(02-04-2017 11:38 AM)Sultan of Euphonistan Wrote:  

(02-03-2017 09:14 AM)The Cutter of Bish Wrote:  

(02-02-2017 10:57 PM)billybobby777 Wrote:  UTEP: I've heard some very startling reports there about the state of their program. Some cites listed their recruiting as LAST in the country yesterday. Even its Basketball was rated behind 335 programs in RPI. Fan support (which used to be great) has eroded. No solutions on how to pay to fire Tim Floyd and Sean Kuglar. UTSA, Texas St and North Texas moving up has destroyed their former recruiting grounds. Sun Bowl and facilities are in need of major repairs. No rivals left to play in CUSA. May need of a MWC invite where their historic rivals reside to survive this.

They complain that they weren't asked to join MWC. They work feverishly to get back there. When they were finally approached, they rebuffed, considering the CUSA an equal. They come forward again, with Rice, and are turned away.

I don't know if shuttering is in their future, but that's a rocky path they've taken...and this information doesn't help frame them any better.

Quote:I'm not seeing how Kent State drops it. Kent State is close to fully endowing all of their athletic scholarships, and has 10K enrollment in their 7 regional branch campuses on top of their 30K at the main campus, so it doesn't seem like it is going to be "force to" drop it if it doesn't want to, and without a compelling BBall conference upgrade on offer, it doesn't seem like it will want to.

That's a good funding strategy. To me, in some of these states, the mission and funding structure for some of these schools are likely to be hit pretty hard over the upcoming years. For schools with deeper pockets and sturdy funding lines, operations will continue as normal, but those others...maybe not so great. It's good to hear about Kent State. I knew folks at BG...it wasn't so great out there.

Yea I don't think that is a common thing people know about Kent and how they are fully endowing scholarships as a priority. It makes you wonder if other universities have other strategies that are not well known or talked about but exist and can be a method to help a university keep their athletic dept healthy.

Prior to starting the football program in 2007, ODU was required to have a football endowment fund of $8 million dollars. Through shrewd investments and continuing fund raising that fund has now grown to $28 million. It provides the team $1.4 million a year. And hopefully, one day, probably when I am gone, will provide the total operating cost of the program.