First off, I hope everyone is staying healthy and taking the necessary precautions during this uncertain time. I have been thinking about how the coronavirus has probably changed college sports for a generation.
The University of Cincinnati has gotten rid of college soccer, not suspended its season or shut down the program for a season or two, removed it from the Athletic Department. Old Dominion has decided to get rid of college wrestling. I don’t think these programs being shuttered are going to be the last. Athletic Departments have been playing a game of Russian Roulette with revenue. AD’s have been betting that revenue will only keep going up.
People are going to say that I don’t know what I am talking about. People aren’t looking at the big picture. The big picture is the revenue generated by college football has been driving the bus for athletic departments for a long time. USA Today published a sobering look at the finances of college sports (https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2020/03/26/coronavirus-ncaa-athletic-departments-face-hard-economic-times-ahead/5078058002/).
I believe gone are the days of unlimited spending on coaching staffs, support staffs, and supplemental spending. Clemson head coach football coach Dabo Swinney bragged when this began that he had access to a private jet. I hope he got his use out of it because it might be the last time he will get to use one for quite some time. With businesses closing down and who knows how many are coming back.
The stock market still being volatile, 401k’s taking a beating and oil prices bottoming out means that even the oil and energy tycoons in Texas aren’t going to have the same amount of money to donate to their schools. The donor money isn’t going to be there like it has been in the past and who knows if/when those donations are going to come back.
Ticket sales are going to take a hit – a very very big hit. That’s even if there is a college football season that is going to be played, and I don’t think you’ll see one. I doubt very much that the NCAA is going to say it’s okay for football players to be on campus when the regular student body is not. If you’re thinking that, students will be back on campus this fall, you haven’t been paying attention.
Clemson has moved all their summer sessions online. This means that students will not be allowed on campus until at least August 7th. Week 0 of the college football season is August 29th. @TalkinACCSports thinks we’ll have a college football season, but it’s hard to imagine everything will be business as usual. Even in the best case scenario, there will be a major financial hit to college athletic budgets.
The loss of the college football season would be catastrophic for college athletic departments. Football drives that bus for college sports. It funds the majority of athletic departments and without football revenue, the vast majority, if not all, of those athletic departments go into the red. Meaning, sports programs will need to be cut to survive.
The Group of 5 has already submitted a request to the NCAA to basically suspended Title IX until things calm down. This is going to be catastrophic to Olympic and women’s sports. Danny White, the UCF president has already floated the idea that athletic departments get a government bailout to keep going.
College sports are changing right before our eyes and it wasn’t caused by an Athletic Department scandal or a school losing a lawsuit, or paying athletes. College sports are currently on its financial knees and I don’t think it is ever going to get to where it once was.
Make sure you follow the All Sports Discussion Twitter account at @AllSportsDACC and please like our Facebook Page
Leave a Reply