Reusse: Budget cuts for Gophers? Start with football

[MplsGopher]

It would be interesting if CFB across the board went from 85 to 75 or 70 scholarships. We would get more parity in the sport and it would save a school whose tuition is 20k per year a quarter of a million per year at a minimum.
It also would allow for a reduction of 10-15 women’s scholarships. So a total around a half a million. I don’t think the P5 would go for it.

That is one interesting point of the article, actually worth discussion. I would agree with it.

75 would be max of 15 scholarship per year, times five years.

I would do away with the max new counters per year rule, and just say that you can have a max of 15 per class, each season, where class is defined by number of seasons of eligibility left. So if 10 juniors suddenly revolt and leave, you can bring in 10 new guys who have two seasons left, if you desire.

 

[MplsGopher]

The other actually really good point that he brings up, that is very much worth discussion: the idea that the NFL needs to kick in money, for one reason or another, but especially if (let's face it, when) college players get paid.

More than any other sport, major colleges are the defacto minor/development football league for the NFL. It's strictly a (North) American game. There is no Euro league for guys to go to. There is Canadian, but that is incredibly small time compared to the NFL. And all other attempts to start up another pro league have failed.

 

[noamfromm]

Minnesota cannot cut one sport at a time due to scholarship numbers. They have to cut a men's sport and a women's sport to keep the numbers balanced. Men's hockey made about $289,000 last year. Women's hockey lost $2.4 million. Axing both would have net the Gophers about $2.1 million last year.

I would imagine that the story will be significantly worse this year given the men's team's lack of success and consistently empty arena. If the men's team posts profit for 2020, then I will gladly eat crow, but they won't. Unsuccessful hockey programs are huge resource drains.

They're not going to cut any sports, but if they were going to cut a sport, then hockey would be the easiest target by far, not football.

Football (only men) made $28 million last year. Non-basketball sports lost $25 million. Football essentially covers the expenses for all non-basketball sports.

The men's basketball team made $9.7 million and the women's team lost $3.4 million which means that basketball made about $6.3 million.

Hockey was not profitable, and it's trending the wrong direction. They had more revenue in their last year of WCHA participation than they do today, 7 years later. It's not a business decision, but if it was, then hockey would get cut in a second.

By the way, when Ruesse says, "we should concentrate fundraising on other sports", he's completely missing the fact that football generates ~65% of all athletics department donations. The football team could easily cover all of their scholarships through existing revenue sources. When you cut a 'scholarship seating check', you're funding scholarships for gymnastics, not football.

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Sure, womens hockey loses millions of dollars. I just assumed we were talking about mens.

 

[short ornery norwegian]

Taking the anti-Reusse sentiment out of the equation, here is the gist of the article.
1. College sports are facing very significant losses in revenue.
2. budgets will have to be adjusted.
3. in the writer's opinion - which again, is just an opinion - budget cuts should be made from the top down - meaning you cut the most expensive programs first, because that is where the most money is.

If the budget deficit is large enough, a school like MN would have to eliminate multiple non-revenue sports to make up the deficit - IF football is off the board for cuts.

In terms of fairness, if cuts have to be made, all sports should share at least some of the pain.

And - my opinion here - if Fleck came out tomorrow and announced that he was going to forego $1-million of his salary to help the U of MN, a lot of people would be on this board praising him as a great leader and humanitarian. (and I think he could still feed his family on $3.6-million a year.....)

 

[Spaulding!No!]

It’s a good time to donate to your Alma Mater.

 

[Thomasthetank]

You want to cut something? Cut the sports that dont make money. Easy as that. Sorry, this is the most illogical column I have ever read. It doesnt even make any sense. Cut down on the revenue generator??? What???

 

[Goldteam]

Fat Pat gets under the thin skinned Gopher fans. He’s got an opinion so do me and you. It’s not like Gophers administration looks to him for answers.

I'm not sure mocking him continuously would be called thin-skinned!

 

[Goldteam]

This is funny, its not like he actually believes or desires what he has written. Half the garbage he has put over the years is on the two Gopher money sports - football n basketball, its how he has desperately tried to scratch out a living until he hits retirement. This is troll bate, he has to write something controversial because he couldn’t be more irrelevant than now.

