Storm Clouds Loom

While the prospect of Brett Favre not appearing at the Vikings’ fall camp has dominated the airwaves and sports pages in Mankato, Minnesota, the prospect of a future without swimming is weighing heavy in the minds of the Minnesota State-Mankato athletes.  Faced with a $5.8 billion budget deficit, Governor Tim Pawlenty has proposed $48 million in permanent cuts to Minnesota’s higher education budget just a year after $100 in unallotments.

The trickle-down has left Minnesota State-Mankato looking to purge athletic expenditures by $225,000-$275,000, according to Director of Athletics Kevin Buisman.  That reduction is in addition to a $500,000 cut from this year’s budget.  

At Saint Cloud State University, administrators were able to address previous cuts with cash reserves, but now those reserves are gone and SCSU’s coaches and administrators are looking to pare $500,000 from their budget.  As SCSU President Earl H. Potter III explained “Athletics is going to have to make cuts to bring its budget into line with the revenues that it has.”

The cuts, it appears, will not be applied equally throughout athletic departments. “While regrettable, the loss of some of our sports is inevitable,” explained MSU-Mankato’s Buismann, “especially in light of what is happening with the loss of other academic programs and positions at the University.”

MSU-Mankato’s plan calls for discontinuing four programs, including men’s swimming beginning fall 2011. Buisman said these reductions will mean the loss of more than 50 participation opportunities for current student-athletes, but will generate more than $193,000 in annual savings.  

At Saint Cloud State, Head Coach Jeff Hegle has been proactively been working to both pare down his own budget and secure outside funding for the team’s operating budget.  SCSU’s Husky 200 Initiative would enlist the support of two-hundred alumni, friends and families of Husky swimming to commit $100 annually for ten years.  Working in conjunction with the University Foundation, revenues from the fund would actually exceed the team’s current operating budget.  

This isn’t the first time swimming has been targeted at Mankato.  Slated for elimination a decade ago, the department reversed its decision when it was shown that projected savings were overstated and that the department had rejected a potential $100,000 contribution from alumnus Kevin Polansky.  

Since then, Head Coach Nathan Owens has revived the long-dormant program.  With just $6,300 in scholarship money, Owens has made the Mavericks a consistent top-twenty program, had thirty swimmers earn over one-hundred All-American honors and produced Olympic and Canadian Olympic Trials qualifiers.

The MSU-Mankato athletic recommendation is preliminary and will be discussed with various meet-and-confer bargaining groups in coming weeks.  Final decisions will be made in March 2011, following the legislative appropriations cycle, with an implementation date effective Fall 2011.  Saint Cloud will be looking at ideas in the coming month.

“We’re encountering some of the toughest economic issues in our university’s history, and athletics is part of that,” SCSU Athletic Director Morris Kurtz told the St. Cloud Times. “We have to sit down with our coaches and administration and work on different proposals to resolve these economic issues. We’ve already had numerous meetings over the summer, and we’re working toward facing these challenges.”

Buisman said maintaining the quality and excellence of Minnesota State athletics was the top priority in determining the proposed reductions. Other criteria include:

• Criteria #1-Impact on gender equity and proportionality.  Fundamentally the University’s commitment to Title IX and gender equity compliance through proportionality will guide any and all decisions regarding potential sport program cuts.   
• Criteria #2-Revenue generation potential and local economic impact.  Attendance history and level of fan interest.
• Criteria #3-Alignment with NSIC championship portfolio.  Within budgetary limitations, the University desires to continue offering a broad-based and comprehensive intercollegiate program that assimilates closely with the championships sponsored by the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (17 sports; 9 women/8 men).
• Criteria #4-Competitive history of program.    This included not only competitive results at the conference, regional, and national level, but also the number of sponsoring institutions within the conference, across the region, and on a nationwide basis.
• Criteria #5- Quality and availability of practice and competition facilities.

 “As the school year ended we were able to share these criteria with the president and his Cabinet, through the University meet and confer process, and with all of our head coaches,” Buisman said.  “Decisions like this are never easy, but these criteria provided us a framework for strategic decision-making.”

 “I appreciate the work that has gone into formulating these recommendations," said MSU-Mankato President Richard Davenport.  "It is not an easy process, but one that every department has had to manage its way through as we prepare and plan proactively for the budget challenges ahead.  Unfortunately, the solution meant downsizing that has included the loss of programs and positions on a university-wide basis and where Athletics was accountable to these same standards.  I am confident, however, that like the rest of the University, the remaining programs will see a future where they are financially more stable and continue to be highly competitive.”