First I apologize for not being techno savvy enough to download the article but I read it this morning on line and I don’t subscribe to it so I’m sure you can go online find it and read it. To summarize he said right now he expects a regular season BUT is preparing for all possibilities ranging from a full season to no non conference games to no season at all. He does talk about the economic factors involved to NIU and the local businesses. Like I said I apologize but I’m sure most of you can find it and get to read it.

Here is part one:

The following is the first in a three-part series of interviews with NIU athletic director about how the school and department are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. This entry focuses on the financial situation of the school and department.

Frazier: Past hardships have 'lean' NIU prepped for potential economic downturn
When NIU athletic director Sean Frazier talks about potential financial hardships his department or the university as a whole may face due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he uses an old football cliche about how a tough early schedule strengthens a team for when games count more later.
Given the lean years in the middle of the past decade during which the school operated without a budget, Frazier said the department, and the school as a whole, is ready to face additional financial hardships on the horizon due to the pandemic. The school already lost around $500,000 from the cancellation of the MAC men's basketball tournament, he said.
"I see a great sense of leadership starting with our president, Lisa Freeman, and pride that we've gone through a lot of these things," Frazier said. "Not to say everything is the same, right? But it's like a tough nonconference schedule. If you have a tough nonconference schedule, it really prepares you for the rest of the conference."
He said he immediately thought of the 2018 football season, in which the Huskies lost games to Power 5 schools Boston College, Iowa and Utah before surging in conference play and winning the MAC Championship game.
"You saw that it 2018 when we had a really audacious, audacious schedule," Frazier said. "Then we kind of ran through the MAC. I have to liken it to that because I've seen so many stepping up dealing with these things. Not that it's a major issue, but that they were prepared to do so."
Frazier said there have already been financial hardships. In addition to the MAC tournament, the NCAA's decision to extend eligibility to current seniors who play a spring sport and had their season canceled also could cost the school about $500,000 he said. He added that number is in a state of flux dependent on a couple of things, mostly how many seniors decide to take that extra year.
There's also going to be money lost from rentals of school facilities potentially.
"But we've also seen a spike in overall generosity, overall support of our donor base that continues to make sure they keep NIU as a priority," Frazier said. "I like where we are right now, this day, this second (Wednesday morning). I know we're going to have a lot more challenges not just financially but from overall operations."
Frazier said most of the cuts made a few years ago are still in effect, so he doesn't anticipate more cuts coming. Although he did not completely rule them out.
"That right there tells the story," Frazier said. "We're at a point where we've made a significant amount of preparatory plans around how we do our operations. We did a thing called program prioritization, which looked at all of our programs. We took a look at our essential staff and how to do operations. Because of all that preparedness, all that stuff we've done, we're at a point where we're lean but from an operational standpoint putting our best foot forward."
He said no one is flinching and feels the school has a "this too shall pass" mentality from the top down.
"All the doom and gloom pieces are real at a national level," Frazier said. "But because we've done our homework to get to this point, we have a lot better pathway and fewer questions about what needs to happen as we move forward."

Here is part two:

The following is the second in a three-part series of interviews with NIU athletic director about how the school and department are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. This entry focuses on the financial situation of the school and department.