Dan Barreiro??????

 

[State of Football]

Star trib should focus on saving their miserable paper. Their reporters on mandatory furloughs and they can’t deliver a paper to save their life. Awful talent as writers. Rachel B Olson and PR are two of a kind. Their HS writers are worse than HS students. Especially Lavaque

 

[gophernut1]

Pat has only one thing going for him - he is a great complainer. If Gopher Football wins and wins well he has nothing to complain about. Of course he want their funding taken away since he doesn't know how to celebrate success, honor others or do good interviews. His motivation for the article has nothing to do about caring for the U or smaller programs (any journalist who could do an ounce of research would know football drives revenue for sports and academics) but just for himself personally. Pat is a complainer and people who have vision and motivation make him hurt. I love how he uses this crisis to try and tear something positive down and apart.

 

[hello-world]

A person's value to the institution was not to be based on how much revenue that person generated or did not generate in sports.

How's this for disparity? The University of Minnesota could pay each of their scholarship football players $300k per year, on top of their current benefits, and the program would still be a net profit generator for the University.

The women's basketball team could bill each of their players $200k per year and the program would still lose money.

Why are a bunch of young men subsidizing ludicrous benefits for nearly every other athlete on Minnesota's campus?

Football is the lifeblood of P5 athletics. Calling for cuts to their benefits is absolutely ridiculous. The B1G Network, the inflated travel budgets for sports like tennis, the training facilities, and tutoring that _all_ Minnesota athletes have access to are a direct result of the football program. If anything those players should be getting paid, not facing reduced scholarship counts.

 

[HoustonTXGopher]

Whatever the trend becomes....let's do the opposite, we will end up far ahead while others are needlessly cutting everything. Spend Spend Spend

 

[Spoofin]

Pat thinks all P5 teams should cut spending on FB. He sure isn’t alone. Gopher fans get upset. Been here before - just missing the denial of how thin skinned Gopher fans are.

 

[Plato]

How's this for disparity? The University of Minnesota could pay each of their scholarship football players $300k per year, on top of their current benefits, and the program would still be a net profit generator for the University.

The women's basketball team could bill each of their players $200k per year and the program would still lose money.

Why are a bunch of young men subsidizing ludicrous benefits for nearly every other athlete on Minnesota's campus?

Football is the lifeblood of P5 athletics. Calling for cuts to their benefits is absolutely ridiculous. The B1G Network, the inflated travel budgets for sports like tennis, the training facilities, and tutoring that _all_ Minnesota athletes have access to are a direct result of the football program. If anything those players should be getting paid, not facing reduced scholarship counts.

The why is Title IX written about 1965. You and Sid and many others have wailed about this decades but it is still the law and Universities have to obey the law.
The law was based on something that many people on this site find hard to believe and that is women have equal rights.
You can bitch and moan but the law is not going to be changed.

 

[State of Football]

The why is Title IX written about 1965. You and Sid and many others have wailed about this decades but it is still the law and Universities have to obey the law.
The law was based on something that many people on this site find hard to believe and that is women have equal rights.
You can bitch and moan but the law is not going to be changed.

Until males are the underrepresented class. This is already happening at the high school level.

 

[hello-world]

The why is Title IX written about 1965. You and Sid and many others have wailed about this decades but it is still the law and Universities have to obey the law.
The law was based on something that many people on this site find hard to believe and that is women have equal rights.
You can bitch and moan but the law is not going to be changed.

I'm not asking for it to be changed. I'm telling you that cutting benefits for the most profitable sport is just shooting yourself in the foot. If football takes a haircut then everything else gets damaged.

Look at the list of athletic departments by revenue. The top schools are all good football schools (Texas, TAMU, tOSU, Michigan, and Alabama).

If Minnesota football isn't competitive, then other programs at Minnesota will see funding cuts. A competitive football team creates opportunity for everyone else.

Minnesota should create an environment that encourages the best football players to come to Minnesota, because if they have a good football team, then all of their teams will have more money to work with.

Ruesse is a cynic by nature. He's a loser. He doesn't like success and he tries to drag everyone around him down. He doesn't want Minnesota to be successful. The number one way to damage that success would be taking an axe to Gopher football benefits.

