) UI could not be competitive in FBS football (bowl win in 2016 and another bowl highly likely in 2017).
Anything I miss?