The elimination of four sports programs, a one-third reduction in scholarship dollars and reduced travel for the famed "Marching 100" is the price Florida A&M Interim Athletic Director E. Newton Jackson has opted to pay for a balanced athletic budget.

Jackson told the members of the FAMU board of trustees' Budget and Finance Committee on Wednesday that those moves in combination with several other cost-cutting measures will help the athletic department manage a proposed 2005-06 operating budget of approximately $6.7 million. Overall, Jackson has proposed a reduction of more than $2.5 million from the current year's budget.

Men's tennis, men's golf and men's and women's swimming and diving will be eliminated, reducing the school's total number of athletics programs to 14.

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