UNI, Regents Debate Scholarship Footbal

[Husky Alum]

If this was posted already, I apologize. This is from the Des Moines Register.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20091029/SPORTS020702/910300345/1091/SPORTS02


"Sooner or later, UNI is going to have to address scholarship football," Michael Gartner, told Ben Allen, school president, during a discussion of the school's proposed budget cuts for the current academic year.

Gartner, owner of the Iowa Cubs and a Regent member, has been critical of Northern Iowa's reliance on large amounts of general fund assistance to finance its 18-sport athletic department. But he insisted he wasn't expressing an opinion about whether the scholarship program should continue, be dropped or downgraded to a nonscholarship level.

[WileECoyote06]

They are lucky they have that. . .General funds; ie state funds cannot be used in NC to support athletics. What App State has been able to do against schools who have that option is amazing.

[Buzzcut]

NO WAY I see non-scholarship football looming on UNI's horizon. That would go over about as well with the folks in Cedar Falls as telling Hawkeye fans that they are dropping their wrestling program. A total pipe dream if you ask me.

[Lehigh Football Nation]

Some helpful information (http://state29.blogspot.com/2006/11/press-citizen-wants-michael-gartner.html)about Mr. Gartner, Pulitzer prize winner, former head of NBC News (until the Dateline/exploding trucks piece) and thoughful Iowan (reprinted from the Iowa City Press-Citizen, from a piece in 2006):


We were going to ask Chet Culver, when he becomes governor in January, to make some big changes in the membership of the Iowa state Board of Regents.

After yesterday's news about the UI president search, that plan is wrong. We need a Regents overhaul -- and we need it now!

Unsatisfied with its candidates, the board voted to start over with its search for a replacement to David Skorton, who left this summer to become president at Cornell University.

Regents president Michael Gartner said the final four candidates needed more experience leading "complex health-sciences operations as well as the myriad of other academic and non-academic operations of a large university."

The statement doesn't make sense. Either the comments are hot air or the Regents simply botched the search. We can't help but wonder: What were you searching for?

...The fact is, we really don't know what's going on because the Regents have treated the faculty, staff and students like unruly teens rather than partners in this process.

As president, Gartner's approach has been divisive and secretive. Gartner clearly likes a top-down business model and thinks the university system should operate more like a business.

But businesses are judged by performance and results. And here he and his key supporters on the board are on shaky ground. Consider a few items from his tenure:

• We lost our university president.

• We lost our athletic director.

• The staff and faculty have lost faith in the leadership.

• And now we have a failed presidential search.

A CEO with these results would be on the ropes, if not fired. Gov. Vilsack, it's time for a shakeup on the Board of Regents.

And Michael Gartner must go.

Gartner seems to resemble one of those folks we know a lot about in the Patriot League, which sees football programs like drains on the budget rather than something good for education and school pride. Interesting that not only did Iowa's AD leave during his tenure - so did UNI's, if I recall correctly (citation needed from someone in the know).

UNI football is clearly a rallying point of the school, and obviously is worth preserving. Downgrading it to non-scholarship or (unthinkable) getting rid of it would be a folly beyond follies. It's unrealistic to think that they can self-sustain their football program (like Iowa), but certainly it can be budgeted so that they can keep scholarships. Ask the students; I'd bet they agree.

[griz8791]

I guess it goes without saying that the Hawkeyes and Cyclones don't have to "address" scholarship football?

[Lehigh Football Nation]

I guess it goes without saying that the Hawkeyes and Cyclones don't have to "address" scholarship football?

Just a guess here, but the Hawkeyes' athletic department I'm assuming is self-sustaining, since BC$ football pays for the other sports and then some. (Michigan, Notre Dame, Penn State, USC, Florida, etc. - these are schools where football needs no money from the school.)

The Cyclones I'm less sure - but like Iowa, they are in a BC$ conference, too, even if they almost always are terrible. I am not at all sure if they're self-sustaining, though.

[Khan4Cats]

Just a guess here, but the Hawkeyes' athletic department I'm assuming is self-sustaining, since BC$ football pays for the other sports and then some. (Michigan, Notre Dame, Penn State, USC, Florida, etc. - these are schools where football needs no money from the school.)

The Cyclones I'm less sure - but like Iowa, they are in a BC$ conference, too, even if they almost always are terrible. I am not at all sure if they're self-sustaining, though.

You're correct. Iowa's athletic department moved into self-sufficiency in the last 5 years, a lot of that coming with the enhanced revenue generated by the Big Ten (11) Network. Prior to that, they did rely on general fund subsidies.

Iowa State does not have as much revenue from TV/broadcast or shared from the Big XII. They dip into the general fund for about $3 million a year to support athletics.

Compare this to UNI's $4.5 million in general support. Now UNI's overall budget for the Athletic Department is smaller, meaning we rely on a higher percentage of support, but the raw dollars are not that much different between UNI and ISU. We know its a concern, we had to cut baseball this spring (for both budget and Title IX). We have to come up with some solutions, but cutting football would likely result in gutting the Athletic Department completely and probably would force us to drop from D-I.

An interesting note with this debate is that the Iowa Board of Regents is made up of alums of Iowa, Iowa State and Drake, but not a single member with ties to UNI, so no sympathetic ears there.

And Gartner is an idiot.

[WestCoastAggie]

Someone needs to slap this Gartner person.

[DOME]

I do know at one point recently former UNI Student Body President, Joe Murphy, was working with the regents. Though not a member of the board himself.

But yea, cutting football would ruin the whole athletic department. I don't think they could maintain the facilities/staff to operate at the level other sports are at without football as an anchor.

[T-Dog]

Anyone who thinks about cutting football should look at what happened at ETSU.

http://www.championshipsubdivisionnews.com/index.php/2008/01/14/etsu-lost-its-soul-when-it-lost-football?blog=2