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There’s nothing like a winning season to boost school pride and university athletics’ coffers. Just ask the University of Kentucky.
And there’s nothing like a series of losing seasons, scandals and showing coaches the door to sink a program into indifference and the red. Just ask the University of New Mexico. Lobo athletics is facing a $1.5 million to $2 million deficit come June 30 and wants the university’s operating fund to bail it out with a loan. That’s on top of asking students to pony up a hefty increase in fees to help cover some expenses that otherwise could add to the red ink. Athletics officials insist none of the fee increase will go to pay the deficit, but instead “to assist with our annual operating budget and the student-athlete experience.” University athletics is big business these days ($30 million at UNM), or at least it can be —if you’re a winner. But if you have a football program that’s won only three games since 2009 and is short $600,000 in revenues, and a women’s basketball program that’s also $150,000 shy of projections, you’re a loser when it comes to balancing the books. And if you’re paying off a former football coach’s contract, and paying a new coach to put the Humpty Dumpty program back together, you will be hard pressed to pay the bills without some help. So, university regents are coming to the rescue with what is said to be a one-time $1.25 million loan from next year’s general budget. It gets a final vote later this month, when regents also are likely to increase fees for athletics next year from $81.75 a student to $131.75, despite objections from student leaders. Regents need to view this “one-time” request with a large dose of skepticism. Anyone who has kids knows how a one-time loan can turn into a cash-flow habit. Athletics’ spending should be monitored closely. While the department broke even last year despite cuts in state funding and with some help from general funding, in previous years it has primarily paid its own way. Asking for a bailout from the fund whose ultimate goal is to graduate students ready for work — and into taxpayers’ ranks — hasn’t happened in recent history. UNM President David Schmidly, who proposed the fee increase, has noted athletics should be expected to break even at the end of each year, regardless of team performances. If regents dip into the general fund for the loan this time, it should be done with great reluctance and with an eye for what is in the best interests of all of its 25,000 main campus students. This editorial first appeared in the Albuquerque Journal. It was written by members of the editorial board and is unsigned as it represents the opinion of the newspaper rather than the writers.
