Can Fresno State afford to take advantage of new eligibility relief granted by NCAA?

The NCAA on Friday approved legislation to provide an extra year of eligibility to all fall sport student-athletes impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, a seemingly easy call that could prove to be a severe burden for Fresno State and many other FBS athletics departments.

“It’s going to be a problem everywhere,” a department official said. “It’s something everyone is going to have to figure out financially.”

It could in fact be a tipping point for the Bulldogs, who have been trying to make it through a significant hit in revenues due to the coronavirus pandemic with its portfolio of 21 sports programs intact.

As in March when the NCAA canceled spring sports championship events and extended eligibility for student-athletes, returning seniors in fall sports will not count against scholarship limits for next year.

Fresno State was able to welcome back all of its seniors in spring sports who chose to return, but the athletics department did not make additional scholarship money available.

“Everything,” athletics director Terry Tumey said at the time, “is going to have to be done within the existing framework.”

Why new rule has bigger financial impact

It was less than ideal, but workable in equivalency sports where a scholarship can be split among two or more student-athletes, as long as it does not exceed the total limit for their sport.

Football and women’s volleyball are head-count sports, as are men’s and women’s basketball in the winter and women’s tennis in the spring, and student-athletes in those sports receive a full scholarship. That bill for Fresno State in 2019 came to $2.7 million for football, $400,000 for women’s volleyball, $442,504 and $537,113 for men’s and women’s basketball and $273,580 for women’s tennis, according to its NCAA revenue and expense report.

The NCAA on Friday did not mandate funding for additional fall sports scholarships, but said that seniors who do come back will not count toward scholarship limits in 2021-22.

It prohibited schools from requiring student-athletes to sign a waiver of legal rights regarding COVID-19 to participate in fall sports, and canceling or reducing scholarship aid of a student-athlete who chooses not to participate in a season due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The NCAA also will look to move all fall sports championships to the spring, if they can be conducted safely and in accordance with federal, state and local health and safety guidelines.

“We want to provide opportunities for student-athletes whenever possible,” said Texas State president Denise Trauth, acting chair of the NCAA Division I board of directors, in a news release. “We understand it will be complicated and different, and we’re not certain how it will look. But we believe it’s important to try to give students that championship experience.”

Charting Fresno State scholarship dollars

Fresno State invested more than $8.1 million in scholarship aid for its 21 sports programs last year, and hasn’t for years come close to raising the funds to cover the full cost of scholarships and cost of attendance stipends.

Without a significant bump in fundraising for scholarships, lowering the total bill could be the Bulldogs’ best option to cut costs and accommodate its fall and spring student-athletes who want to return along with incoming recruits.

It certainly would not be the first department to trim sports programs due to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on university and athletics revenues.

Iowa, in the Big Ten Conference, cut four sports on Friday while facing a budget shortfall projected between $60 million and $75 million.

It will have 20 sports programs after eliminating men’s gymnastics, men’s tennis and men’s and women’s swimming and diving, and in 2019 it had operating revenues of more than $151 million

Fresno State, with its 21 sports programs, had revenues of $49.8 million.

Stanford in July dropped 11 sports programs at the end of the 2020-21 academic year. Nebraska announced on Friday that it was furloughing 51 people and all other athletics staff members would take a 10% pay cut from Sept. 1 through the end of the year to cut costs.

Boise State dropped its women’s swimming and diving and baseball programs in July, and it had just started playing baseball again after a 40-year hiatus.

At least nine Division I schools have dropped men’s tennis programs during the pandemic, eight have dropped women’s tennis, and baseball, men’s and women’s swimming and men’s track programs also have been cut.

The Mountain West requires its membership to compete in football, men’s and women’s basketball and women’s volleyball as well as one other women’s team sport and additional men’s and women’s sports needed to meet membership standards for the NCAA football bowl subdivision.

Is cutting sports an answer?

Fresno State has eight other sports with annual operating expenses of more than $1 million – baseball, wrestling, equestrian, women’s lacrosse, women’s soccer, softball, women’s swimming and diving and women’s track and field/cross country.

Men’s and women’s golf, men’s and women’s tennis and men’s track and field/cross country had operating expenses of less than $600,000.

Even while retaining scholarship costs, which would go down as every year student-athletes graduate, the athletics department could cut costs considerably by eliminating sports and associated team travel costs, coaching salaries, benefits and bonuses, recruiting, game and medical expenses and equipment and uniforms.

University president Joseph Castro has been against dropping sports programs, but in April left open that possibility given a projected sharp decline in revenues due to COVID-19.

“The pandemic has already affected the university and auxiliary organization budgets,” Castro said in a statement, responding to questions from The Fresno Bee.

“Like other universities across the nation, we have experienced a significant loss of revenue in areas such as dining, housing, parking, athletics, Save Mart Center and other auxiliary operations. In addition, the state of California has delayed its assessment of tax receipts, which will delay the final 2020-21 state budget allocation to the California State University until early fall. The Governor’s May revision to the proposed 2020-21 state budget will guide our budget planning for next fiscal year.

“We have already imposed a pause on virtually all new hiring and ceased all business travel and event expenses for the foreseeable future. Other options for reducing costs will be considered in the coming weeks and months.”

This story was originally published August 22, 2020 at 5:00 AM.