FB: Presidents' Athletic Conference

[WashJeff68]

It's raining here in East Tennessee today, so no golf, or chores to attend to.

Given the dialog on this board regarding TMC's athletic future, I did a little research to see if I could answer for myself the question - what are TMC's plans and where will the money come from if their goal is to go DIi?

Most organizations have strategic plans developed by Boards and Management to set the path for the organization's future. TMC has one on their public web site covering years 2015-2020. Also included is a summary of their accomplishments for 2014-2015. If you want to review the 8 page summary of accomplishments, here is the link:

http://www.thomasmore.edu/PDFs/Strategic_Plan_2020_Year1.pdf

Interesting reading, as is the plan itself.

I've been involved working with organizations over the years (both for and not for profit) developing these plans, and I can say, after a quick read, that the one developed by TMC appears to be excellent. I'm just going to highlight some of the data regarding Athletics and fundraising.

Goal 2 (of three) has a specific strategy to "enhance and increase extra curricular activities" which includes athletics. Here are the specifics:

By 2020# of student athletes -   600
Baseline                                      450
2014-15                                     476

There are also goals for student satisfaction with athletics as well.

In Goal 3 there are targets for student retention and enrollment. Here are the numbers for enrollment of traditional students:

By 2020 # of full time traditional undergrads      1,200
Baseline                                                                 919
2014-2015                                                            959

So, TMC is committed to increase athletes in line with student body growth and maintain 50% of student body as athletes (recognizing some play more than one sport).  Bowling and Lacrosse were added 14/15, and Wrestling 15/16. I guess their are still opportunities to add additional sports and have larger rosters for others. I know they have no swimming and diving program - or facility to house it.

Also in Goal 3 are targets to diversify revenue streams beyond tuition. One of these is Total Gifts and Grants:

2020 Target:         $6,500,000
Baseline:              $2,000,000
2014-2015:          $6,556,453 


There are also plans for long range financials. One is value of endowment:

2020 Target: $24,000,000
Baseline:      $15,000,000
2014-2015   $15,200,000

Great success generating gifts and grants, less so for endowment, but perhaps short run, that is the plan. One could conclude that this plan is designed to test their ability to fund raise enough  to transition to DII and meet the other financial needs of the Long Range Plan. They have another year of data on the financials  and will have a third shortly. I think the timing of their leaving the PAC could be based on their confidence that they can fund the transition.

There is a ready made option for a conference in DII. My read is they would have a difficult time finding a home in DIII that would offer anything the PAC doesn't offer unless the OAC makes room for them. I have no idea what the landscape looks like there.  I certainly don't see them joining the HCAC or the NCAC.  Anything else is going to have the same travel issues the PAC has.

All this is, of course, is just supposition on my part. But there has to be a reason why they are leaving the PAC, particularly when they have no alternative they are prepared to reveal.

Jeff in Tennessee

[sigma one]

What follows is quoted from the NCAA's "Division II partial-scholarship model":

Division II relies on a partial-scholarship model to administer athletics-based financial aid.  Very few of the 110,000 student-athletes . . .will receive a full athletics grant that coers all of their expenses, but most of them will receive some athletics-based financial aid . . . .For the rest of their expenses student-athletes use academic scholarships, student loans, and employment earnings . . . .

The partial-scholarship model allows Division II schools to recognize student-athletes for their skills . . . while at the same time keeping athletics budgets more in line with the institution's bottom line. . . .The net operating costs for Division II tend to be LOWER THAN FOR PROGRAMS IN DIVISION III (primarily because of higher net operating revenue in Division II)  [capital emphasis mine], , , ,

For example, in football schools are allowed to award up to 36 "equivalences" or full grants, but of course the rosters in football are much larger than 36 players . . . .This means that some students-athetes my receive more athletics-based aid that others, and some will not receive any at all [end of NCAA model],.

So, the NCAA says that for many DII schools the total athletics budgets may well be smaller than the athletic budgets at DIII schools.  In part, this is because the cost of "equivalences" is often partially offset by a reduction in other kinds of institutionally-sponsored financial aid.  Whereas a football player at a DIII school, for instance, might receive need-based aid and merit (academic) aid without regard to his athletic potential or prior athletic performance (athletic performance being prohibited by the NCAA as a reason for awarding financial aid in jDIII), in DII the player will receive some percentage of an athletic scholarship, and perhaps then less need based aid, and may well receive merit aid as well.  If carefully managed, some institutional funds once committed to financial aid for need and merit could be allocated for athletics-based aid.  Again, if carefully done, schools could attract more student-athletes, receiving some additional income from an increase in the size of the student body, while not substantially increasing their total financial aid for all reasons.

As a brief case in point, Wabash College annually competes for student-atheltes against DII schools (as to most other DIII institutions).  Wabash loses quite a few of the battles because a DII schools offers a partial "equivalency," sometimes as little as a few thousand dollars.  Although the total financial aid packages at the two institutions are about the same (and occasionally Wabash's package is a little higher), the Wabash package contains no athletics aid while the DII school's package does.  The pride to an athlete, to the family, and sometimes to the community of receiving an "athletic scholarship" tilt the admission decision in favor of the DII school.   After all, receiving an athletic scholarship is a dream for a lot of student-athletes.  Signing that letter of intent is a big deal.

