UNI's Budget Tightening Continues

[Snaggletooth]

I think the question that was asked, that I don't see an answer to, is how are Creighton and Wichita State adversely affected by the lower budgets of some of the other schools in the conference?

Perfect example - Dallas Baptist. They wanted to join the MVC in baseball. There are certain schools in the conference that fought the whole way because they didn't want to incur travel cost of having to go to Dallas every other year. Of course UNI wasn't involved because they already dropped baseball.

Care to share which schools didn't want them to join the conference due to travel?

Missouri State, Evansville, and SIU all traveled to Dallas Baptist this year for a weekend series.

Illinois St was one I heard, not sure who of the other 2 were against it (it take 6 of 8 MVC schools to approve)

MVC associate commissioner Joe Mitch said not all schools agreed on adding Dallas Baptist, with travel costs one reason. Six of the eight MVC baseball schools needed to approve Dallas Baptist.

"We had a good mix of schools that were supportive, and those, for various reasons, that were not supportive."

CU AD said this about the MVC this week about baseball

“Too often, the vote is decided not based on quality of facilities, not based on quality of program, not based on number and quality of your fan support. It’s based on geography.”

[DoubleJayAlum]

There have been good points made on both sides of this. But in the end I don't think it means that much. I'm fairly certain if you look at BCS and non BCs conferences across the country there are pretty wide discrepancies among member schools in the amount of $$ that are spent on sports and b-ball in particular in every single conference.

The question is does that $$ spent translate to more success. It would be interesting to graph $$ spent on b-ball in the Valley (or any conference) and look at how that correlates with success in the win column. I'd be willing to bet it is a factor but not nearly as much as some would suggest.

You raise some valid points. I think that $$ spent will have an even greater impact going forward though. As we are seeing by the ridiculous TV contracts being thrown at the big conferences, it is only going to get more expensive to compete. If some schools are already maxed out, how are they going to compete against the even higher money the other conferences are getting?

The old maxim is that you are judged by the company you keep and I'm concerned that the Valley is slipping or being passed by. Since 2007, it has been a downhill slide. We didn't have 2 teams in the tourney for several years until we got two this last season. When MSU won the regular season crown, they couldn't even get an at large because the RPIs of the other schools in the conference were so low. We used to be at the top of the midmajor ladder. The A10 has vaulted past us and has solidified the spot as the top nonBCS conference for the foreseeable future. The WCC (Gonzaga's conference) and CAA (prior to the recent departures) were averaging more tourney bids than the MVC and had passed us as well. The WCC also improved itself by adding BYU. The MWC routinely averages multiple bids.

Where is the MVC headed? The improvements in the other non BCS conferences identified above gives them a recruiting advantage over the MVC. It also makes it harder to get our games on TV. Even the CAA got a better TV deal than the MVC got!

[DoubleJayAlum]

If competition in the Valley continues to erode, then it will be more difficult for WSU and CU to recruit the talent they need to compete on a national level. There are exceptions. Butler, Gonzaga, and VCU have demonstrated that a team can be nationally significant while playing in a "weaker" conference.

Based on numbers of NCAA tourney bids, I'm not sure that one can say that the WCC and CAA (at least before the recent departures) were weaker then the MVC. Both of those conferences had been receiving multiple bids (prior to this last season) for several years. The WCC had Gonzaga and St Mary's as regular tourney participants and added another regular participant when they picked up BYU. (As an aside, why didn't the MVC pick up BYU? Is it beyond the realm of possibility to believe that the eastern schools would have voted against such an addition because it would only mean more travel for them? Remember- some of them didn't even want the MVC_MWC challenge because of the travel involved.)

As to Butler, the fact that they jumped at a chance to join the A10 when offered, shows where they think the whole college athletic world is headed. The same is probably also true of VCU.

[beatingrillz]

If competition in the Valley continues to erode, then it will be more difficult for WSU and CU to recruit the talent they need to compete on a national level. There are exceptions. Butler, Gonzaga, and VCU have demonstrated that a team can be nationally significant while playing in a "weaker" conference.

Based on numbers of NCAA tourney bids, I'm not sure that one can say that the WCC and CAA (at least before the recent departures) were weaker then the MVC. Both of those conferences had been receiving multiple bids (prior to this last season) for several years. The WCC had Gonzaga and St Mary's as regular tourney participants and added another regular participant when they picked up BYU. (As an aside, why didn't the MVC pick up BYU? Is it beyond the realm of possibility to believe that the eastern schools would have voted against such an addition because it would only mean more travel for them? Remember- some of them didn't even want the MVC_MWC challenge because of the travel involved.)

As to Butler, the fact that they jumped at a chance to join the A10 when offered, shows where they think the whole college athletic world is headed. The same is probably also true of VCU.

BYU is a hassle because of scheduling that is likely why they ended up in the WCC and not a higher profile conference.

