Coyle says changes could be coming to Gopher sports department

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Ski U Mah Gopher said:
Why would anyone want to be an AD at a school in the bottom half of revenue in a conference?

Revenue producing sport fans get mad at you if you pay any attention to the non-revenue sports.

Non-revenue (I call most of them niche) fans get mad enough to sue you if you cut their sport.
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My bank account would love it if I were an AD.
 

fmlizard said:
It sucks if you are on a varsity team that used to give scholarships and you don't get one now. It sucks if the whole program dissolves because there's no money for coaches or travel.

It really sucks when your scholarship money went to buy a new Corvette for a freshman lineman who still ends up transferring out.
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So basically you're saying it sucks for the people who were getting room and board and tuition from money that other people were generating.

Yeah, in a twisted way it probably does suck for them. But they shouldn't have been getting those benefits to begin with. If you can't generate a profit then become a club sport and play against other students at the U of M. I had to play flag football and no one felt sorry for me not getting a scholly.
 

TwistingMyMelon said:
Agreed. There is no God given right to play intercollegiate sports especially on a full ride. In fact, there is no particular reason why universities have to maintain sports teams at all. It's just tradition in the USA. Take basketball for example. Europe, parts of Asia, and South America produce a very large number of professional basketball players without using this system. Although more professional baseball players attend college than in decades past, major league baseball traditionally has not relied on this system for developing players.

If some sports produce large revenues and the universities are pressured into distributing some of those funds to athletes generating those revenues, I see nothing wrong with cutting unprofitable sports.
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+10000000
 

60's Guy said:
Men's Lacrosse seems like they should just volunteer to become self funded.
Men's Diving...every dollar counts is the refrain I'm hearing.
Seriously, Is cutting sports really going to make any significant impact?

Do we really need over 100 people beyond coaches to be employed full time in the sports department. Does our AD really need to make $1.4 million dollars? It's a job somebody could probably do a better job of making $1.2 million less. $200,000 is a decent wage to go to games for a living. I have been a high school AD, it is not even like work if you like sports and working with kids.

Lots of things to trim beyond sports teams.
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I like how you compare being a high school AD to being the chief executive of a $150M organization. Great call.
 




Gophers1992 said:
Yeah not that my opinion matters, but if everything besides Mens and Women's hockey, football, basketball, and baseball were cut I wouldn't bat an eye. I would certainly feel for those students and fans, but if some trimming is what has to happen then so be it.
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To remain an FBS school, we need to maintain 16 scholarship sports. We now have 21 teams (9 men’s and 12 women’s), so we can only drop 5 teams and remain FBS.
 

WAGopher said:
To remain an FBS school, we need to maintain 16 scholarship sports. We now have 21 teams (9 men’s and 12 women’s), so we can only drop 5 teams and remain FBS.
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Well right now that's the rule. It wouldn't surprise me if the P4 got together and decided to just ignore it. And who cares if the NCAA even could do something about it - the people picking the teams for the CFP are FAR, FAR more important right now than anyone in the NCAA. Heck, even if the NCAA still had rules to enforce and deemed a team ineligible, as long as the team was chosen to play in the CFP and won it, people would still recognize them as champs, even if the NCAA won't.
 

Does PJ Fleck need to make over $5M a year? I'm sure you could find someone to just stand on the sidelines and yell at refs for $300k or so.
 



dpodoll68 said:
I like how you compare being a high school AD to being the chief executive of a $150M organization. Great call.
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Coyle is extremely generously compensated for what he does given revenue and nature of the market. He did not build the company, he has zero personal risk or skin in the game. He is a manager.

That said, if the BOR think nobody else can manage, hire consultants, raise money as well as he does at a lower cost then that’s the market rate.
 


GopherTheJugular said:
So basically you're saying it sucks for the people who were getting room and board and tuition from money that other people were generating.

Yeah, in a twisted way it probably does suck for them. But they shouldn't have been getting those benefits to begin with. If you can't generate a profit then become a club sport and play against other students at the U of M. I had to play flag football and no one felt sorry for me not getting a scholly.
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I earmarked my DTA money to flag football. You did not see any of it?
 

dpodoll68 said:
I like how you compare being a high school AD to being the chief executive of a $150M organization. Great call.
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Hey! You saying I couldn't scale up? :) As you may know, more than anything I'm not a fan of the job performance of AD Coyle. I am aware there are an incomparable ton more moving parts but a lot of HS AD's don't even have a secretary, forget hundreds of people in different roles.
I mean the conference schedules two thirds of the games and the coaches schedule the rest...there are also ways the job is easier in addition to the ways it is harder.
 



fmlizard said:
Not really. For starters, the current economic environment has not persisted since the founding of the nation. Throughout most of modern American history taxes on the wealthy and on corporations have been much higher. In the 50s, 60s, 70s the top tax rates for individuals were about 2x what they are today, with fewer loopholes to exploit....
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@fmlizard When you've completed your research on top U.S. individual tax rates vs. effective tax rates 50-75-100 years ago, then you'll see that high income earners paid nowhere near the top tax rates...

Things haven't changed as much as you might think
 

trying to figure out what Coyle means can be difficult, but if you read between the lines, I think Coyle in his typical wishy-washy fashion is trying to tell people that some sports will be cut - or moved to non-scholarship status.

If the U winds up cutting more sports, it will be interesting to see how much - if any - of a black lash takes place. so far, the sports that have been cut are more niche sports. I'm not questioning the effort or ability needed to participate in those sports, but they are generally sports with a fairly narrow fan base.

but, if more sports get cut - at the same time as football and basketball players are getting direct payments from the school - I think there will be a lot more noise. not to mention potential court cases.

and if a Big Ten school - in the wealthiest conference in the world - is cutting sports, what the heck is going to happen in conferences that don't generate as much revenue?
 