Gopher football will be pivotal to any type of recovery for Minnesota athletics, and it needs to be protected.

 

[Plato]

I'm not asking for it to be changed. I'm telling you that cutting benefits for the most profitable sport is just shooting yourself in the foot. If football takes a haircut then everything else gets damaged.

Look at the list of athletic departments by revenue. The top schools are all good football schools (Texas, TAMU, tOSU, Michigan, and Alabama).

If Minnesota football isn't competitive, then other programs at Minnesota will see funding cuts. A competitive football team creates opportunity for everyone else.

Minnesota should create an environment that encourages the best football players to come to Minnesota, because if they have a good football team, then all of their teams will have more money to work with.

Ruesse is a cynic by nature. He's a loser. He doesn't like success and he tries to drag everyone around him down. He doesn't want Minnesota to be successful. The number one way to damage that success would be taking an axe to Gopher football benefits.

Gopher football will be pivotal to any type of recovery for Minnesota athletics, and it needs to be protected.

It could be protected by dropping a number of non revenue sports equally for both men and women.
The amount of money saved still would not make up for FB ticket revenue if there is no or a shortened season.
And each dropped sport has a voluble section of alumni to howl bloody murder.

 

[Deleted_User]

Today, after reviewing some studies on the epidemiologic question of when to open up business and stop social distancing, I think we can be open for business before the end of May. I think the May 4th date is actually reasonable. Herd immunity and the full run of the disease being nearly complete. If a second peak emerges, we will most likely socially distanced for 2 weeks only. As the better information comes out...

 

[hello-world]

It could be protected by dropping a number of non revenue sports equally for both men and women.
The amount of money saved still would not make up for FB ticket revenue if there is no or a shortened season.
And each dropped sport has a voluble section of alumni to howl bloody murder.

They have a $100 million business with a ton of real assets to secure a loan. Even if every revenue generating sport is not played next year, they won't have to make any cuts whatsoever. This entire conversation is bizarre. One call to a banker and they would have all the money they need to keep their entire department going for a year w/o revenue. They might be hiding some leverage from their disclosures, but I would be pretty surprised if it's significant.

 

[Cedar Rapids Gopher]

Today, after reviewing some studies on the epidemiologic question of when to open up business and stop social distancing, I think we can be open for business before the end of May. I think the May 4th date is actually reasonable. Herd immunity and the full run of the disease being nearly complete. If a second peak emerges, we will most likely socially distanced for 2 weeks only. As the better information comes out...

I just hope all business open before June 15th I have planned trip to Cedar Point.

 

[Some guy]

You'd get far less parity in the sport. Players would still walk on at the elite programs, and they wouldn't at the others. Elite programs would still have 100 or so players on the team, versus "the others" that would only have 70.

You’re 100% wrong if you think that having fewer scholarships would allow Alabama to have an even greater talent disparity.
The 80th best player on Alabama would be a top 20 player on many FBS teams and he would no longer have a scholarship.
You think MORE people would be willing to sit on the bench at Alabama if they had to pay 43k per year? (That’s bama’s out of state room
Board and tuition number)

 

[cemba99]

If I correctly remember an article years ago - Minnesota was one of the few state-sponsored schools that separated their scholarship athletes into resident and non-resident students and the athletic department paid their tuition accordingly. Most other schools pay the resident rates regardless of where they came from. Non-trivial budget discrepancy between schools if still true. (Rough calculation indicates a non-resident pays about $20k more per year in tuition.)

 

[USAF]

You'd get far less parity in the sport. Players would still walk on at the elite programs, and they wouldn't at the others. Elite programs would still have 100 or so players on the team, versus "the others" that would only have 70.

This makes absolutely zero sense.

 

[Plato]

Today, after reviewing some studies on the epidemiologic question of when to open up business and stop social distancing, I think we can be open for business before the end of May. I think the May 4th date is actually reasonable. Herd immunity and the full run of the disease being nearly complete. If a second peak emerges, we will most likely socially distanced for 2 weeks only. As the better information comes out...

