(Revised this morning after a closer look at the numbers)
I wish I had time to pore over this stuff in detail, but here are a couple quick thoughts:
From W&M's 9/3 "Open Letter to the William & Mary Community":
Quote:"William & Mary Athletics has calculated the annual budget to support these seven sports at a nationally competitive varsity level would be $5.84 million annually. The endowment immediately needed to fund these programs at this level would be approximately $150 million. That sum would endow only annual operating costs ...."
Similarly, from the Athletic Department's 9/3 FAQ document:
Quote:"In order to retain these seven programs and support them in a manner that will allow them, along with all 16 of our remaining programs to compete at the highest level possible, an endowment of at least $150 million would be necessary."
Note a couple things here:
1) They don't say "support them in the manner in which they have competed in the past." They say "support them in a manner that will allow them ... to compete at the
highest level possible." In other words, if it can't be done like UNC would do it in terms of full scholarship support, etc., then it's not worth doing at all. (We saw similar thinking on the capital improvements/facilities side -- "if we can't have a new natatorium, what's the point of having a swim team?"). Basically, they set an excessive goal, then after minimal effort failed to meet it, and cut the teams.
2) These are on top of the basic assumption that "In order to [be] retain[ed]," the operations of these seven sports -- unlike any of the other 16 -- would have to be fully funded by income spun off from endowments.
Maybe it's in there somewhere, but it would be interesting to see the actual operating budgets for the seven sports in recent years, for comparison to the "gold plated" versions on which the endowment total seems to have been calculated. Perhaps there's a clue in the fact that the Athletics Department projected $5.84 million per year as the cost to keep the sports, but projects only $3.66 million per year in savings by cutting them. Anyway, I can pretty much guarantee the number required to fund them (with modest improvements over current levels rather than "highest level possible" support) wouldn't be $150 million even if an "all dollars must be from endowments" model is used.
