College Report

The sweeping reforms expected to be implemented during this week’s NCAA convention in Nashville, Tenn., will serve to bring many Division I institutions into closer alignment with a philosophy already practiced by the University of Maine – competing successfully on a shoestring budget.

That’s the word from Maine athletic director Kevin White, a member of the NCAA Special Committee for Cost Reduction which is recommending a nation-wide reduction in such expenditures as athletic scholarships and recruiting budgets to the 1,900 delegates at the convention.

“I see other institutions, our counterparts, coming back to Maine relative to the financial support we have,” said White, prior to departing for Nashville. “It’s going to take some of the people who have been really aggressive (spenders) and bring them back to institutions like Maine.”

White said Maine has been a model of fiscal conservatism, both by choice and from necessity. A state-mandated budget cut last year trimmed $400,000 from Maine’s $5 million athletic budget and the threat of more cuts in the near future has resulted in White placing a self-imposed spending and hiring freeze on the department this year.

Half, or more than $2 million of Maine’s athletic budget, is raised from sources other than tax dollars, such as corporate sponsorships, student fees, and gate receipts. White said more efforts will be made to raise outside dollars in the future in the face of declining state support.

Such hand-to-mouth spending runs in stark contrast to the so-called major college athletic programs, which routinely spend $10 million-$20 million on their budgets. Several top level schools spend six figures alone on telephone bills for calls to recruits.

It is the large gap between the higher-spending institutions among the 296 members of Division I and lower echelon programs like Maine that has fueled the grass-roots movement to reduce spending across the board.

“I think it really stems from this escalation of keeping up with the Joneses,” said White. “There’s been warfare escalation in terms of cost and time commitment. It’s grown to disproportionate commitment on both fronts.

“We’ve disenfranchised students in the general population,” continued White, who has served on the special cost reduction committee for two years. “The whole thing has come under evaluation. There’s a need to redefine what role intercollegiate athletics play on campus and in society.”

White said he could not predict if all the reductions the 15-member cost reduction committee is recommending will be implemented. But he is confident there will be much support for the recommendations.

“I think a lot of the concerns we have at Maine are the same as a lot of other institutions. We’re all very fearful of where escalating costs may take us,” he said.

White said no matter how many proposals are adopted at this NCAA convention, they won’t solve all the problems facing intercollegiate athletics. But any changes will demonstrate the NCAA recognizes it has problems and is taking steps to put its house in order.

“There needs to be some degree of symbolism. This convention, because of the magnitude of these themes, will advance and improve the symbolic statement of the role of intercollegiate athletics. I think the convention will adopt basic philosophy themes which will be further refined down the road,” White summed up.