(07-02-2020 11:03 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(07-02-2020 10:54 PM)cubucks Wrote:  

(07-02-2020 10:35 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(07-02-2020 10:26 PM)cubucks Wrote:  

(07-02-2020 02:22 PM)Wedge Wrote:  Iowa cut its athletic budget by $15 million based on the assumption that both football and basketball will complete seasons with fans in attendance.

In other words, they are going to end up cutting their athletic budget by much more than that.

Yes, it's hitting every school out there. Michigan and Iowa have been mentioned from P5 schools, add Oklahoma to the list too. Coronavirus is a game changer in everything we know about athletics. Everything that is successful in any buisness plans for the ebb and flow of markets, forecasted demand, sales forecasts and so on, you know this. They do not plan for a pandemic! Everyday this affects us, is just a larger hurdle to recovery.

What changes will made to keep these big Universities viable? That's why I previously mentioned that current contracts are worth about as much as the paper they are written on. That's my honest opinion to what this thread is about. "Acts of god" (Coronavirus) have a way of overlooking "ink on paper" when Buisness and especially Universities are in distress.

Again, everything I've said is an opinion.

It's going to change far more than anyone realizes yet. It's going to hit small privates and small state school's athletic programs hard and it's going to give the big boys a buzz cut. It's already lowering salaries and that's just the hard first step. If we don't play this Fall, and that is truly up in the air at this point, the changes even among the P5 will be palpable. The issue is that nobody had the foresight to save for such a calamity so any surplus is expended early leaving serious shortages for continued play.

It's going to be a great time to reconsider the large 7 figure salaries and whether we really want pay for play, stipends, etc. and if it might not be wiser to raise entrance standards and return to true student athletes.

And if we do move into a semi-pro kind of world for the top schools I think the ranks of those included will be fewer than first anticipated.

Something to think about anyway.

2020 has been amazing. I use amazing here in a very bad way. I don't even know how to describe it?

Almost apocalyptic. I think the issues may yet open another possibility not listed in the poll. All, most, or part of the P5 merge to form a better bargaining and scheduling entity than 5 conferences. The disruption of revenue, the possible failure to have an actual season (should that occur), and the massive deficits athletic departments will be facing, will put immense pressure on media contracts, GOR's, and current governing structures. The social issues are just an added log on the fire. I'd say that such forces, should they come to bear in fullness upon the existing structure, alignments, business models, and scheduling formats will bring unforeseen alliances, structures, and business arrangements all in an effort to simply survive and overcome the current conditions. Therefore no conference structure is ultimately safe and nothing as we know it today might resemble the future. It's all a big we'll see!

The three major components of a P5 athletic department's revenue are ticket sales, conference distribution (which is 90% media rights), and donations. Together they are somewhere between 80 and 100 percent of every P5 athletic budget. If games are played with no fans, ticket sales go from tens of millions to zero. If there are no games played (because there are too many players and coaches with the virus), the media rights also go from tens of millions to zero. Donations will be a third or less of the normal amount even with nonstop begging for boosters to donate.

Revenue could drop to close to zero while most of the annual department budget still has to be paid.

And good luck leaning on the university administration for help, because their budgets will be hammered just as badly. I'll bet there are universities that have already had lawyers analyzing the legalities of "furloughing" administrators and tenured faculty for a year, or at least cutting their pay by more than half.