UNH SPORTS CUTS

I like University of New Hampshire Director of Athletics Marty Scarano. I’ve never met him, but he was a very impressive participant on a sports panel on economic development in Manchester last fall. And he came across very well on ESPN during UNH’s football playoff run last November.

But he didn’t look too happy at a recent news conference where he announced that four sports would be cut and that skiing would be scaled back to save a half million bucks out of a projected $1 million department deficit next year.

But while UNH is dumping men’s and women’s tennis, women’s crew, and men’s swimming, the university is reportedly trying to raise $25-$35 million dollars for an overdue renovation of the football facility, as well as for other sports upgrades.

Now the capital (construction) budget is separate from the regular sports budget, which is heavy with coaching salaries. But in the end, we’re still talking about sports spending.

Every institution wrestles with budget challenges, and resources need to be allocated according to philosophy, priorities, precedents, and politics.

Federal Title IX legislation requiring equitable spending according to gender is part of the mix here as well, but that’s an issue for another column. But schools like the University of Vermont and Boston University dropped football and subsequently have had few Title IX compliance challenges. Some want UNH to go the same route. But with the Wildcat football team having been ranked number one in the country in Division IAA last fall, UNH football is likely here to stay, especially if the school invests in stadium upgrades.

Scarano was applauded for finding a lot of new money to hire Billy Herrion to try to revive the UNH men’s basketball program, while also directing significant financial resources to Herrion’s predecessor, who had a year left on his contract. (See archived Sport- Thoughts from Aug. 18, 2005 at www.weirs.com).

But paying for two head men’s basketball coaches in the same fiscal year while cutting tennis teams invites questions.

UNH President Ann Weaver Hart is encouraging private and corporate contributions to help subsidize UNH sports. That’s great, but UNH should note the experiences of other schools that have become dependent on boosters for various types of support. Many contributors want something in return for their largesse, and subsequent scandals and corruption have caused numerous problems elsewhere. Problems that UNH has largely avoided. So far.

(Reportedly, there was sentiment and support for privately funding a baseball team several years ago, but UNH opted not to bring the national past time back to the state university campus for a combination of reasons, which including gender equity concerns.)

But before many potential contributors start writing checks, they’ll have fair questions about how UNH spends money – both for athletics and in other areas. If there is spending that is seen as wasteful or frivolous anywhere on campus, that will damage efforts to solicit external help.

Given the immense size of the total UNH budget, one would have to think that resources might be re-allocated so that the men’s swimming team could have been saved. Or baseball and softball brought back, for that matter. That, of course, is easier said then done. But that’s why top administrators Scarano get paid the big bucks – to make the tough decisions. To communicate, build consensus, and lead.

UNH is not a private institution, like Dartmouth College. It answers to a Board of Trustees. But there fewer requirements for accountability and disclosure than one would find at any regular state agency, where almost item is public information.

Hopefully, UNH can sufficiently justify what it presently does with its many dollars – both in athletics and around the greater campus – before cutting low profile sports, soliciting external donations, and planning multi-million dollar sports edifices.

Running it Up
Perhaps inspired by Kobe Bryant, Epiphany Prince of Murry Bergtraum High School scored 113 points in a 137-32 win over Brandeis High School in New York. Lebron James of the Cleveland Cavaliers called her performance “amazing.” “We thought she had a so we just let her go,” said her coach, Ed Grezinsky. But the Brandeis High girls are not the Toronto Raptors. Was it necessary to humiliate these young ladies by 105 points? I don’t think so. But that’s just one person’s “Sport-Thought.”