Northern Iowa Athletics Take Budget Hit

[superman7515]

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20120223/SPORTS0207/120223028/?odyssey=nav%7Chead


As expected, the University of Northern Iowa announced the latest round of budget cuts today, and Panther athletic teams will feel the effects.

Though no sports will be cut or de-emphasized, unlike 2009 when baseball was eliminated, athletic director Troy Dannen said today he is charged with the task of slicing $500,000 in general education fund money from his budget over the next three years.

When Dannen was hired in 2008, the athletic department received $5.5 million from the general fund. With this cut, the allocation dips to $3.8 million....

[Professor Chaos]

I'm sure they've seen this coming for a while which is why their football team has started scheduling 2 FBS games every year. I'm guessing they'll get at least 800K out of their two matchups this year against Iowa and Wisconsin.

[clenz]

950ki believe.



Also not 2 every year

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[F350KINGRANCH]

it is a crying shame that you guys have to whore yourselves out to balance youre budget with fbs games, it really hurts when playoff seeding comes around. i am not trying to come off as an *** either, i think it puts the montanas ndsu app georgia southerns at a real advantage

[Bill]

it is a crying shame that you guys have to whore yourselves out to balance youre budget with fbs games, it really hurts when playoff seeding comes around. i am not trying to come off as an *** either, i think it puts the montanas ndsu app georgia southerns at a real advantage

UNI budget cuts do suck, but isn't comparing playing BCS schools to "whoring out" a stretch? I think Georgia Southern, one of the schools you put at an advantage over UNI, played a BCS school this year for a nice payday...against the eventual national champ?

[clenz]

UNI budget cuts do suck, but isn't comparing playing BCS schools to "whoring out" a stretch? I think Georgia Southern, one of the schools you put at an advantage over UNI, played a BCS school this year for a nice payday...against the eventual national champ?

We've got two on the schedule for this year, and our AD has said that 2 games will continue...maybe not every year but every other or every 3rd

[F350KINGRANCH]

i understand one fbs game for everyone but not two

[Bill]

i understand one fbs game for everyone but not two

Fair enough ! (although that money is awfully tempting:)

[F350KINGRANCH]

you are missing my point it hurts for seeding in playoffs, is the ultimate goal money or national championships? that is why ndsu says no to ok, neb, florida we already have one fbs game, we want a fcs counter at home for seeding. that is why i think budget shortfalls hurt teams badly. however a lot of this could be avoided if uni could get their fans to sell out their playoff games at home.

[MplsBison]

King Ranch - the NCAA takes the money from playoff homes games. UNI would probably only make enough money to offset costs.

No doubt they'll make more money playing Wisco and Iowa than they would have if those were home games, as well.


When you're not a flagship public school in your state, you get 2nd priority. It's all they can do.

[F350KINGRANCH]

if youre wisdom is going to chime in on my thoughts i retract all above statements. ndsu did not benefit financially by hosting their playoff games?

[MplsBison]

if youre wisdom is going to chime in on my thoughts i retract all above statements. ndsu did not benefit financially by hosting their playoff games?

They probably made a little bit, but not like a regular season game. You have to give the NCAA a minimum amount of money to host the game, no matter how much money you take in (ie, your "bid") PLUS the NCAA also takes a percentage of the revenue period.

So for example if NDSU brought in $350k for the game vs. Geogia Southern, then the NCAA takes X% percent of that period. If NDSU had failed to bring in enough revenue if to meet the minimum, they would've still had to pay the NCAA that amount. That's why you have to be careful on your bids if you're one of these little teacher's colleges playing DI football.

[ursus arctos horribilis]

if youre wisdom is going to chime in on my thoughts i retract all above statements. ndsu did not benefit financially by hosting their playoff games?

Playoff games are not money makers. The NCAA takes the ticket sales. The universities can keep the money for concessions and so forth.

For instance UM sent the NCAA 1.5 million for the three home games in 2009 I think it was.

I don't think Montana gets as much funding from the state general fund as UNI is now down to but I'm not positive. The budget shortages can be laid squarely at the feet of the fans for not paying the tab during the regular season home games.

NC's are important to a school but the survival of the athletic department is more important cuz it stands to reason you wouldn't even have the opportunity without it.

[GlassOnion]

it is a crying shame that you guys have to whore yourselves out to balance youre budget with fbs games, it really hurts when playoff seeding comes around. i am not trying to come off as an *** either, i think it puts the montanas ndsu app georgia southerns at a real advantage

Cry me a river. No UNC system team recieves money from the general assembly for athletics, so youre still $3.8 million ahead of us.

[Wildcat80]

Yep...UNH knows all about budget cuts too.

[ursus arctos horribilis]

Yep...UNH knows all about budget cuts too.

True, I think the vast majority of states have experienced some of this. Not sure in UNI's situation is more dramatic than most or not.

[WestCoastAggie]

Cry me a river. No UNC system team recieves money from the general assembly for athletics, so youre still $3.8 million ahead of us.

We have to charge students athletic fees and do other things to generate our athletic budget at A&T.

