The Unofficial Furman Football Page

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since the content is free I feel comfortable cutting and pasting.....

While some schools have cut varsity sports teams or announced furloughs to deal with budget crunches caused by the coronavirus pandemic, The Citadel athletic director Mike Capaccio is hoping to avoid such drastic measures.

Capaccio said last week that he hopes an across-the-board cut of 10 percent in the athletic department’s budgets will be enough to prevent having to take the more extreme steps that other NCAA Division I schools have had to take.

“Our money has been cut across the board right now, and we do have a financial hole to plug,” Capaccio told Citadel supporters in a Zoom call last week. “But I feel very good that we are going to be able to do that this year.


“But I’m a little worried about next year, so some of the steps we are taking are cutting budgets across the board, traveling closer to home, possibly having fewer competitions in some sports ... We are looking at a straight 10 percent cut across the board that will allow us not to have to furlough anybody or reduce coaches’ salaries or things like that.”

The cancellation of the lucrative NCAA men’s basketball tournament this year impacted all Division I schools.

On March 26, the NCAA it would cut its annual distribution to Division I conferences to $225 million. That’s just 37.5 percent of its typical $600 million that was set to be distributed to those institutions at the end of the 2019-20 academic year.

That has led to hardships of varying degrees. ACC member Louisville cut 40 positions in its athletic department and is furloughing an additional 45 people. Old Dominion University dropped its wrestling program. At Florida International, the athletic director has deferred his salary for one year, while the department will furlough 22 employees and cut the men’s track and field team. Division II Florida Tech announced Monday that it will drop its football program.

Also Monday, West Virginia announced that its athletic director and some coaches would take a 10 percent pay cut, while 65 athletic department employees will be furloughed for 60 days starting May 24.

Capaccio doesn’t foresee such measures at The Citadel, though there’s very little fat in the military school’s athletic department budget, which had expenses of $17.6 million in 2018, according to the Knight Commission’s financial database. A 10 percent cut in expenses would amount to about $1.7 million, according to those figures.

“When you look at other schools in (the Southern Conference), there are a lot of schools that are struggling,” he said. ”... We are in decent financial shape. I’m not going to say good, because it’s definitely not good, but it’s a situation we can address and get a handle on this year. Next year is the unknown, obviously.”

The NCAA also recently passed a waiver that would allow Division I schools to dip below the minimum standards of 200 grants-in-aid (or $4 million spent on scholarships) for one year.

“At this time, we will not be cutting any aid or scholarship monies,” Capaccio said.

The Citadel currently sponsors 17 varsity sports, one above the Division I minimum.

“At this time, we don’t want to cut any programs, and it’s at the top of my list to maintain all of our athletic teams,” said Capaccio, citing the diversity that athletics brings to the student body.

“But don’t get me wrong. If we don’t play football next season, that might have to be readdressed. Right now, that’s not in the books.”

The fate of the 2020 football season remains the great unknown in the equation. The Citadel has six home games and a $450,000 date at Clemson slated for 2020.

“We are planning to have football and to have our first game in September,” Capaccio said. “We are planning for nothing different until we are told.”

Capaccio noted that the department has been able to get some major projects done, including a $250,000 renovation of the weight room, a new $1.5 million synthetic turf football field for Johnson Hagood Stadium, and new seating in McAlister Field House.

Two big projects on the drawing board are the east side stands and a new scoreboard at Johnson Hagood. Capaccio said fund-raising for the east side of the stadium will begin anew in the coming weeks.

“We will gear up again in the next few weeks,” he said. “But we have to have the money in hand. Right now, we are not going to incur more debt in anyway.”

Flagman wrote: ↑

Tue May 12, 2020 10:35 am

After reading one sentence, they want you to register to see the rest of it. Not interested in getting more junk email. The headline was enough.

To the P&C’s credit, the content is free since it is related to the virus. You will not get junk e-mail.

We are looking at a straight 10 percent cut across the board that will allow us not to have to furlough anybody or reduce coaches’ salaries or things like that.”

Hmmm?

FUBeAR wrote: ↑

Tue May 12, 2020 6:23 pm

We are looking at a straight 10 percent cut across the board that will allow us not to have to furlough anybody or reduce coaches’ salaries or things like that.”

Hmmm?

Simple. There are other expenses they can cut first, before touching personnel expenses. Across the board means in every sport and in every department.

Roundball wrote: ↑

Wed May 13, 2020 6:26 am

FUBeAR wrote: ↑

Tue May 12, 2020 6:23 pm

We are looking at a straight 10 percent cut across the board that will allow us not to have to furlough anybody or reduce coaches’ salaries or things like that.”

Hmmm?

Simple. There are other expenses they can cut first, before touching personnel expenses.

Exactly. I am still wondering why FUBeAR found something noteworthy about that. Like Furman’s, the salary and staffing numbers are not huge, compared to big schools. I would have questioned it for a Georgia or Alabamaor UofSC.

I guess “across the board” doesn’t mean what it used to mean.

I learnt in my FU Accounting classes that Payroll falls under the Expense category (i.e., “the board” in this context) on an Income Statement. Maybe there’s been a recent FASB update changing the GAAP on that which y’all caught, but I missed.

FUBeAR wrote: ↑

Wed May 13, 2020 7:50 am

I guess “across the board” doesn’t mean what it used to mean.

I learnt in my FU Accounting classes that Payroll falls under the Expense category (i.e., “the board” in this context) on an Income Statement. Maybe there’s been a recent FASB update changing the GAAP on that which y’all caught, but I missed.

OK. Fine. I guess my interpretation was that the AD’s use of “across the board” in this case referred to operational expenses not including salaries and benefits. If the President or the CFO of the Citadel had been the one making the statement, then I guess FUBeAR’s interpretation would be the only correct one. I acknowledge that I am less accounting minded than FUBeAR.

Citadel AD said he’s looking at traveling closer to home for competitions.
If Furman needs to do the same, I suppose we might be seeing more games in various sports against:
•Wofford (one year in my memory we played them home & away in regular season football in same season, when they were still NAIA)
•Clemson
•PC
•Gardner-Webb
•UNCA
•WCU
•Newberry
•Winthrop
•USC Upstate
•Converse
•Southern Wesleyan
•Limestone
•Erskine
•Lander
•Brevard
•BJU
•NGU
•Anderson