I think it’s time to cut the mens pickle ball team, I mean, you have to start somewhere.
 

The only sports teams I really care about are:

Mens
Football
Baseball
Basketball
Hockey
Golf

Womens
Basketball
Hockey
Volleyball
Softball
Golf
Soccer

I can live with all other sports disappearing, I understand a few more women sports need to be added for Title IX reasons.

Of the 135 million budget, I would love to know what percentage is made up of coaches and administrative salaries and what that same percentage is for all Power five schools.
 

HoustonTXGopher said:
The only sports teams I really care about are:

Mens
Football
Baseball
Basketball
Hockey
Golf

Womens
Basketball
Hockey
Volleyball
Softball
Golf
Soccer
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I hope zero sports get cut but that's a good list of the essentials you have. I would probably get rid of golf and add wrestling though.
 

Gophers1992 said:
Does PJ Fleck need to make over $5M a year? I'm sure you could find someone to just stand on the sidelines and yell at refs for $300k or so.
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It costs extra to use all the TOs.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
and if a Big Ten school - in the wealthiest conference in the world - is cutting sports, what the heck is going to happen in conferences that don't generate as much revenue?
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Apples and oranges - non-P4 conferences aren't in this ridiculous arms race. They aren't going to pay players directly, so they'll just continue on as-is.
 

GopherTheJugular said:
Apples and oranges - non-P4 conferences aren't in this ridiculous arms race. They aren't going to pay players directly, so they'll just continue on as-is.
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Even the non-P4 Conference are going to be impacted by the multi-billion dollar Class Action lawsuit the NCAA just settled on.
 

Ope3 said:
Even the non-P4 Conference are going to be impacted by the multi-billion dollar Class Action lawsuit the NCAA just settled on.
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Yes. But the post I was replying to was referring to schools cutting sports to pay football and basketball players and I believe @SON was making a comment that if a B1G school has to make cuts in spite of all the new revenue....

I'm not aware of any schools considering cuts to sports programs because of that settlement you mentioned.
 

GopherTheJugular said:
Yes. But the post I was replying to was referring to schools cutting sports to pay football and basketball players and I believe @SON was making a comment that if a B1G school has to make cuts in spite of all the new revenue....

I'm not aware of any schools considering cuts to sports programs because of that settlement you mentioned.
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obviously, this is mostly speculation at this point. we don't really know what is going to happen until it happens. forgive me if I was unclear - but I was thinking first about the ACC and Big 12. those are P4 conferences, subject to the revenue-sharing agreement, but with far less revenue than the B1G or SEC.

beyond that, all D1 schools will see reductions in the money they receive from the NCAA. this is the part of the agreement that calls for $2.7-Billion in compensation to former athletes. the NCAA will pay its share in part by withholding some of the money it normally pays out to member schools. So G5 schools will lose some revenue under the agreement. at the very least, those schools will have to tighten their belts.

as you say, no school has announced any cuts yet - but it will take a couple of years for the full impact of the settlement to be felt.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
obviously, this is mostly speculation at this point. we don't really know what is going to happen until it happens. forgive me if I was unclear - but I was thinking first about the ACC and Big 12.
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Thanks for the clarity. Maybe they can rely on boosters and such until a new TV deal is reached, or Clemson and FSU and Miami just leave and then the rest are left hopelessly behind with the G5 teams.

short ornery norwegian said:
as you say, no school has announced any cuts yet - but it will take a couple of years for the full impact of the settlement to be felt.
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Curious, as you follow the news quite a bit on these things, is there a timetable of when the payments have to be made? Do schools get to spread them out over a lot of years?
 

GopherTheJugular said:
Thanks for the clarity. Maybe they can rely on boosters and such until a new TV deal is reached, or Clemson and FSU and Miami just leave and then the rest are left hopelessly behind with the G5 teams.


Curious, as you follow the news quite a bit on these things, is there a timetable of when the payments have to be made? Do schools get to spread them out over a lot of years?
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I think the reduction in payments from the NCAA to member schools will be done over a 10-year basis. I saw one article suggesting that for G5 schools, it would amount to a loss in revenue of $1.3-million total.

as you say, this will only make the gap wider between the P4 and G5 schools. that's another issue. I've seen people speculating that some G5 programs might decide to pay revenue-sharing (even though they're not required to do so) because if they don't pay revenue-sharing, it's going to be much harder to recruit against the P4 programs.
 

Ope3 said:
A friend of mine went from being a Head Coach (tremendous long term success) to an AD.

I asked how it was going in Year 1. His response was, "Instead of having to put up with the players' parents of 1 sports team, I now have to deal with 17."
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This is another aspect of why being high school AD is harder in some ways than being a DI AD.
DI AD's don't listen to parents whine.
 

Charge it with a high-interest credit card.
 

60's Guy said:
Men's Lacrosse seems like they should just volunteer to become self funded.
Men's Diving...every dollar counts is the refrain I'm hearing.
Seriously, Is cutting sports really going to make any significant impact?

Do we really need over 100 people beyond coaches to be employed full time in the sports department. Does our AD really need to make $1.4 million dollars? It's a job somebody could probably do a better job of making $1.2 million less. $200,000 is a decent wage to go to games for a living. I have been a high school AD, it is not even like work if you like sports and working with kids.

Lots of things to trim beyond sports teams.
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This is maybe the most ridiculous thing you have ever posted...which is quite the feat considering your history! Congrats!
 


I have no idea if this makes sense for every sport (or not any sport) but maybe ditching the current conferences for non-revenue sports and creating new regional conferences could save on some travel costs. Most conferences are no longer regional so the travel costs have continued to increase I'm guessing.
 

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