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[clenz]

True, I think the vast majority of states have experienced some of this. Not sure in UNI's situation is more dramatic than most or not.

I'll have to find the article but UNI is now getting less money from the state of Iowa than we were in the 1997-1998 FY.

It's probably not much worse, if at all, than many other places....however, UNI is an easy target for "budget issues" due to the massive amount of success in every sport (despite the lack of funding) but lack of national titles in FCS football.

[MplsBison]

And the fact that they're not one of the two main universities in the state of Iowa.

[BisonHype!]

That sux, but I think UNI will still have a solid program going forward. This won't affect their brand as much as some think.

[clenz]

That sux, but I think UNI will still have a solid program going forward. This won't affect their brand as much as some think.

The only impact it has will be if the team flys to some boarderline flying distance ir buses....it will changehow womens sports operates more than anything

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[darell1976]

The only impact it has will be if the team flys to some boarderline flying distance ir buses....it will changehow womens sports operates more than anything

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Is it just UNI feeling the crunch or all colleges in Iowa like U of Iowa and Iowa State?

[BisonHype!]

We shouldn't go as far as to say that Iowa or Iowa State is just financially crippled.....

[darell1976]

We shouldn't go as far as to say that Iowa or Iowa State is just financially crippled.....

Their teams are crippled with or without money.xlolx

[clenz]

They are getting cuts as wl, but not nearly as mucg. the cuts are coming because the state is cutting "genersl fund"money to athletics...that doesn't master as much to iowa, 20 mil + a year from the big 10 .etwork alone, or isu who gets 20 mil or so from the b12 each year.

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[clenz]

They are getting cuts as wl, but not nearly as mucg. the cuts are coming because the state is cutting "genersl fund"money to athletics...that doesn't master as much to iowa, 20 mil + a year from the big 10 .etwork alone, or isu who gets 20 mil or so from the b12 each year.

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To expand, while not on my phone.


All Big 10 schools recieve receive roughly $9-10 million each from the conference's deal with ABC/ESPN and another $7-9 million from the BTN. Add revenue from bowl games, the NCAA basketball tournament and licensing, and it's esitmated Iowa gets about 22 million dollars a year from all of that. Due to this Iowa is able to do whatever they want with zero money from anywhere in the state. Any cuts only happen on the academic side of things. (FWIW, UNI's athletic budget is about 15-16 million dollars a year...the TV deals they get are more than UNI's budget.)

The issue with UNI (and use to be with ISU) is that the revenue generated from everything (tv, NCAA, licensing, etc...) didn't completely cover the expense of running the athletic department. Last summer (maybe it was the summer before that this point) the Iowa BOR told both ISU and UNI that they must use only a quarter (or so) of what they were at that point over the next 5 years. For ISU that wasn't going to be a huge issue....then the B12 fell apart. However, when the B12 sold their sole to the University of Texas each B12 school started getting about 18-20 million dollars a year extra compared to what they were in TV deals and what not.


That left poor old UNI to figure it out on our own. At that point UNI was using about 6 million dollars from the states "general fund" to cover athletic costs. UNI set a 5 year plan to get to the proposed budget...however, recently the state cut even more from UNI and told them to operate on even less. In other words the it's like they took where UNI should be in year 5 and are making us get there in year 2.5.....if I'm following this all correctly.

UNI currently is at about 4 million dollars from the general fund, set to be cut to about 2.7 million next year.


There was an interesting proposal brought up on PantherNation (and has been mentioned as a goal by the athletic director) to get the university to wait the cost of tuition for scholarship athletes, rather than making the athletic department send a check covering the tuition. There are some schools that do it. Basically what that amounts to is...4 million dollars - I.E. the money UNI is using from the state.


There would have to be some accounting "fun" but what was proposed is that the university writes off tuition as "advertising" that the athletes give to UNI the budget is balanced.....


That is the ultimate goal, but steps have to be taken to get there...

[MplsBison]

Tuition waivers are used quite a bit in attracting talented graduate students, who are needed for good research.

At a public school with many thousand enrolled, I don't see any issue with the school just letting the players attend class for free or a very reduced cost.

[clenz]

Tuition waivers are used quite a bit in attracting talented graduate students, who are needed for good research.

At a public school with many thousand enrolled, I don't see any issue with the school just letting the players attend class for free or a very reduced cost.
The issue with UNI doing it now is that the university is seeing cuts elsewhere as well....not a good time to waive 4 million dollars in tuition.....

[MplsBison]

The issue with UNI doing it now is that the university is seeing cuts elsewhere as well....not a good time to waive 4 million dollars in tuition.....

The state is just saying "spend less". They're not making demands on how much revenue is collected. Is there any state law or requirement that the university collect enough revenue to balance the budget?

Otherwise, I would think UNI enrolls enough thousands of students that an athletic department with a couple hundred kids is peanuts in comparison. IE, just enroll a couple hundred extra kids over the next couple years to make up the difference. Shouldn't be huge overhead for the school. Add a couple seats to each classroom.