[DoubleJayAlum]

Let's check out the parts of the article you don't want other posters to read.

We’re at point now where frankly, it’s never been better,” Dannen said. “There’s nothing on the radar screen that will take that away from us.

This is what in the political world is known as "spin." Is UNI leaner and more efficient now? I can buy that. Is UNI in a better position than when they had a baseball team to support and were fabricating revenues on NCAA reports? Probably. But if one wants to legitimately beleive that the athletic department is in a better position now after having funding cut by a HALF OF A MILLION DOLLARS, I'd suspect that person is a classic language or European literature degree holder and never stepped foot in UNI's accounting department. Take a look at it would take to raise $500,00 in revenue at UNI----

UNI had average attendance last year of 4400 (a figure which will be going down in the future since they lose the yearly home games against Iowa or Iowa St). Assuming that 3000 of those tickets sold are season tickets (that would be 68% which is probably a bit high), UNI would have to raise season tickets by $167 each to raise that money (assuming of course that this price increase didn't keep anyone from canceling their season tickets). Remember - doing this wouldn't gain UNI even one dollar of additional revenue; it would only replace the $500K that will be slashed from the budget.

Now here is where it gets really scary - if you implement the ticket increase identified above, you only replace the cut budget funds for one year. UNI's athletic budget reduction, however, is in effect indefinitely! That means that UNI would have to increase season tickets by this figure EVERY SINGLE YEAR going forward just to maintain the funding levels it had before the cuts (funding levels, by the way, that required the dropping of baseball and selling out the football team to increasing numbers of BCS buy games, increasing the chances of injuries, etc).

To pretend that these cuts won't impact basketball at all seems to beg credibility. What if JAcobson wants another raise? What if his assistants want a raise? What is the impact on the recruiting budget? What about scheduling? Does it make it more likely that UNI would have to pass on quality home and home series because they travel costs to play at an east coast or west coast venue are too expensive?

At the moment, UNI might be stable. But as operating costs continue to increase, what will UNI have to do just to pay those fixed costs?

[Kyle]

So much is wrong with your post, I won't go into each inaccurate statement, but I do have one question.

Why will UNI need to increase MBB season ticket revenue by $500,000 every year to make up for a $500,000 cut?

[valleychamp]

As usual, stunningly great display of spin and ignorance by you, DJA. Well done. I don't know how much more wrong a single post could be, so there has to be some admiration for your troll skills, quite frankly.

-You are severely underestimating the donors at UNI.
-Great math skills displayed by you.
-UNI has already come out and said that playing in the "Big 4" event in Des Moines each year will be more lucrative than hosting Iowa/ISU. There is no lost revenue there, whatsoever.
-Jake already gets a $25K raise every single year plus bonuses. If he ever feels like he needs to ask for more money (he wont), then our donors will step up to the plate and give it to him, just as they did last time when they gave him a 400% salary increase in a matter of hours. And when he asked for some more money/benefits for his assistants last year, we gave it to him.

[jwa123]

UNI would pound Creighton in football every year if Creighton had a football team. Yes I know UNI plays FCS football but they have one of the class programs in FCS. They are always a threat to win the MVFC year in and year out and the MVFC is arguably the strongest FCS conference in the country. In the vast majority of years they are a threat to win the FCS national championship. Also, I am not trying to speak in disdain for Creighton as they have been extremely successful in basketball because they have done the right things. I am merely pointing out that when looking at UNI there is a bigger picture beyond basketball.

As for basketball, UNI is always competitive in basketball. In recent years they have gone further in the NCAA tournament than any other MVC team.

UNI may not have top drawer facilities but they have quality facilities. I'm not associated with nor do I root for UNI as my heart lies in central Illinois but I have the utmost respect for what UNI does both academically and athletically.

I'm puzzled why we are bashing UNI given their success in recent years in not only basketball.

[Snaggletooth]

I'm puzzled why we are bashing UNI given their success in recent years in not only basketball.

Maybe be DJA knows that they Abyss is calling UNI?

[DoubleJayAlum]

UNI would pound Creighton in football every year if Creighton had a football team.

And if my aunt had balls, she'd be my uncle. More significantly, I never said a single thing about the quality of UNI's FB team. I'm at a loss as to what point your were trying to make (I suspect you were just trying to take a cheap shot).

I'm puzzled why we are bashing UNI given their success in recent years in not only basketball.

First of all, I don't understand why discussing financial cuts is "bashing". Are we only allowed to discuss positive developments here? Why are UNI's financial cuts off limits for discussion? Are schools' abilities to fund athletic departments not valid topics, especially in the present environment of conference realignment driven primarily by finances?

As to the gist of your question - UNI's success came before the recent half a million dollar cuts. As the price to compete in college sports goes up, UNI and other schools are going in the opposite direction.