bernard
THEE Realist
With state budget cuts this year and next year, I don't see foresee any increases in athletic budgets.
http://www.clarionledger.com/story/...allest-athletic-budgets-division-1/457257001/
Mississippi’s SWAC schools have three of the 10 smallest athletic budgets in Division 1, according to a study released Thursday by USA Today.
The study found that among the 347 colleges and universities that compete in the NCAA’s top division, Jackson State ranked 337, Alcorn ranked 341 and Mississippi Valley State spent less than any other school in the country.
More troubling is the revelation that all three schools rank at or near the bottom in the Southwestern Athletic Conference in terms of both spending and revenue.
Records show Jackson State had the seventh-largest budget in the 10-team conference with a total operating budget of $7.6 million.
That’s nearly $1 million more than Alcorn State ($6.75 million), which ranked ninth in the league, and $3.3 million more than Mississippi Valley State ($4.29 million), which was last.
The fact that college athletics is not an even playing field or that historically black colleges face financial obstacles other schools don’t have to deal with shouldn’t surprise anyone. But the numbers reveal the lengths that Mississippi’s SWAC athletic directors must go to keep their department’s head above water.
Spoiler alert: It’s a lot harder than you think.
“To say that it’s not tough would be telling a tale,” Jackson State athletic director Wheeler Brown said. “We do what we can with what we have to work with. You have to look at things like scheduling regionally, look at stretching your uniform budget as far as you can. Just try to find creative ways to get things done.”
http://www.clarionledger.com/story/...allest-athletic-budgets-division-1/457257001/