PDA

View Full Version : Could the Illinois schools soon have athletics on the chopping block?



superman7515
July 5th, 2010, 09:27 AM
After reading this article, I personally am wondering if there have been any rumors at Illinois State or the directional schools that play FCS football.

Illinois Facing 'Outright Disaster' Amid Budget Crisis (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38072919/ns/business-the_new_york_times/)

"For the last few years, California stood more or less unchallenged as a symbol of the fiscal collapse of states during the recession.

Now Illinois has shouldered to the fore, as its dysfunctional political class refuses to pay the state’s bills and refuses to take the painful steps — cuts and tax increases — to close a deficit of at least $12 billion, equal to nearly half the state’s budget."...

"Public colleges and universities occupy a fiscal sickbed all their own. This year they muddled through without $668 million expected from the state; the University of Illinois has yet to receive 45 percent of its state appropriation.

Legislators made no pretense of promising to pay this bill soon. Instead they authorized colleges to borrow against the expected state payments.

“The big fear is that next year we’ll be down twice as much,” said Randy Kangas, an associate vice president of the university. “No one knows how to make the cash flow work.”

REALBird
July 5th, 2010, 01:22 PM
The State of Illinois does not allow state funding to be used for Athletics. There is some gray area where facilities are also used for academic uses (I.E. - Campus Rec center contains weight room that athletics uses, but it is also used for academic purposes - classrooms, intramurals) can use State funding.

Otherwise, all athletic departments in Illinois public universities operate as an auxillary, and are separate from the overall campus appropriated state budget.

TexasTerror
July 5th, 2010, 01:30 PM
Looked at some numbers - if there are substantial cuts, the schools may trim back on their direct institutional support. Western Illinois and Eastern Illinois rely the most on these...

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/ncaa-finances.htm

EASTERN ILLINOIS
Student fees: $4.3M (37.44% of revenues)
Direct institutional support: $3.8M (33.29%)
Contributions: $745k (6.45%)

ILLINOIS STATE
Student fees: $7.2M (49.85%)
Direct Institutional Support: $2.1M (14.98%)
Contributions: $1.4M (9.88%)

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS
Student fees: $8.9M (43.9%)
Contributions: $2.6M (12.85%)
Direct Institutional Support: $3.5M (17.2%)

WESTERN ILLINOIS
Direct Institutional Support: $4.3M (45.29%)
Student Fees: $2.5M (26.66%)
Direct state or other government support: $48k (0.51%)

Seawolf97
July 5th, 2010, 06:02 PM
And I thought New York was in bad shape !

DJOM
July 5th, 2010, 06:17 PM
School system here is in bad shape. Legislature promised to utilize cash flow from legalizing casino's to help fund education. That money has disappeared into the morass that is Springfield's budget process. Word is that Chicago schools will increase student size to 35 in a classroom and Chicago Public High Schools will disband all sophmore teams. This while Democratic Governor; who is running for re-election; has promised a 50% increase in state income taxes should he be re-elected. So yes, it is a complete mess here.

Redbird Ray
July 5th, 2010, 07:01 PM
The state has not paid any government agencies their expected contributions in over a year. Pat Quinn can suck my balls.

As for the directional university athletic departments, I think we will be okay. As was pointed out earlier, public university athletic funding is largely separated from state budget (this is largely why UIllinois has such a straglehold on Illinois Collegiate athletics in terms of having an overwhelming fiscal budget). If public athletic departments in Illinois received more state funding, Illinois would easily have 4-5 MAC level football programs, and possibly another BCS level public institution (like Michigan or Ohio).