University presidents sound alarm at expenses

MIAMI -- University presidents worry that increasing expenses at big-time college football and basketball schools are threatening the financial health of college sports, but they say they feel powerless to control the spiraling costs, according to a report on NCAA athletics released Monday.

Rising television and sponsor money channeled to a shrinking number of powerhouse athletic programs have driven up salaries for coaches and athletic directors, caused the expansion of coaching and support staffs and led to other expensive perks that threaten to bankrupt smaller programs, the report said.

An overwhelming majority of the nearly 100 university presidents at major football universities surveyed by the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics called rising coaching salaries the biggest threat to college programs, but said their ability to rein in costs had been diminished by increasingly lucrative outside sources of revenue.

"Presidents believe they have limited power to address these challenges," said Rick Hesel, who helped conduct the survey.

The presidents did not trust their school's athletic conferences or the NCAA to tackle the problem, and believe a collective effort is necessary to bring economic reform, according to R. Gerald Turner, Knight Commission co-chairman and president of Southern Methodist University.

"We really don't know how this is going to be resolved," Turner said. There's "a sense of 'I can't do this by myself.' "

Unveiled in a hotel ballroom during the Knight Commission's 20th anniversary meeting, the organization's report said a majority of presidents would support efforts to control costs, such as the redistribution of revenue or reductions in coaching staffs, games played and the level of financial commitment required for membership in the football's highest tier, which enables participation in the Bowl Championship Series.

"We've reached an indefensible, unsustainable situation," said William E. "Brit" Kirwan, a commission co-chairman and chancellor of the University System of Maryland. "We've got 75 percent of the presidents saying we cannot continue on this path."

According to data available to the commission, 25 of the highest-tier football schools produced average revenues of $3.9 million in 2008; the other 94 ran deficits averaging $9.9 million.

The report and its findings -- which did not offer any prescription for the problems it cited -- dominated discussion during meetings Monday among dozens of college administrators, officials, board members and other interested parties.

Kirwan said the Knight Commission would issue recommendations on the issue next spring that he hoped would lead to a "significant alteration" in the economic model.

"The current business model is not sustainable," said Peter Likins, president emeritus of the University of Arizona. "The current system as a whole is going to break down. . . . It may not happen in the next five years, but it is going to happen."

Dutch Baughman, the executive director of the Division I-A Athletic Directors Association, said there were 10 $25,000 increments between the lowest- and highest-paid athletic directors in 2000; this year, he said, the number of increments grew to 22 -- a "very alarming rate," Baughman said.

Baughman proposed limits on squad size, games, foreign travel and out-of-season practices, as well as no off-campus hotel stays before home games, and other measures to reduce costs.

"If we cannot change our model, we are going to see more and more programs, not just drop football, but change their whole intercollegiate programs," said Cedric Dempsey, former NCAA president.