Information Sheet on Intercollegiate Athletics
The Department of Intercollegiate athletics (DIA) is supposed to be a self-supporting auxiliary
program1, yet it has enjoyed substantial campus subsidies from the Chancellor’s funds and
student registration fees. DIA has also accumulated a huge debt, with no realistic plan to pay it
off. This information sheet provides more details on the budgetary implications of DIA given the
current budget crisis.
Cost to Campus
Table 1 shows that DIA has cost the campus money (in millions of dollars) every single year of
operation since 2003-04 when the Chancellor opened the books up to the Academic Senate2.
Year
Revenue (w/o
subsidies)
Expenditures
Profit/Loss
2003-04
34.2
45.2
-11.0
Table 1: DIA Profit/Loss (Millions of $’s)
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
40.1
42.8
51.7
56.9
53.2
-13.1
53.7
-10.9
61.5
-9.8
64.3
-7.4
2008-09
51.4
2009-10
52.2
64.9
-13.5
64.6
-12.4
In addition to using part of the student registration fees (about $2 million every year), the
Chancellor has subsidized DIA ($3-8 million per year) so that the annual deficit is lower. The
annual Cost to Campus (Table 2) is the annual deficit plus these annual subsidies. This Cost to
Campus was lowest in 2007-08 at “only” $7.4 million, but picked up again last year and is
estimated to be $13.5 million in 2008-09 and projected to be $12.4M in 2009-10.
Year
Chancellor’s
Subsidy
Student Reg
Fees
Annual
Deficit
Cost to
Campus
2003-04
3.4
Table 2: Cost to Campus (Millions of $’s)
2004-05
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
3.3
3.6
7.7
5.2
2008-09
5.0
2009-10
4.0
2.0
1.9
2.0
2.1
2.2
2.7
2.0
5.6
7.9
5.3
0.0
~0
5.8
6.4
11.0
13.1
10.9
9.8
7.4
13.5
12.4
Cumulative Cost to Campus
The accumulated Cost to Campus since the 1991 Smelser Report was estimated to be
approximately $128.3 million at the end of the 2005-06 academic year (estimated by Calvin
Moore, then Chair of CAPRA- Committee on Academic Planning and Resources Allocation).
Adding the debt from the subsequent years, including the projection for 2008-09 brings the
cumulative cost to campus to over $171 million dollars since 1991 (Table 3).
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"!Auxiliary Enterprises “are those non-instructional services provided to individuals, primarily students, in
return for specific user charges. These services include student housing, intercollegiate athletics, food
services, and parking. Auxiliary Enterprises are self-supporting and are not subsidized by the state”,
Governor’s Budget 2009-10.!
2
The Chancellor’s office gave financial data going back to 1995-96 and partial data back to 1991. Recent
Data comes from the NCAA financial statements provided by Laura Hazlett, the chief financial officer for
athletics.
Table 3: Cumulative Cost to Campus (Millions of $’s)
2005-06
2006-07
2007-08
2008-09
2009-10
128.3
138.1
145.5
159.0
171.4
Glide Plan to Self-Sufficiency
The final report of the University Athletics Board in 2006 and a subsequent CAPRA3 memo, with
Divisional Council (DIVCO) approval, laid out a “glide plan” for DIA to reduce the cost to
campus to $4 million in five years and zero in 10 years. Sandy Barbour, Director of Athletics, has
also identified self-sufficiency as an “aspirational goal”4. The glide is shown by the dotted line
below relative to the actual cost to campus shown by the solid line. The glide reduction from last
year to this year (2009-10) would have been a reduction of over 20% in “cost to campus”. Thus
the 20% reduction cited in the Intercollegiate Athletics FAQ is actually less than it would have
been on the glide plan. Given the budget crisis, in which some units on campus received an
average cut of 28%, more aggressive cuts on top of the glide plan should have been implemented
in order to “share the pain”. Regardless, with debt forgiveness and an escalation in the annual
deficit, DIA has actually increased its debt to campus in the last few years considerably.
These numbers do not include the costs of the Memorial Stadium retrofit ($321 million) and the
new Student Athlete High Performance Center ($136 million); these capital projects promise to
add an even higher debt burden on DIA with no credible plan to pay it off.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
3
“We conclude with a brief comment on the deficits in the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics (DIA).
As recently as 2004-05, DIA was running a yearly operating deficit of nearly $13M, which was covered by
the campus from discretionary funds and in was in competition with other campus needs of the type
described above. We also determined through a review of past deficits and other DIA expenses, which had
been forgiven by the campus, that since the Smelser report in 1991 led to a re-conception of the goals of
our intercollegiate athletics program, the campus had allocated at least $120 M in discretionary funds to
DIA. We have urged in previous budget letters that action be taken to address what we regarded as an
unsustainable drain on campus resources. We are pleased that the campus has accepted and implemented a
plan recommended by the Senate to reduce the annual operating deficit to $4M within 5 years. . . . We
continue to urge strongly that a break even plan in ten years be established as a campus goal.” – CAPRA,
April 2007.
#!Barbour, Sandy, Director of Athletics, FAQ, October 26, 2009 (p. 8, 21).