If Thomas More decides to go DII, while planning to increase the total number of intercollegiate athletes and the total size of the student body, they could well end up with more revenue on the bottom line than remaining in DIII.  Smart people run those budgets; I'm betting they know the bottom line potentials if their total admissions plan can be realized.  Their small endowment only increases the need for the additional revenue generated by the combination of factors I've mentioned.   It may be their chance to live long and prosper.
Too long winded, but thanks for reading.     
 

[Ron Boerger]

That enhanced endowment is still tiny, especially if they are planning to increase enrollment by 25%.   Do they have the campus to accommodate that many more students, because if they have to add academic facilities and/or student housing, that $6M/year in gifts/grants won't go very far. 

[SaintsFAN]

Anything else is going to have the same travel issues the PAC has.

All this is, of course, is just supposition on my part. But there has to be a reason why they are leaving the PAC, particularly when they have no alternative they are prepared to reveal.

Jeff in Tennessee

Travel was not a consideration for leaving the PAC. 

[E.115]

Case Western Reserve DE Cameron Brown was highlighted in the Cleveland news today (and short video):

http://s.cleveland.com/qDN4avF

His dad is Mike Brown, Assistant Coach for the Golden State Warriors, who coached and won Game 1 of the NBA Finals this year.

San Francisco and New York gave Cameron a shout out as well:

http://www.sfgate.com/warriors/article/Warriors-Mike-Brown-prepares-to-coach-against-11183664.php
http://nypost.com/2017/05/26/this-is-mike-browns-chance-for-revenge-on-lebron-james/

[DagarmanSpartan]

Gang,

I just saw that CWRU is apparently in the new Street and Smith's college football preview Division III pre-season Top 25!



Looks like I may have to run over to Barnes and Noble and pick up a copy!

[SaintsFAN]

Gang,

I just saw that CWRU is apparently in the new Street and Smith's college football preview Division III pre-season Top 25!



Looks like I may have to run over to Barnes and Noble and pick up a copy!

I wouldn't, unless you think thats the best CWRU will be ranked.  This is terrible:  for starters, how do you not have the defending champs at #1?  And to me, any poll with Monmouth in the top 20 should be thrown out. 

Plus, the guys who do the polling around here are pretty good people.

[Pat Coleman]

Uhm ... UMHB won't be No. 1 on my ballot. They lose a bunch and Mount Union loses almost nothing.

We can revisit this on Dec. 17, though.

[SaintsFAN]

Uhm ... UMHB won't be No. 1 on my ballot. They lose a bunch and Mount Union loses almost nothing.

We can revisit this on Dec. 17, though.

I wish to revisit this late next month!

But otherwise you agree with the Monmouth reference?

[WashJeff68]

Two things surprised me about the Street & Smith rankings:

First,  W& J ranked #11. They have some big shoes to fill at QB. I think they have to earn their way into the rankings.

Second, TMC not ranked, which would seem to imply that TMC is the third best team in the PAC. I think most (if not all) objective people would disagee with that.

Jeff in Tennessee

[Ralph Turner]

Gang,

I just saw that CWRU is apparently in the new Street and Smith's college football preview Division III pre-season Top 25!



Looks like I may have to run over to Barnes and Noble and pick up a copy!

Save your money and buy Kickoff 2017 (unless you want it for your souvenir collection ).

[HansenRatings]

Decided I'm going to spam every conference board with my preseason (non-returning-starter-adjusted) projections.

Team	Rating	Overall	Conference
TMC	0.9657	9.1-0.9	7.2-0.8
Westminster	0.8739	6.8-3.2	5.5-2.5
Wash & Jeff	0.8505	7.1-2.9	5.6-2.4
CWRU	0.8422	7.8-2.2	6.3-1.7
CMU	0.7728	5.9-4.1	4.6-3.4
Bethany	0.5251	3.9-6.1	2.9-5.1
SVU	0.4898	4.2-5.8	2.8-5.2
Geneva	0.4634	4.1-5.9	3.1-4.9
Waynesburg	0.4558	3.6-6.4	3.0-5.0
Thiel	0.2744	2.9-7.1	1.8-6.2
Grove City	0.1519	1.3-8.7	1.1-6.9

I agree mostly with the conversations above. TMC is clearly the best team in the conference until proven otherwise. The one thing I would add is the Westminster shouldn't be slept on either. They might have the toughest non-conference game in the conference, so don't let the overall record fool you, they're as much a threat to win the conference as W&J or CWRU (who again has the easiest schedule in the conference).

[Scots13]

Don't know if anyone else has seen this on FootballScoop, but TMC is "currently looking for football games during the 2018 season"...weeks 3-11. Open for D3, NAIA or D2 opponents.

Doesn't look like they had much of a game plan when they announced they were leaving the PAC.

[jknezek]

Don't know if anyone else has seen this on FootballScoop, but TMC is "currently looking for football games during the 2018 season"...weeks 3-11. Open for D3, NAIA or D2 opponents.

Doesn't look like they had much of a game plan when they announced they were leaving the PAC.

Ouch. That's a tough way to run a program. Even temporarily.

[Pat Coleman]

Don't know if anyone else has seen this on FootballScoop, but TMC is "currently looking for football games during the 2018 season"...weeks 3-11. Open for D3, NAIA or D2 opponents.

Doesn't look like they had much of a game plan when they announced they were leaving the PAC.

As we've said multiple times, announcements of leaving a conference without an accompanying announcement of joining another are ... unusual.