Budget woes affect athletics

The Southern Miss athletic department faces a 10 percent budget cut that could total $200,000 in 2010.

USM athletic director Richard Giannini said Monday each athletic program at the university has been asked to cut its operating budget by 10 percent to help to balance an anticipated $10 to 12 million budget deficit for the 2010 fiscal year.

“Basically we’ve cut our whole budget 10 percent,” Giannini said. “We’ve taken bigger cuts in other areas around campus, but we were already operating on a very lean budget in athletics so it’s made things very difficult.”

Last year’s athletic budget of $19 million was already considered small by national Division 1 standards, but according to Giannini, more innovations were necessary to reach the new goals.

Most of the cuts will come from the teams’ travel budgets and will affect not only how they travel but to where they travel. Giannini explained regional matchups to which teams can bus are more preferable than expensive, longer airplane travel.

Southern Miss has a good track record of competing at high levels with fewer resources, but the current economic downturn has made the normal operating procedures even more worrisome, he said.

“When your budget is only $19 million and you’re talking about cutting it 10 percent, that’s significant,” Giannini said. “I’ve asked our coaches to really stretch their individual budgets.
“It’s going to be especially rough on our Olympic sports. Those teams already have very small budgets, but all of our coaches are making it work.”

Olympic sports include golf, tennis, volleyball, soccer, softball and track and field, while baseball, football and basketball are considered revenue sports because they bring money into the department.

As one of those Olympic sports, the Golden Eagle tennis teams have raised money to help fund the men’s scholarships.

Women’s coach Randy Rowley said they are being asked to do even more this year.
“The tennis program is a little different,” Rowley said. “We were already raising funds like crazy to keep the men’s team scholarships, and this year we’re going to have to work even harder.”

As a result of Title IX of the U.S. Education Amendments of 1972, schools are required to offer the same number of athletic scholarships to men and women.  This means that Rowley’s players’ scholarships are protected, while men’s tennis coach Teddy Viator’s are not.

As a result, the women’s team is basically raising money to cover the men’s scholarships.
“It’s bad, but it’s a better situation than a lot of programs at other schools are finding themselves in,” Rowley said. “We are lucky that we have (athletic directors) like Richard and Sonya Varnell. They know what it’s like to be a coach and an athlete and they are taking second looks at the budget instead of cutting programs altogether.”

Also, NCAA requirements call for USM to have a total of 200 scholarships for athletes and field 16 sports teams to remain a part of the Football Bowl Subdivision, formerly known as Division 1. Cutting too many scholarships or sports could result in lower-tier schools losing their FBS status.

“We have been operating at that threshold for years,” Giannini said. “So we are having to be very innovative to keep all of our scholarships and sports.”

Southern Miss isn’t alone; universities around the country are facing the same financial problems.

In the past year, the University of California-Irvine discontinued five sports, and Texas A&M University is leaving 17 positions in the athletic department unfilled.

UC-Irvine athletic director Mike Izzi said he had hoped to avoid the changes, but his athletic department was not immune to the state’s budget problems.

“The impact this has on these coaches and student-athletes is something that none of us wishes to see,” Izzi said. “But the reality is that this type of move is unavoidable with the financial challenges that we face.”

Somewhat closer to home, the University of New Orleans proposed a motion to discontinue its tradition-rich baseball program, which competed against Southern Miss last season.

The program was saved in the 11th hour with support from New Orleans Hornets owner George Shinn, but outgoing athletic director Jim Miller said that the entire UNO athletic program was in for a “slimming down.”

Short of cutting a program entirely, Giannini said the last thing he wants to see as athletic director is the product on the field suffer because of budget cuts.

“We’re not to that point,” Giannini said. “We’re going to work as hard as anyone else, and our facilities are some of the best in conference. Any cuts that we have made, we’re trying to do it without affecting actual play on the field. “