In the aftermath of considerable budget cuts coming from North Carolina lawmakers, resulting in N.C . State cutting about 15 percent of its budget, the athletics will have some hard decisions to make in the future.
Students are already aware of how the cuts affect their wallets due to the increases in tuition and fees, which in part have funded the recent renovations throughout campus.
Aside from those visible costs that push the price of a four-year education, the athletics program has also contributed to the financial punch, with a projected operation budget of roughly $55 million for the upcoming academic year.
This has been increasing since the days of the Lee Fowler era where N.C . State athletics operated at around $40 million – second to last in the ACC. The Wolfpack Club is also a major contributor to State athletics, with donations totaling around $27 million in 2009.
Even though this was great when looked at from the perspective of how many thousands of dollars students and parents have to dispense, State fans were definitely not pleased with the mediocre performance of the athletics program as a whole.
Athletics Director Debbie Yow said she believes it takes money to build a winning program in collegiate athletics, which was the practice she put in placed during her tenure at the University of Maryland at College Par. Under her leadership, the athletics program won 20 total national championships. In 2009, UM operated on an estimated budget of $61 million, which was the highest in the ACC.
With these proposed increases in the athletics budget, the money does have to come from somewhere. Last year, Yow proposed an increase in student fees for athletic costs, and it is more than likely that this will happen again.
“We’re probably going to ask for a student [fees] increase, but we don’t know how much,” Yow said. “It’s an interesting dynamic. When the campus raises tuition that’s an expense for two groups, it’s revenue for everyone else. It’s an expense for students and for athletics because we pay our scholarships for our student athletes. So we’re getting hit. Every time the tuition goes up we’re getting a new and larger bill.”
The bulk of this ‘larger bill’ comes from costs that are handed down from the state, which all athletics programs in the state system have to compensate for.
“We don’t receive any state funding at all,” Associate Athletic Director for Business and Finance Diane Moose said.
“We used to get it,” Yow said. “It was an out-of-state tuition wavier for scholarships that would’ve saved us $2 million this year, but last July the state took that away.”
This time around, according to Yow , the program is actively seeking other sources of revenue to prevent a significant increase in student fees.
“We’re looking for new revenue sources,” Yow said. “Isn’t everyone? Multimedia is on the list. So [are] apparel deals. When people step up and say that we’ll pay you this amount, you have to look at the amount and say ‘why don’t we hold and not make any deal and wait.’
“We know we’re going to be successful later and then we can get more money, but we have to ask ourselves if we want to plunge into a five or ten year deal with anyone. We’re just weighing all of that right now. “
All things considered, Yow and her staff are definitely taking the concerns of all parties involved into consideration before making any major decisions.
