While the public’s attention is on Washington D.C. and the economic crisis facing the nation, the events on Capitol Hill have a deep connection into the Sun Belt Conference, where the conference and their affiliated schools are facing the same troubles as corporate America.
The 13 athletic programs in the Sun Belt have had to deal with scaling back on expenses, budget cuts and the possibility of cutting staffs, which has created a sense of urgency within the realm of all involved.
“This is a national issue,” Sun Belt associate commissioner John McElwain said. “This is affecting all companies throughout the country-that goes as far from the auto industry to college athletics, of course, and higher education as a whole. So we here at the Sun Belt, what we’ve tried to do is establish best practices as we always do and come up with ideas that can really optimize our budget.”
This isn’t the first time this decade that the conference has faced challenges.
In August 2005, New Orleans was rocked by Hurricane Katrina. In the ensuing aftermath, the New Orleans-based Sun Belt Conference main offices were subsequently moved to Tuscaloosa, Ala., before moving back October 2005, displacing the staff, along with millions in the New Orleans area.
In the wake of Katrina, the University of New Orleans is still recovering. They were forced to scale back from 15 athletic teams to six at the time and have since added three teams back in men’s and women’s tennis and men’s swimming.
The tragedy of Hurricane Katrina is being viewed by some involved as a way of battle-testing the area for the current crisis, though.
“We’ve been tightening our belts for the last three, three and a half years,” New Orleans Athletics Director James Miller said. “And we’re very, very lean right now, so if we’re forced to cut anything further, then we’ve been tested to the point where we kick in plan A or we kick in plan B or plan C and try to fight that.”
The nation’s economic troubles have been evident in certain Sun Belt programs. Florida International announced last week that they will be cutting $1 million from their athletic department at the beginning of the fiscal year on July 1. FIU’s current athletic budget is $22 million.
“It was a necessity,” FIU Athletics Director Pete Garcia said. “The good thing that the way we are cutting, with all these partnerships we are making, we are making it up that way.”
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal has proposed a $219 million cut in higher education around the state. It’s a cut that will greatly affect the three Sun Belt-affiliated institutions, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe and New Orleans.
As of now, Miller said the university would share a $15 million cut across the board if the budget cut is approved by the Louisiana government.
According to documents obtained from Louisiana-Monroe, the school’s athletic revenue for the 2008-09 fiscal year was $7,369,931. Their total expenses were $7,369,191, giving them a $740 net revenue.
“We’re pretty frugal to begin with,” Louisiana-Monroe Athletics Director Bobby Staub said. “Whether we had this economic situation or not, we’re very cost-conscious with our travel. And we try to keep flights to a minimum and our coaches are really good about that – if we’re within a six- to seven-hour drive, we’re busing – so, we’ve always been very cost-conscience as far as that’s concerned, and that was happening before this recent episode.”
Fighting the current financial hardships could be harder for the Sun Belt than other conferences in college athletics, with their budget being smaller than the Bowl Championship Series conferences such as the Southeastern Conference.
Dennis Wilson, a professor of sports economics at Western, sees definite disadvantages to being in a money crunch in a smaller conference.
“It’s a day-and-night type thing,” Wilson said. “There are some conferences lower down the pecking order than the Sun Belt, but you could think about the pockets that the (University of) Kentucky athletic department has and how much insulation they may have. They’re gonna feel it – don’t get me wrong – but they’re feeling it in a way that, ‘How do we make sure 24,000 people show up at the basketball game?’ compared to, ‘How do we get 15,000 to show up at a football game here?’”
Having a solid community base could be the key for an institution to survive, regardless of a city’s size. Which means the survival of a school such as Western could depend somewhat on the Corvette Plant established in Bowling Green.
“The critical elements aren’t necessarily the size of the city – it’s kind of the industrial base – ‘What types of jobs are local?’” Wilson said. “And as long as that local job base is not hugely affected by the recession, then places like Western will be fine. They may have to cut back, and the donations may drop significantly, but attendance-wise, if they price appropriately, they will be fine.”
Some programs are beginning to pull themselves out of the current funk the nation is in. In July 2008, New Orleans just received a $1 million donation to its basketball program from former player Gabe Corchiani and local businessman John Georges, the largest gift ever to the New Orleans athletic program. FIU is partnering with Miami professional sports teams who use their facilities in an effort to gain profit.
McElwain said the conference isn’t cutting back on anything at this time, nor do they plan on it in the near future. In times like this, everyone is facing the threat of low revenue and unemployment. But for the conference, all involved are looking to push forward.
“We are evaluating the budget, and trying to optimize our budget,” he said. “Whether that means we’re saving a little bit more here than we were before – that’s the way we would view it.”
Western Athletics Director Wood Selig couldn’t be reached for comment.
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