Hard times dog Mississippi Valley State athletics

[CSN Log]

07-11-2010 02:20 PM

As bad days go for football coaches, Karl Morgan’s story ranks up there.

It was last winter - Morgan doesn’t remember the date, and it’s hard to blame him - when he was summoned to a campus-wide meeting to discuss Gov. Haley Barbour’s proposal to merge his new employer, Mississippi Valley State, with the state’s other two historically black public universities.

Read more » (http://www.championshipsubdivisionnews.com/log/index.php/2010/07/11/hard-times-dog-mississippi-valley-state?blog=2#more6673)

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[TexasTerror]

Fifth-lowest on athletics amongst Div I schools - but the lowest amongst football schools

...and here we go, direct funding from the university.

Those student fees won't go away, but as higher education around the country takes a hit, the schools won't be able to help support them as much. For an institution already getting plenty of funds to run a poorly-funded athletic program, it'll be tough. Think it's being ignored at schools by fans who feel very safe about their program's future as a Division I. We'll know more in the next 18-24 months how many of these Div I schools are going to have to move down, remove football (or other sports), etc. The NCAA is very much aware of issues in this regards...


According to data from the U.S. Department of Education, Valley spends the fifth-lowest amount on athletics of any of the NCAA's 344 Division I teams.

About 70 percent of Valley's athletic budget comes from a combination of student fees and direct funding from the university.

MVSU president Donna Oliver said there have been internal discussions about leaving Division I but nothing serious.

And look at the D2 comparison...


But Delta State plays in Division II, a level that allows teams to provide fewer scholarships and has, conceivably, lower overhead. But even of the 283 programs in that division, 128 spend more on athletics than Valley.