(05-13-2015 02:01 AM)WKUYG Wrote: (05-12-2015 10:01 PM)arkstfan Wrote: Here is my concern when it comes to student fees.
We are moving into a phase where competition for students is going to become more fierce.
Total college enrollment is expected to fall over the next decade and right now the political trend is that funding for higher ed is easy to cut with little political fallout.
So schools will be competing for fewer students while many schools will likely increase how many students they admit in order to gain tuition and fee income.
If a school is highly dependent on university and student income for athletics they could be in dire financial straits if they lose enrollment or if operating costs increase and those costs cannot be met from the university and student sources.
Western's enroll has started to drop after steady increases over the last 5+ years. State money has continue to drop...
8 million in less funds from both had to be cut from this years budget. I believe it played a role in the dropping of the swim/diving teams...along with the other factors. But by dropping 3 sports it saves $910,000 a year. I believe Western's cost of attendance is going to be $950,000 a year. I think we will see more schools dropping a few sports and bylaws changed in the number you must have...if the flat enrollment numbers continue
I expect some FBS to drop down to the 16 sport minimum but most FBS schools are higher profile and likely to be enrollment winners (I suspect enrollment is a big reason EKU wants FBS). An FBS can kick the can down the road playing an extra game for a million bucks.
Division I as a whole already has a large number of schools who do not award all their allowed scholarships (in FBS you've no choice you must offer 200) and are at the Division I minimum of 14 sports and awarding half the permitted aid. Those schools just don't have the room to trim their budget.
Last time we had a downward enrollment trend we not only saw schools drop football but drop athletics. We saw schools close and schools get merged.
Here in Arkansas we saw private Little Rock University go into the UA system. Arkansas AM&N got swallowed by UA to become UAPB, and Arkansas A&M got absorbed as Arkansas-Monticello. That all happened in less than three years as those schools all nearly went under.
Some smaller enrollment schools will fold, not far from either of our schools, Lambuth went from being a small private to a campus of the University of Memphis.
AState has absorbed four jucos in the past few years (counting Mid-South Community College effective July 1).
It will be like the bank panic in "It's A Wonderful Life". Schools in good financial shape are going to be buying and gaining market share.
I know WKU has dropped two sports (the swim/dive thing may not be permanent), UALR has dropped women's tennis and the oddball is Texas-Arlington adding a sport. There is nothing wrong with giving yourself wiggle room on the budget or choosing to allocate money in a way that will give you a greater return.
First thing our AD did was toss the facility plan Malzahn and the prior AD had drawn up because it did not include any revenue producing.
As for budgets, there is no way to compare apples and oranges. Every state has different reporting methods. I asked our former governor how AState was going to hit $20 million in budget so fast and his answer was 1. they are raising more money than ever. 2. they are now reporting booster club expenditures for athletics in the budget. Stroke of a pen and several million appears that was already there, but our past president never wanted it there, he wanted the athletic budget to look very small.
Subsidy is as useful of a measure as is readily available simply because it gives you some idea of how much an athletic department relies on the school and students to fund the choices they make. In two or three years when the USA Today numbers for the upcoming year emerge WKU's subsidy level will likely be quite a bit lower simply because WKU is making different choices, AState's will drop because AState is changing its accounting practices to be in line with the majority of schools. Without specific knowledge you cannot discern that from the raw percentage but both will look healthier financially and less reliant on the school.