This is sheer nonsense.
Can you give us data on your claim that "herd Immunity" and "the full run of the disease being nearly complete".
I know that ignoring facts and magical thinking is endemic in certain segments of our society up to the POTUS but there no facts to support those dangerous claims.
Facts, there has not been enough testing for the virus anywhere in the US to say the disease has run its course. Why, because of criminal incompetence in the administration.
And there is no test available today to determine herd immunity.
Why, because science takes a while to get things done correctly and we started at least month or two later here than we could have.
A "second peak" historically has always been more deadly than the first peak of a pandemic.

 

[FredCoxRocks]

The other actually really good point that he brings up, that is very much worth discussion: the idea that the NFL needs to kick in money, for one reason or another, but especially if (let's face it, when) college players get paid.

More than any other sport, major colleges are the defacto minor/development football league for the NFL. It's strictly a (North) American game. There is no Euro league for guys to go to. There is Canadian, but that is incredibly small time compared to the NFL. And all other attempts to start up another pro league have failed.

While doing the college visit circuit with my kids the past couple of years I noticed quite often how many Fortune 500 companies donate classrooms, equipment, scholarships, etc. to these universities. They do this to provide young minds with the tools they need to be successful, and to attract the top talent.
Maybe the NFL does stuff like that that I am not aware of. With all of their dough I would hope so.

 

[1983]

PR is not entirely off base. Like other mega businesses, the spending is out of hand. Yes, a huge money maker and it supports all the other sports. I always wondered why we need 110 players of which half never need to even show except to be tackling dummies. How many travel? Maybe 50-60? Obviously take care of your revenue machine but now might be a good time to take a look and what is really important and what can be saved on the expense side...NCAA wide.

 

[Deleted_User]

This is sheer nonsense.
Can you give us data on your claim that "herd Immunity" and "the full run of the disease being nearly complete".
I know that ignoring facts and magical thinking is endemic in certain segments of our society up to the POTUS but there no facts to support those dangerous claims.
Facts, there has not been enough testing for the virus anywhere in the US to say the disease has run its course. Why, because of criminal incompetence in the administration.
And there is no test available today to determine herd immunity.
Why, because science takes a while to get things done correctly and we started at least month or two later here than we could have.
A "second peak" historically has always been more deadly than the first peak of a pandemic.

research out of Korea. Not Trump.

 

[short ornery norwegian]

"Ruesse is a cynic by nature. He's a loser. He doesn't like success and he tries to drag everyone around him down. He doesn't want Minnesota to be successful."

Yup. That is why Reusse has written numerous columns about Gopher Volleyball, called them the best show in town, and written feature stories about Gopher female athletes.

The entire point of the article is that spending should be reduced for ALL college FB programs - not just the Gophers. if cutting 10 scholarships destroys the Gopher FB program, then they didn't have a solid program to begin with.

Go to 75 scholarships - total roster limit of 90. Dress 75 for home games and 60 for road games.

The good teams will still be good, and the struggling teams might be able to pick up some guys who can help them instead of sitting on the bench as the 4th-string player at a Helmet school.

 

[MplsGopher]

While doing the college visit circuit with my kids the past couple of years I noticed quite often how many Fortune 500 companies donate classrooms, equipment, scholarships, etc. to these universities. They do this to provide young minds with the tools they need to be successful, and to attract the top talent.
Maybe the NFL does stuff like that that I am not aware of. With all of their dough I would hope so.

I doubt it for much, if any. Major football schools rake in truckloads of cash off of football, and the fact that they are the development programs for the NFL. So much so, that they can help their conferences command massive TV contracts that then raises all the ships in the conference marina. Our Gophers very much benefit exactly from that, via TV audiences generated by Michigan, Ohio St, and Penn St football, and to a lesser extent the other schools (including ourselves).

My guess is the NFL thinks such a status/state of being, is plenty good enough.

 

[Plato]

research out of Korea. Not Trump.
Surely you jest!
South Korea tested early and completely and their per capita death rate is a small fraction of what it is in the US. That is what could have and should have happened here if we had a competent POTUS. Which we do not have,
I would like to see their data on antibodies to the virus that would help to know if there is herd immunity there. Do you have that?
Here is a graph for you.

Opinion | Trump’s Role in the Death Toll (Published 2020)

He was warned, again and again.

www.nytimes.com