Coaching, athletic programs and budget issues…Yikes!
January 12, 2009 by ashields
Filed under Basketball, NCAA, Sportsmanship
Talk about a difficult task. With the economy basically falling apart and with the daily reports saying the end is nowhere to be seen, everyone in this country has to be feeling some effects. I myself, am one of those people feeling the pinch.
As a Division III basketball coach with a fairly small budget to start with, the imploding economy is really no help! Our recruiting budget was slashed to nearly ziltch, travel plans/funds were drastically cut, and the overall morale of my school has been declining for months. It’s tough to recruit in such times, but even more difficult to recruit with no budget.
I can imagine I am not alone in my feelings of angst and frustration with money contraints, so what are the smaller colleges and universities to do? Why are the extracurricular activities the first to go? How about cutting out those university 101 courses that allow all freshmen to hate life and learning about their school?
That should provide some much-needed funds towards athletics. Or, how about cutting the salaries of the over-paid professors that never darken their classroom’s doorway so their TA’s can teach? Such a world will never exist…
While I follow as many sports as I can and focus on a few, I also worry about what’s going to happen in general. If I could, I’d go to a college sporting event of any kind every night. Now of course that’s just not possible, but the thing is I think the loss of any team anywhere is tough. I also think athletics really get a bad rap against the “academic” environment of college which completely ignores that a lot of athletes are excellent in class. And even if not, everyone can’t be good at everything. Some people are experts are certain fields and don’t have a college degree. But I’m just musing.
The main point is there is a lot of waste at colleges, waste that has nothing to do with either the athletics side or core academics. There should be room for both if the other stuff is cut out of the way.
And what is missed in this discussion is that most colleges can offer a similar academic curriculum, but it’s the extracurriculars, clubs, sports, internships, and networking that actually help one move onto the real world (with exceptions, ya can’t network into nuclear physics if you can’t do the actual science.)
Plus to the community, college sports are an amazing bargain. For 2 bucks, 5 bucks, something cheap ya get to see a game that’ll cost plenty more at the pro level. Never mind that college sports rivalries can at times be incredibly interesting just by nature. I even think the idea of Simmons and Emerson playing each other is incredibly intriguing.
I sincerely hope that some administrators will go into this economy and the next few years thinking clearly and not making rash decisions.