Why Wichita State is cutting athletic department staff right now
The reality of college sports’ new economics has arrived in Wichita in the form of job cuts.
Wichita State reduced the size of its athletic department last week, cutting five total positions across coaching, administrative and academic-support roles, sources confirmed to The Eagle.
The timing was no coincidence. Just last week, university president Richard Muma warned the campus to brace for a 7% budget reduction next fiscal year. The cuts were also part of a broader cost-cutting effort driven by the financial pressures created by the House v. NCAA settlement, the landmark court decision from this past year that now allows schools to directly share revenue with athletes.
Those cuts included an associate athletic director, a senior content producer, an assistant coach on the men’s golf team, an assistant on the women’s golf team and an academic coordinator, according to sources familiar with the situation. When reached for comment, WSU athletic director Kevin Saal said he could not discuss specific personnel matters.
“This is a critical moment for the industry,” Saal wrote to The Eagle. “WSU Athletics, like most athletic departments across the country, is evaluating how to best structure and right-size our operations to remain competitive in Division I. It demands strategic and responsible management to protect the developmental experience of our student-athletes and to ensure the long-term health and viability of WSU Athletics.”
Wichita State is far from alone.
Athletic departments nationwide have begun trimming staff and rethinking budgets as a direct response to the House settlement. Staff reductions have already been reported at some of the sport’s biggest brands, including Michigan, Oklahoma, USC, Arkansas and Kansas, as well as at fellow American Conference member North Texas. For many schools, the settlement has accelerated changes that were already brewing under the weight of ballooning expenses, flat or declining revenues and an increasingly professionalized college sports landscape.
A fuller picture of WSU’s athletic finances has yet to be made public.
WSU has not yet released its annual financial statement for fiscal year 2025, a document that will provide clearer detail on the athletic department’s revenues, expenses and overall financial position as it navigates the new revenue-sharing era.
The Eagle also filed an open records request seeking financial information related to how much WSU is sharing with its student-athletes under the House settlement. The university declined to provide those records, citing federal student privacy protections and the Kansas Uniform Trade Secrets Act.
Schools everywhere are facing the challenge of how to absorb millions of dollars in new annual expenses. For schools like WSU, which does not sponsor football, the pressure is different but no less real: how to remain competitive while donors, corporate partners and conference distributions are increasingly stretched.
While WSU can filter a higher percentage of its funds to men’s basketball than its football-playing rivals in the American, it also lacks the media-rights windfall of football that helps buffer athletic departments. That makes cost control and new revenue generation even more critical.
Saal acknowledged as much in a November 2024 letter to fans when he wrote that “to compete at the level of our collective expectations, Shocker Athletics, Wichita State University and our community must develop $7 million in new recurring annual funding.”
Across the country, athletic directors are being forced to make uncomfortable decisions — reducing staff, consolidating roles, not filling positions — to redirect resources toward athlete compensation and core competitive priorities.
At WSU, those hard decisions arrived quietly last week.
This story was originally published January 27, 2026 at 6:02 AM.
.jpg)