Frazier expecting a college football season but preparing for every scenario
Spring sports aren't happening for the NCAA.
And while Sean Frazier said he doesn't know what to expect for the football season, the NIU athletic director said he's hoping for the best while preparing the worst – the worst being the total cancellation of the 2020 college football season due to the coronavirus pandemic.
"We are expecting a football season. But we are modeling for everything in between," Frazier said. "Worst-case scenario, no season. Are we modeling financial expectations and impacts? Absolutely. We've gone from modeling no football season to a delay, postponement and everything in between."
Frazier stressed that everything is hypothetical at this point. The NCAA has not made plans any further than the cancellation of its spring seasons.
He said that the department has been running through different scenarios of what may happen in the fall. He said it ranges from a full cancellation, to business as usual, to cancellation of non-conference games. They've been working with the conference and supporters to see scenarios for the fall.
"There's no substitute for daily preparation," Frazier said. "For me to not prepare for the worst, is first of all not like us. But secondly, we have to make sure because we don't know. The COVID-19 scare is not a scare. It's real. People are dying. We have to pay attention to this stuff. And now experts are talking about a second cycle where we get through it and then all of a sudden it comes back because of the colder winter weather. We have to be thinking about all those different models."
The NIU football season is set to begin on September 5 against Rhode Island at DeKalb. The Huskies then go to Maryland, Eastern Michigan and Iowa to round out the September schedule.
NIU also has a game against BYU slated for October 24 at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview.
Frazier said there was no number available for what would be lost from the cancellation of the football season, but he said the effects would be far-reaching.
"It's not just devastating for us. It would be devastating for college athletics in general," Frazier said. "I'll be bold enough to say that. You take a look at football and what it generates versus what the NCAA basketball tournament generates, I think their number was what, $600 million is what they're projected to lose from not having an NCAA basketball tournament."
He said that number could hit the billions pretty quickly - perhaps even quadruple what the tournament lost just on virtue of what a football game means to different institutions.
"My alma mater Alabama, Wisconsin, Oklahoma. You can do that research to see what one football game means to the revenue of a specific department," Frazier said. "Then multiply that over a 12 or 13 game season. And that's just the games, not the endorsements and the concessions and the TV deals and everything that goes along with that one game alone."
A canceled season would reshape college athletics, he said, not just college football.
"The impact of those numbers would be draconian," Frazier said. "I think taking a look at our operation, you can do the math. We're a $30 million operation and you take a look at football being a major hub for engagement with our alumni, engagement with our donor base. We have a multimedia rights component. We're selling ad sponsorships. The ESPN deal. The tentacles are far-reaching for our football operation."
Frazier said he's looking forward to getting the college football season in, but is just making sure the department and school are prepared for the worst.
Although, he added, the impact would be felt beyond the boundaries of the school[/u]
"As NIU goes, the economic impact for DeKalb-Sycamore is also felt," Frazier said. "I'm pretty sure there's a lot of local vendors I frequent, my favorite restaurants that are around. They will be significantly impacted by those decisions. That's why it's so important we model and are prepared on a daily basis."

Thanks for posting uiniu57- good stuff.

uiniu57 ... could you please copy and paste Part III here when it becomes available? Some of us don't have access and would really appreciate it. Thanks.

(04-06-2020 09:16 AM)pvk75 Wrote:  uiniu57 ... could you please copy and paste Part III here when it becomes available? Some of us don't have access and would really appreciate it. Thanks.

Frazier: Extra eligibility for spring athletes a positive, complex issue

The following is the third in a three-part series of interviews with NIU athletic director about how the school and department are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this entry, Frazier discusses his thoughts on the NCAA granting extra eligibility to spring athletes.

When the NCAA extended reliability for spring sport athletes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sean Frazier said he was glad to hear the news.
But as athletic director of NIU, he immediately started thinking about the far-reaching effects of the decision.
"It's good but it's complex, right?" Frazier said. "The good news is the kids have been devastated by a season-ending scenario, especially with the spring sports, right? They get a chance, they come back. They have an option to come back and it's not going to count against our caps. ... That's the right thing to do."
Frazier said there are 32 NIU seniors affected by the policy. He said it could cost the school an extra half a million dollars depending on how many students decide to extend their undergraduate careers.
"There's a lot of very enterprising young people who have made plans to go to law school, to med school and other life decisions," Frazier said. "We don't have the total number down but we're planning like all 32 are going to come back."
As Frazier moves forward planning budgets in uncertain times – the NCAA has cancelled spring sports but has made no decision about the fall – he said he didn't feel it would have too much of an impact on recruiting. Coaches are currently in a dead period with recruits through May 31.
So even though no program can currently visit recruits or have recruits come to campus, Frazier said the eligibility extension doesn't necessarily alleviate that situation.
"You're always recruiting," Frazier said. "I don't how much that gave flexibility moreso than another dynamic than if you're a coach, to know you're going to have that senior coming back. Now you were recruiting that freshman with the understanding they were going to fill a void or be in the developmental process of filling a void of a senior."
Frazier used a hypothetical example of a winter sport with men's basketball standout Eugene German.
"It's not like we're losing, say Eugene German, and we're going to bring in so and so to replace him," Frazier said. "It's more like so and so is going to be here for a while. So it's more developmental training. You're always putting that in the matrix and saying we've got a great opportunity. That senior is coming back, and we've got the chance for this freshman to do more developmental type of work and play a different type of role."

Much appreciated.