Budgets: a balance game

Graybeal said his department has even considered not ordering new uniforms and looked at all costs associated with game management.

"We ask, 'Does this create a burden for the student-athletes?' " he said. "We try to avoid that at all possible. Internally, our challenge is to provide the same service with fewer people."

Southern Utah has saved money by consolidating some positions within the athletic department.

Athletic director Ken Beazer said the school's compliance person also picked up academics and the employee over fundraising and a booster club also picked up corporate sponsorships and marketing. He even used a student intern to actually take over game management.

"She sat at the table and called the games," he said. "She didn't get paid, but she's leaving with a degree and experience, which will help her walk right into a job."

Beazer said more than 90 percent of his budget goes to three areas — salaries, scholarships and travel — with each accounting for about a third of the total.

"We don't have much fat to trim," he said.

SUU has an exorbitant travel budget being in the Summit Conference, which consists of schools mostly in the Midwest. So not only must the T-Birds bus a few hours to Las Vegas to catch a flight, they often have connecting flights plus more bus rides to places like Moline, Ill., or Fargo, N.D.

"The party line I've been using," said Beazer, "is this: We're very happy with the conference and the relationships, but we would like something to make more sense geographically."

Utah Valley has only been a university for four years and will be joining the Great West Conference next year after being an independent for several years.

Athletic director Mike Jacobsen said UVU is mandated to break even with its $6.5 million budget but has had to take some "pretty significant budget cuts this year" to do that.

"We didn't re-hire at a couple of positions, so we're going to be OK," Jacobsen said. "We eliminated most all of administrative travel and we changed the way we travel a little bit. We watch the way we eat, make sure we're not paying any extra fees on baggage and maybe put two in a room instead of one. We're just being a little more frugal."

Even though UVU is joining a conference, it won't help its travel budget since it has been playing most of the same teams already.

"It's not going to change much," Jacobsen said. "We're still going to the East and Midwest — our regional schools won't play us. It forces us to make long trips. Sometimes we've played a single game, so we're going to pick up another game when we make a big-time trip. It's the smart, economic thing to do."

Utah Valley has the highest fees for students in the state, but according to Jacobsen, there are few complaints from the students.