Will the NCAA reduce

[stuball888]

Will the NCAA reduce the minimum 14 team threshold for a team to be in D-1 because of the Corona Virus. Many schools especially mid majors will have major financial issues supporting non revenue sports.

[HofstraMathew]

I wouldn't think so. I think this will actually hurt the big schools more than the mid majors. Has Hofstra really lost much revenue from not having the spring sports? I am sure the CAA will lose revenue from less share of the NCAA basketball tournament pie but is this really going to move the needle on Hofstra's side?

And even the big schools won't really be hurt significantly unless the college football season can't begin as scheduled.

[The Shadow]

Another factor is that HU saved on the travel, hotels, and meals for the spring sport teams which had their seasons stopped. I wonder if this would possibly offset some of the lack of 2020 NCAAT basketball money? Is it possible that some colleges suspend some, or all, of their sports programs until they become more solvent? The invested money from the endowments of the various colleges being affected by the changes in the stock market will also be another serious factor. I can see how some smaller private schools could be greatly affected along with funding from various states to their public colleges. Is it really financially prudent to spend money on various athletic teams, instead of funding the added medical demands? There is much to discuss and determine where these funds would be allotted.

[stuball888]

also Hofstra made money on the NCAA lax tourney. No money there. Also they hosted the high school playoff softball games. Also lost revenue. Losing money on their aquatic center Lost money. Its not like they have a cash cow like Notre dame football and NC and Duke basketball. How will this virus affect the donations and cash endowments. Hopefully they make it up with medical cash endowments.

[HofstraMathew]

also Hofstra made money on the NCAA lax tourney. No money there. Also they hosted the high school playoff softball games. Also lost revenue. Losing money on their aquatic center Lost money. Its not like they have a cash cow like Notre dame football and NC and Duke basketball. How will this virus affect the donations and cash endowments. Hopefully they make it up with medical cash endowments.

That is exactly my point. I doubt those items are really moving the needle compared to the total revenue of Hofstra and there are cost savings from not having them. If Notre Dame doesn't play a college football season that will crush their budget. Yes Hofstra's revenue will be down but there shouldn't be an entire sport cut cause of this. Will they maybe try and be more efficient with the dollars; of course. Maybe we won't be see a cross country and Florida road trip for the basketball team this coming season but to cut an entire sport cause of this would be using it as an excuse and not the actual reason.

[stuball888]

I have said this before but I can see if this cuts into the fall sports for next year. I see midmajors doing double headers mens and womens sports in basketball , baseball-softball mens and womens soccer played so teams can cut down on travel costs.

[EvanJ]

Decisions on conference play have to please schools in different financial situations who make a different percent of their money from different sports. With basketball doubleheaders, do you expect the Women to play at 5:00 P.M. and the Men at 7:30 P.M. every time? What if CBS Sports Network wants a game at 7:00 P.M. or earlier? I don't know what hours the athletes practice and what hours are available for class, but if you have the Women play earlier it can restrict when they have classes, and it would be inconvenient to make sports time changes that further restrict when athletes can take classes after everyone has registered. Would the Men play the second game of every doubleheader? Would that make the Women feel unequal? Men's sports make much more money, but I wonder if JMU would ever have the Men play the first game of a doubleheader because their Women are much better and had almost as high a 2019-2020 attendance. Their Men averaged 2,435, and their Women averaged 2,332. Soccer could be similar to basketball in terms of the feasibility of doubleheaders, but soccer games that can have 20 minutes of overtime make the start time of the second game vary more. Women already play Softball three game series with an individual game and a doubleheader. Depending on how many announcers a school has (any combination of professional and/or student), if they have announcers used to broadcasting the same sport for both genders on different days, it could be an adjustment to have to talk longer in one day to announce a doubleheader, and it would be harder to prepare knowledge of both opponents (by "both" I mean that even if it is the same school the men and women are different people).

Hofstra has free admission to sports except for Men's Basketball, Women's Basketball, Wrestling, and Men's Lacrosse. What if a school charged admission to Men's Soccer but not Women's Soccer and the conference wanted soccer doubleheaders? I'm talking about any team in any conference that would consider that, not just the CAA.

If Fall sports including Football cannot be played and the NCAA resumes with Winter sports, could other teams not making money from Football be good for us? I'm not saying I want that to happen, but I'm wondering.

[Polito]

I am very much on the side that HU should absolutely streamline, and should've years ago when I started harping on this. Mid majors need to focus efforts and dollars - let the big boys fund all the other stuff. HU should have the minimum to be D1, and focus on it's top two sports w/womens right behind. Keep a couple of others that make sense to maintain, and a 'thanks for all you've done' to the rest. Tough but that's biz. ODU just cut its Wrestling program - and it was a good one, w/talent and high end coaching. It's a dwindling sport sadly. Just the beginning of what's to come.

And mid majors will be hurt by what's happening - already have been. HU not having football prob does actually help it here because it was never profitable. But losing the NCAAT has cost P5's millions and mids hundreds of thousands - both are equally devastating because it's all relative.

