Budgets: a balance game

After last year's football team went undefeated and was invited to play in the Sugar Bowl, the University of Utah received an unexpected boost of $1.6 million to its athletic program.

Yet, despite that unforeseen windfall, just four years after netting another $2.5 million from a Fiesta Bowl appearance, the Utah athletic department is facing a shortfall of approximately $250,000 at the end of this fiscal year. And next year could be even worse, says Utah athletic director Chris Hill.

"It's what keeps me awake at night," Hill said.

Such is the state of college athletics, which is facing the same economic challenges as the rest of American society.

Last month, Mountain West Conference member New Mexico announced that it would be making 10 percent cuts across the board. A story last week in the New York Times listed several schools, including Washington, Massachusetts, Cincinnati and Stanford, that would be cutting teams to save money on their budgets.

Despite cutbacks around the country, a report commissioned by the NCAA that was released last month showed that major college programs bumped their spending by nearly 11 percent annually, more than double the average rise in universities' overall spending. Top-tier Football Bowl Subdivision schools increased their spending from $31 million in 2004 to $42 million in 2007.

That's more than the entire athletic budgets for the six four-year universities in Utah, which are each having to make cutbacks in order to cope in these tough economic times. Coaches' salaries are escalating, travel costs are higher and donations have diminished. It all adds up to a quandary for athletic departments.

While only Utah and Utah State will admit to finishing in the red this year, none of the other four schools are rolling in cash. Each is right on the edge of losing money and still might before the end of the fiscal year on July 1.

At BYU, athletic director Tom Holmoe says his department has had to scale back in several areas, but he doesn't anticipate a deficit this year thanks to a reserve fund from recent successful years he'll be able to dip into.

Weber State has already laid off two people from a staff about half as big as Utah's and BYU's.

Southern Utah has the added challenge of a new sport next fall (women's volleyball), which will cost an extra couple of hundred thousand dollars.

At Utah Valley, the department has made two significant budget cuts this year and faces increased costs as it joins a new conference next year.