Missouri Valley schools deal with budget cuts across campus lines

College athletics works to keep academic concerns separated from its world of bouncing balls, cheering fans and games.

Sometimes the outside world crashes through the barrier between the classroom and the gym in ways athletics can’t ignore or overcome. When schools struggle with significant budget issues, athletics is affected.

On Sunday, NCAA men’s basketball postseason bids went out and the MVC landed two — Wichita State in the NCAA Tournament and Illinois State in the NIT.

Going dark in March is not good business in basketball, yet it reflects the money problems many MVC schools are battling. It also provides a backdrop to Wichita State’s desire to find a new conference, one populated with schools that fit its profile athletically and academically.

It is the second consecutive season for two teams (WSU and Northern Iowa made the NCAAs in 2016) to play in post-season. Before last season, the MVC hadn’t been so lightly represented since 2002, well before the recent growth of tournaments such as the College Basketball Invitational and CollegeInsider.com Tournament. Many factors contribute to the decline in postseason play, and state budget issues that affect MVC schools can’t be disregarded.

“It’s well-documented that there are budgetary problems in the states where our institutions are situated,” MVC commissioner Doug Elgin said. “The private schools are also under financial duress and part of it is dwindling enrollment, in some cases.”

WSU athletic director Darron Boatright sees the tension in meetings with his MVC peers. Many are consumed with cutting budgets, cutting sports, restructuring and surviving.

“This was a very significant issue to several of our member institutions,” Boatright said. “It is absolutely on the forefront of everyone’s mind, even more so than normal.”

Financial pressures grow each year on most NCAA Division I schools, especially those that don’t rake in millions of dollars through TV contracts. The power-five conferences (ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, SEC and Pac-12) benefit from football money and dominate spots in the NCAA basketball field. While levels exist within those conferences — compare Texas to Iowa State, for example — even the lowliest member can count on hefty paychecks each year from TV money.

Conferences outside that group, with the possible exception of the Big East, are in far different positions. In June, the Big Ten signed a $2.64 billion contract — $440 million annually — with its media partners. MVC schools hope to break even on TV exposure through ESPN, ESPN3.com, Fox Sports and CBS Sports Network.

Last season, Southern Illinois declined to play in the CBI or CIT — after recording its first winning season since 2008 — in part because of budget issues. The state of Illinois has operated with stop-gap budgets since 2015, leading to cuts and uncertainty at public universities.

In January, Missouri governor Eric Greitens announced cuts of $146 million, around $82 million from higher education, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Iowa, according to the Des Moines Register, plans to cut around $25.5 million from Northern Iowa, Iowa and Iowa State.

Three weeks later, Missouri State began to study how to cut at least $750,000 from its $16 million athletic budget, part of $14 million in cuts at the university. The athletic department is subsidized 67 percent from the university, athletic director Kyle Moats said.

“We’re going to be part of those cuts,” Moats said. “Perfectly understandable. It might be more than ($750,000) by the time they get done.”

Scholarships, sports, operations, travel — cuts to all areas are on the table at MSU. Moats sees a trend from broad-based athletics to fewer options, putting sports such as tennis, swimming and track and field at risk. His department sponsors field hockey and is one of six MVC schools with a swimming and diving team.

“Are you going to be able to be good and fund a lot of sports, or are you going to have to reduce the number of sports?” Moats said. “That’s difficult. It’s difficult from a morale situation, and it’s difficult philosophically.”

The MVC combines its four surviving men’s tennis programs with Stony Brook for its championship. In late January, SIU dropped men’s and women’s tennis as part of $1 million in reduction in the department over the past 18 months.

“In light of the severe budget environment, we simply ran out of options,” SIU athletic director Tommy Bell said in a news release. “Athletics must do its part.”

The MVC’s private schools — Bradley, Drake, Evansville and Loyola — also face issues.

“Right now at Bradley, we can sustain the subsidy of college athletics,” Bradley president Gary Roberts told the Peoria Journal Star. “But barely. If that deficit were to grow anymore, it would get very problematic for us.”

Subsidies from the school and state are at the heart of the matter. WSU’s athletic department, while not immune to pressures in Kansas, is insulated from some state budget issues because of its success and large base of support from boosters and corporations. It is also not trying to fund football, as the other five MVC public universities do.

Around 30 percent of WSU’s budget comes from the school (including student fees). The state of Kansas kicks in around $2.5 million, most of which goes to salaries, Boatright said. Around 70 percent of the department’s budget of around $25 million comes from ticket sales, media rights, contributions and NCAA payments.

“We do receive state appropriations, but the percentage is much lower than the norm,” Boatright said.

That funding formula is flipped at most MVC public schools, where they receive around 70 percent of their budgets from the state and institution and around 30 percent from ticket sales, donations and media rights. Northern Iowa, according to the Peoria Journal Star, is close to a 50-50 split.

The MVC faced similar issues before and survives.

Elgin points to progress in basketball facilities, coaching salaries and TV exposure for all sports in recent seasons. MVC women’s basketball showed encouraging signs with two teams in the NCAA Tournament — Drake and at-large pick Northern Iowa. MVC volleyball regularly places multiple teams in the NCAA Tournament and the addition of Dallas Baptist for baseball is helping land bids.

“We haven’t surrendered,” Elgin said. “There are conferences that I think have an understanding that they are one-bid leagues. I don’t think that will ever be us, and not just in basketball.”

This story was originally published March 15, 2017 at 2:10 PM with the headline "Missouri Valley schools deal with budget cuts across campus lines."