I do think HU has become more financially sound over the years (sorry, trust me I love and want HU football again too, but unless your P5 the truth is it's a money suck unfortunately), so they should be in decent shape IMO for the near term. But anything long-term, i.e. fall impact, and the collegiate landscape will experience a major shift w/cuts left, right, and center.

Let's hold out hope and optimism though, thinking positive, we are going to overcome this. And although it's certainly not the world priority, nor should it be, but we are going to get back to NCAA sports this fall! Speaking it!!!

[EvanJ]

I am very much on the side that HU should absolutely streamline, and should've years ago when I started harping on this. Mid majors need to focus efforts and dollars - let the big boys fund all the other stuff. HU should have the minimum to be D1, and focus on it's top two sports w/womens right behind. Keep a couple of others that make sense to maintain, and a 'thanks for all you've done' to the rest. Tough but that's biz. ODU just cut its Wrestling program - and it was a good one, w/talent and high end coaching. It's a dwindling sport sadly. Just the beginning of what's to come.

Somebody said the minimum is 14, and we have 17. We have 8 Men's and 9 Women's, so pick 1 Men's and 2 Women's to cut. If you count Baseball and Softball as one sport, our one gender sports are Wrestling, Field Hockey, and Volleyball. We're much better at Volleyball than Field Hockey. Tennis and Golf are possible cuts, and if we go down to 14 it could make sense to pick one and drop it for both genders. After adding a little Track to Cross Country, I wouldn't expect us to drop it, and in terms of cost a good thing about running is that it doesn't require equipment. We're bad at Baseball, but I'd much rather drop Men's Tennis or Men's Golf than Baseball. Women's Soccer is elite. Men's Soccer has been good, and I will be mad if it gets cut. More schools play Women's Soccer than Men's Soccer, but a majority of schools play Men's Soccer. Men's Soccer has 58.4 percent as many Division I teams as Men's Basketball. I'm not interested in Men's Lacrosse, Women's Lacrosse, or Wrestling, but I know they won't be cut.

I'm related to three brothers who went to Michigan, which plays 27 sports. Even W&M that cares about academics plays 21 sports. Comparing us to another private mid-major in the area, Wagner plays 23 sports. All of those are at least 4 more than us. I'm not saying we should have more sports, but 17 isn't unusually high, and could be below average.

[HofstraHockey]

Golf is one of those sports that has a high cost (all of the greens fees) without any return whatsoever. While field hockey is a bigger team size, they have the facilities on campus already, equipment is relatively minimal, and it's at least an on-campus activity that may draw some people in.

Don't forget, many of these sports have students that pay some tuition. I'm going to speak in absolutes here, and ignore academic scholarships and the like.

Field hockey has a roster of 24. Let's assume they all came to Hofstra to play field hockey, and if they didn't have a team, they would have gone elsewhere. Meaning it's not like Hofstra was at capacity and their seats would be filled by someone else.

The NCAA limit for field hockey is 12 full scholarships. That means that 12 girls were paying $60k+ a year to go to school (I know that partial scholarships exist, the math is still the same). That means that there is $720k+ being brought in by the team in tuition. While tough to tell exactly what the budget for the team is, the median for an FCS school's field hockey team is around 675,000, according to some NCAA reports I found. Now, that number also includes scholarships, which we know would be higher for Hofstra, based on tuition.

So in all honesty, a sport like field hockey might be in essence generating revenue for the school. Since we all agree that the real "cost" of a scholarship is maybe 10% of the scholarship value, let's call it $70k.
Coaches salaries are maybe $200k, with payroll taxes and all that in there.
Equipment is $15k
Game costs maybe $10k
Travel we'll say is $80k
Misc $15k
So MAYBE it's $400k in real costs to run the team?
Would you venutre to say that even with academic scholarships and financial aid, that they still bring in $500k in tuition money?
So getting rid of the team can actually hurt the school more than help it.

I could be completely off base, but does this math not seem at least close?

[Polito]

Very good points fellas, it's a very interesting topic. Would love to be a fly on an AD's wall sometimes!

[The Shadow]

ESPN has just posted that the U of Cincinnati has just discontinued its men's soccer program for the fall of 2020. Jacksonville has dropped its FCS football team in December 2019. Are these the first of many possible reassessments that the various NCAA members will now take in the wake of the COVID Crisis?

[The Shadow]

Forbes is reporting that Boston University may postpone the opening of their campus until January 2021. If this does occur, many colleges may not have the finances to survive. Also, families whose members have been unemployed, may not have the resources to send students to more costly private colleges. The complete fallout of the COVID Crisis on higher education, and the NCAA is still very much unknown.

[HofstraPride1]

Forbes is reporting that Boston University may postpone the opening of their campus until January 2021. If this does occur, many colleges may not have the finances to survive. Also, families whose members have been unemployed, may not have the resources to send students to more costly private colleges. The complete fallout of the COVID Crisis on higher education, and the NCAA is still very much unknown.

That is based on worst case scenario, but even thought of colleges not opening in fall and impact on fall and winter sports is scary. Hopefully it doesn't come to that.

[EvanJ]

Jacksonville has dropped its FCS football team in December 2019.

I'm not saying if this affected their decision to drop Football, but I want to point out that they played Football in the non-scholarship Pioneer League.