University of New Orleans & D3-D1

[Tacttm1]

Ron:  There budget for next year is projected at about 2.1 mil.    Approx 200 per year, about 10,000 students, and the fee is pro-rated based on number of credit hours carried.  Additionally, there is an endowment that will add a couple hundred thou per year, however, the Athletic Dept has a debt they must pay back to the general fund of close to 500 K per year for the next 10 years or so.

Even with all that and spooling up the new sports for D3, money should be OK, helped along by plenty of staff cuts and current scholarship players saying adios to head for new pastures.

[Ron Boerger]

Ron:  There budget for next year is projected at about 2.1 mil.    Approx 200 per year, about 10,000 students, and the fee is pro-rated based on number of credit hours carried.  Additionally, there is an endowment that will add a couple hundred thou per year, however, the Athletic Dept has a debt they must pay back to the general fund of close to 500 K per year for the next 10 years or so.

Even with all that and spooling up the new sports for D3, money should be OK, helped along by plenty of staff cuts and current scholarship players saying adios to head for new pastures.

If this goes forward, that would be a HUGE budget for D3.  I looked at UW-Whitewater, another state school with a very successful football program and around 10K full-time equivalent students.   Their annual athletic budget is in the vicinity of $600K. 

[Gregory Sager]

Ron:  There budget for next year is projected at about 2.1 mil.    Approx 200 per year, about 10,000 students, and the fee is pro-rated based on number of credit hours carried.  Additionally, there is an endowment that will add a couple hundred thou per year, however, the Athletic Dept has a debt they must pay back to the general fund of close to 500 K per year for the next 10 years or so.

Even with all that and spooling up the new sports for D3, money should be OK, helped along by plenty of staff cuts and current scholarship players saying adios to head for new pastures.

If this goes forward, that would be a HUGE budget for D3.  I looked at UW-Whitewater, another state school with a very successful football program and around 10K full-time equivalent students.   Their annual athletic budget is in the vicinity of $600K. 

It's less impressive, however, when you consider the geographical isolation of the University of New Orleans. Every single road game, meet, or match played by a UNO team against D3 competition will require considerable travel, which means considerable expense.

[Ron Boerger]

Looks like you're right and I'm wrong 

I found a link to NCAA D3 athletic budgets in '04-'05 and $2.1M would be in the top quartile ... so decent but not huge.  UMHB and McMurry, two of the ASC schools that UNO will end competing against, were both in the $2M ballpark back then. 

[Tacttm1]

Ron, Could you please say that again??   (It happens so rarely that I want to be sure!!!, being right, that is.  LOL  LOL



When all of the conference switch talk began, one of the reasons given by the Chancellor was that UNO could go from a low ranking funded D1 to a higher funded D3 program.

With new talk about possible soccer/football facilities, that budget will get a serious cut with dollars allocated to pay for those new facilities.  (years away, at best)

Here is a sport by sport update:
http://www.neworleans.com/sports/uno/449906-wild-summer-update-on-uno-athletic-teams.html

[Ralph Turner]

Travel is a huge portion of the budget for McMurry and UMHB. Every road trip for McMurry (except HSU and HPU) is at least 200 miles. Basketball, men and women both, require at least 16 nights on the road in a season.

Men's and women's soccer have about 10-12 nights on the road.  Baseball maybe 10-14 nights.  Volleyball can be that many.

[Ron Boerger]

Over on the ASC board, Ralph Turner posted a link to the DOE's site which contains info on athletic spending, which can be found at http://ope.ed.gov/athletics/.  Looking at the data for 2008, here are the top 10 football-playing D3 schools in terms of overall athletic spending:

Birmingham Southern College   AL   9056034
Christopher Newport University   VA   8085563
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute   NY   7053296
St Lawrence University   NY   6792453
Colorado College   CO   6716432
Ithaca College   NY   5091956
Union College   NY   5006609
Middlebury College   VT   4926939
Williams College   MA   4891702
University of Rochester   NY   4843064

Several of the top ten schools compete in the D1 level for Ice Hockey and a corresponding women's sport, though only two (RPI and Colorado College) are allowed to offer scholarships.  Still, the sheer fact that they are playing at the D1 level means costs will be much higher than most other sports.

Of interest to this discussion is that the #1 school on the list, Birmingham Southern, was in the midst of their transition from D1 to D3 when these stats were taken.

[Ralph Turner]

NCAA feature about UNO and Tulane 5 yrs after Katrina.

[Privateer6]

http://www.unoprivateers.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=16700&ATCLID=204983659

UNO will play a 10-game club football slate in 2010.

5 home games (split between two different stadiums in New Orleans' City Park) and 5 on the road (away games in Ohio (2), Georgia, and Wisconsin, and the Midwest Club Football Conference championship weekend in Indiana).

Two games (away at Edward Waters, home against Concordia (AL)) are against "official" school teams.  The Privateers took heavy losses on the road at both schools last season in a 5-3 season (5-1 against club teams).

[Slidell]

http://www.nola.com/uno/index.ssf/2010/08/university_of_new_orleans_char.html

Article in today's Times Picayune on UNO's plan for the transition and the addition of football, women's soccer and women's golf by next season.

[Privateer6]

Latest Tweet from the UNO Athletic Department:

ATH: "East Campus Sports Facility" mtg this afternoon. UNO could be 1st NOLA (Tulane) on-campus FB game since 11/30/74.

[Privateer6]

Two UNO football-related Tweets today from the athletic department:

ATH: Can you believe that on Friday, we'll be exactly a year away from 9/3/11? A year from today, final walk-throughs for the opener. #d3fb

ATH: 2 reps of the UNO media relations office to observe the #Tulane football game ops tonight at the Superdome for future prep. #d3fb

[Ron Boerger]

Hmm.  Methinks attending a D1 game someplace like the Superdome is NOT a good prep for entry into D3.     

[Tacttm1]

Ron:  I think they are going to observe game day activities to get some idea of what needs to be done.  Obviously things will be different for UNO, but their Media/SID dept probably has never been exposed to footaball matters and the Coach is an Admissions Director, so his understanding is limited, as well.

Persoanlly, I think putting our tweeets about next year opening activity is a little early.....

[Ron Boerger]

The "media relations office" at many D3 schools consists of one guy who may have a student intern to help if he is lucky.   They really would be better served by going to a Louisiana College game, because there is absolutely a huge difference in scope and in expectations.   

While it's good to get exposed to what will be needed for football, it's kind of like preparing to maintain and fly a Piper Cub by watching American Airlines service a 747.  They both fly, certainly, but ...