College Maryland Cutting A&t

I know there may be some conflicts of interest, but I feel like Varsity or Jambrands should maybe think about anything they could or sponsor to help raise funds. After all it is about furthering the sport, right?? Thoughts??

I think it has focused on NCATA vs NCA a bit because I orignally wanted opinions on how this would impact NCATA and their status with NCAA. It may seem like it won't do much because it is only 1 school, but UMD was a big name involved in NCATA and I really hope that other schools don't see what Maryland is doing and follow suit.

Alumni donations will help raise the money but with less then a year can they get enough alumni on board to give that much money? I know that alumni often make large donations but how many of those alum will give that much to those two programs? Goodluck to the athletes and I do hope that they are able to raise the money.

blingmeup said:

I know there may be some conflicts of interest, but I feel like Varsity or Jambrands should maybe think about anything they could or sponsor to help raise funds. After all it is about furthering the sport, right?? Thoughts??

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Would a sponsorship from Jam or Varsity violate NCATA's mission and what they are trying to achieve and develop?

ztaprincess said:

Alumni donations will help raise the money but with less then a year can they get enough alumni on board to give that much money? I know that alumni often make large donations but how many of those alum will give that much to those two programs? Goodluck to the athletes and I do hope that they are able to raise the money.

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I had a specific alum in mind. The founders of Under Armour are Maryland alum.

wcdad said:

Would a sponsorship from Jam or Varsity violate NCATA's mission and what they are trying to achieve and develop?

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Prob right, was just trying to think large scale donors, but @Andre has the right idea!!

Andre said:

I had a specific alum in mind. The founders of Under Armour are Maryland alum.

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Ah yes that would be one great alum for donation, the question is would they be willing to give so much? the $9.4 is just for 2 of the sports and I wouldn't see them just donating to some and not all the others. Would be great if they did.

Andre said:

I had a specific alum in mind. The founders of Under Armour are Maryland alum.

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I had read somewhere that they donated all the different helmets and uniforms for the footbal team.. What's a little more money at that point.

ztaprincess said:

Ah yes that would be one great alum for donation, the question is would they be willing to give so much? the $9.4 is just for 2 of the sports and I wouldn't see them just donating to some and not all the others. Would be great if they did.

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I don't think they are going to car wash and bake sale themselves into that kind of money so I would target people/organizations that can make a multimillion dollar contribution.

coachrah said:

Thank you for finding this and sharing. Very informative. So basically, basketball and football are the only SAFE sports when the economy gets tough? Even Olympic medal sport (Swimming/Diving) etc. have no safe harbor. How sad for all the athletes on all these teams. Hopefully all of the kids on all 8 teams will find another way to participate in the sport they love.

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And I am wondering WHY basketball is a safe sport…case in point: University of Maryland is home to the 15 highest-earning state workers, and the great majority of the 1,346 employees who outearn Gov. Martin O'Malley. UMD women's basketball coach Brenda Frese ranks third in the database of state worker earnings $957,523.

Yes she has one a national championship. Yes, her players graduate. Yes, she is a well liked and a dynamic sports personality. Yes, Maryland has had one highest attendance records for home games versus Duke. The truth is most games draw fewer than 5,000 spectators who pay $10 or less to attend the game. Student attendance for most games is non-existent, unless members from the men's team come to show their support. There are limited revenues from TV with only a few games televised. Maryland women's basketball does provide young female athletes and their families interest in college athletics. Yeah, all 14 of them.

As quoted in the paper this week, "However, is Brenda Freece's salary a sound business decision? What did the university get in return for that nearly million-dollar investment? Students paying an athletics fee, fans buying tickets and merchandise, alumni donating money — made Frese this state's third-highest paid employee last year, and in return, her program lost the school $1.7 million. That's enough to pay for a year's worth of in-state tuition and fees for 197 students. So naturally, Athletic Director Kevin Anderson extended Frese's contract this summer, ensuring at least one toxic asset will remain on the books through at least 2017".

The total expenses (according to OCR EADA Report for 2010) for UMD's basketball was $2,595,713. ("Game Day" expenses were $270,235). There are 14 athletes on the women's team. That is $185,408.07 ($19,303 "Game Day") spent on EACH BASKETBALL ATHLETE. Acrobatics and Tumbling spent $609,943 last year (all expenses), had 39 reported athletes….or $15,639.56 per athlete. The "Game Day" expenses of $117,118 was $3,003 per athlete.

According to the UMD President. "The University of Maryland has one of the largest slates of varsity sports in the Atlantic Coast Conference and in the nation. As a result, given current budget realities, our teams are among the most thinly funded in the ACC on a per student-athlete basis" SO WHAT?

So, is the university worried about not enough revenue? Or are they concerned with the "status" of where they fit into the ACC regarding the per student-athlete basis? THIS MAKES NO SENSE!!!!

By the way…the UMD women's basketball team brought in $885,420. The UMD Acrobatic and Tumbling Team brought in $349,066. The total revenue brought in by all sports, all everything was $58,114,084. The total expenses for the athletics department for all of everything was $57,501,307….a shortfall of $612,777. There are 75 Track men, 95 track women and 39 A & T athletes…total 209 athletes. They are being asked to raise 9 million for the next 8 years. That's $43,062.20 each athlete will need to raise…and they are raising for a generation of student-athlete team they will not even be a part of!!! There are 210 days from now until the deadline…or roughly $43,062.20 per day must be raised.

My vote would be to eliminate the women's SAFE SPORT, basketball. The expenses would drop to $55,515,537. The revenue drops to $57,228,664. By my math, this is a surplus of $1.7 million dollars!!!!!! Yes, it would drop the President's ACC standings…but who care? Why is this even important?

Can ANYONE tell me why UMD's Women's Basketball is still there?

Future said:

Can ANYONE tell me why UMD's Women's Basketball is still there?

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I'm guessing here, but probably because Women's BB is required to be part of the ACC and the ACC TV contract is where the majority of the revenue comes from.

[I said:

Can ANYONE tell me why UMD's Women's Basketball is still there?[/I]

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Simple... Basketball is a recognized sport by the NCAA and like @Andre said its a required sport for membership in the ACC. The comparison of a Women's Basketball program at a major D1 school vs. an "emerging sport" that is not recognized by the NCAA is like the old saying goes "apple vs oranges"

Also look to the Quinnipiac case for example. They tried to cut their Women's Volleyball program and keep their A&T program and lost in court. The way Title IX is set up you simply can NOT cut any NCAA recognized women's sports without having some extremely solid grounds for doing so or you will instantly be sued and all but guarantee yourself a loss in court and have to pay reparations.

GDaddyLS said:

Simple... Basketball is a recognized sport by the NCAA and like @Andre said its a required sport for membership in the ACC. The comparison of a Women's Basketball program at a major D1 school vs. an "emerging sport" that is not recognized by the NCAA is like the old saying goes "apple vs oranges"

Also look to the Quinnipiac case for example. They tried to cut their Women's Volleyball program and keep their A&T program and lost in court. The way Title IX is set up you simply can NOT cut any NCAA recognized women's sports without having some extremely solid grounds for doing so or you will instantly be sued and all but guarantee yourself a loss in court and have to pay reparations.

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With that logic, why is swimming, track and field and water polo being cut?

Future said:

With that logic, why is swimming, track and field and water polo being cut?

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B/c they're not a "major sport" Basketball is a staple sport for any university... Even schools that don't have football teams have basketball. Not to mention "IF" any of the programs you've listed ever have a chance of actually making money it would be basketball and not swimming, track, or water polo. Basketball would always be last on the list next to football to be cut.

At least with Basketball you've got the opportunity for sponsorships at games, with giveaways and advertisements, and in the chance your team wins a national championship studies have shown winning national championships in major sports (ex. football and basketball) helps your enrollment which in turn helps the bottom line of the university with tuition and fees from new students.

The sad part is that I know NCATA and even NCA STUNT have put hours and hours of work into trying to gain NCAA sanctioning to Competitive Cheer/Acrobatics and Tumbling. They are doing what SHOULD be done. That is, bring an emerging sport like competitive cheer into the spotlight and get it recognized. This a hard and complex task because everybody combines comp cheer, sideline cheer, coed cheer, rec cheer, high school cheer, all-star cheer, college cheer...and even pom-poms into the same category! Very hard, and this is why the Quinnipiac Comp Cheer vs Volleyball court case was critical in understanding what was needed to get comp cheer their DUE recognition. People might not like the format of A&T but it was required after the ruling in the Quinnipiac ruling. So we may have a fight ahead of us, but it is WORTH IT!!!

Stay Tuned and IF YOU CARE FOR THIS SPORT...PLEASE SUPPORT UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND in VOICE , NUMBERS AND $$$

GDaddyLS said:

B/c they're not a "major sport" Basketball is a staple sport for any university... Even schools that don't have football teams have basketball. Not to mention "IF" any of the programs you've listed ever have a chance of actually making money it would be basketball and not swimming, track, or water polo. Basketball would always be last on the list next to football to be cut.

At least with Basketball you've got the opportunity for sponsorships at games, with giveaways and advertisements, and in the chance your team wins a national championship studies have shown winning national championships in major sports (ex. football and basketball) helps your enrollment which in turn helps the bottom line of the university with tuition and fees from new students.

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Cannot understand UMD losing 1.7 million PER YEAR with Women's BB…..they are NOT doing it right.