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Is Cinderella dead?
Basketball conferences have been able to hold their own on the court, but new financial demands could produce an unhappy ending
By Michael Smith, Staff Writer
Published November 10, 2014,
For the longest time, Wichita State’s football team wasn’t very good and the program cost the university a lot of money, creating an uphill battle that the school got tired of fighting. So, in 1986, the Shockers quit playing football.
But in basketball, Wichita State is a darling, a Cinderella that is now spoken in the same sentence with its legendary big brother across the state. The Shockers rose to that level in the college basketball world by making the Final Four in 2013 and going undefeated through the regular season in 2013-14.
Wichita State’s program features one of the game’s most sought-after coaches and plays in a 10,500-seat, sold-out arena that gives the Shockers one of the best home-court advantages in the country.
The Shockers and other teams like Butler, Gonzaga and Virginia Commonwealth have transformed themselves from Cinderellas into elite basketball programs that pay their coaches competitive salaries and play before packed arenas.
Off the court, the newfound attention parlays into increased revenue, more applications from prospective students, and higher donations.
But coaches and administrators are wondering if that kind of Cinderella story will be possible in the new era of autonomy, as the five power conferences seek to further separate themselves from everyone else.
In the coming years, perhaps sooner, new rules will be implemented to better compensate athletes, either through autonomy or ongoing antitrust court cases like the O’Bannon lawsuit. Cost of attendance, longer-term insurance, extended post-graduate medical care, scholarships in perpetuity, and trust funds for players could add millions in expenses to athletic department budgets. Schools in the big five conferences also have discussed paying expenses for athletes’ parents to travel to games.
On the eve of a new basketball season, schools outside of the big five conferences are asking: Will Wichita State and other Cinderellas, especially those from basketball-centric leagues, be able to keep up financially? Or, might they even have some advantages because they don’t play football?
“There are a lot of questions, but at some point in time, it’s going to cost more to compete. We know that,” said Eric Sexton, Wichita State’s athletic director. “We’re committed to competing at the highest levels. Now, are we going to do it just like everybody else? No. A big part of our success story is built on doing more with less, and being as creative as we can while also being fiscally prudent. That won’t change.”
Crunching the numbers
Among the ADs and commissioners outside the big five conferences, no one is waving a white flag. Sexton, like others, is adamant that his school will find a way. After all, with a $23 million annual budget for its entire athletic department, Wichita State knows how to compete despite being financially disadvantaged.
The basketball-centric Atlantic 10 knows the same challenges, but it managed to put six teams in the NCAA tournament last season and has averaged five teams in the last three years. That puts the A-10 on par with most of the five major conferences, a place it would like to stay.
“Whatever new rules are adopted by the five power conferences, we’ll have the ability to adopt them as well,” said Bernadette McGlade, commissioner of the A-10. “It’s ultimately going to come down to what resources you have and what makes sense. Our schools will have to do their homework.”
The basketball-centric conferences include the likes of the Big East, A-10, West Coast Conference and Atlantic
Sun, among others (see chart below).
The Big East enjoys a much different situation than the rest because its media deal with Fox pays the league about $40 million to $45 million a year. Its schools expect to have the resources to adopt whatever changes are made in autonomy, or from the ongoing antitrust lawsuits. Other conferences, like the A-10, don’t make nearly as much. The A-10’s deals with NBC, CBS and ESPN reportedly pay the conference about $5 million a year.
“We’re going to do whatever we have to do to be the best in the country,” said Pat Lyons, AD at Big East member Seton Hall. “We will make sure we’re not disadvantaged in recruiting.”
If the recent ruling from the O’Bannon lawsuit is upheld — the NCAA is appealing — schools will have to pay the full cost of attendance, which could range from an additional $2,000 to $5,000 per football and basketball athlete above the current scholarship. Schools also would have to deposit a minimum of $5,000 into a trust fund for each football and basketball athlete.
If that ruling becomes law, schools in basketball conferences could benefit competitively because they won’t have to pay as many athletes.
For those schools that play football, they would be required to pay full cost and the trust payments for about 100 male football and basketball athletes. Assuming that Title IX would require the same payments for women athletes, each football school would be paying 200 athletes.
In that scenario, schools that don’t play football would have to make only the payments for 13 scholarship male basketball players and 15 female basketball athletes, for a total of 28. Those scholarship numbers are the limits set by the NCAA.
A football school paying $5,000 for full cost of attendance plus $5,000 into an annual trust would spend $2 million a year across 200 scholarship athletes.
A non-football school like Wichita State, however, would spend $280,000 for its 28 men’s and women’s basketball players, and still be compliant.
“The big five have enough money,” said Judy Rose, the AD at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, which just started its football program in 2013. “The next five, well, we’re going to see. We might all be scratching our heads to figure this out.”
UNCC left the A-10 to join Conference USA specifically because of football, but Rose conceded, “The A-10 has an easier equation to be compliant” when it comes to making those payments.
The West Coast Conference and Atlantic Sun, among others, say they will pay to remain compliant with the law and remain competitive. The Atlantic Sun produced Cinderellas like Florida Gulf Coast in the 2013 tournament and Mercer, which knocked off Duke last season, while Gonzaga, St. Mary’s and Brigham Young are among the higher-profile schools in the West Coast Conference.
“We’re confident our schools are committed to success, and that could mean paying the full cost of attendance,” said Lynn Holzman, commissioner of the West Coast Conference. “It’s not something that we’ve mandated as a conference rule, but we know that our ADs are preparing for that.”
Aside from the potential changes that could come from the courts, which would be mandatory, any new rules implemented by the big five leagues would be optional for the other conferences. The proposals include extended medical care, multiyear scholarships and paying parents’ travel expenses, any of which would add to athletic department costs. It’s too early to tell if schools from the smaller conferences will adopt some or all of the same athlete benefits.
“Certainly, you know autonomy will bring changes, but our guys are already very skilled at managing scholarships and competing with less than full support,” said Ted Gumbart, commissioner of the Atlantic Sun. “They’ll find a way.”
A wider recruitment gap?
What won’t change in autonomy is the same dynamic that’s always been in play for the smaller schools. What they offer, often, is an opportunity for the recruit who might slip through the cracks at the higher levels.
Said Atlantic 10 Commissioner Bernadette McGlade: “It’s ultimately going to come down to what resources you have and what makes sense. Our schools will have to do their homework.”
Photo by: Getty Images Notre Dame coach Mike Brey recruited his share of players like that when he was at Delaware.
“You could sometimes steal a kid who could play at the ACC level,” Brey said. “Will that still be possible? I don’t know.”
In the future, the athlete who would be the 10th player at Notre Dame or a starter at Delaware may have more to consider, especially if Notre Dame can offer more benefits from autonomy.
But the recruiting gap is nothing new, said Miami coach Jim Larranaga, who led George Mason on a Cinderella run to the Final Four in 2006.
“Coaches are going to tell their administration that they’ve got to keep up with the Joneses, that they can’t fall behind,” Larranaga said. “If one school does it, others will follow. One league does it, others will follow. The A-10, the Mountain West, they already believe they’re right there with us. Now, the low majors might not make that commitment, but they don’t make it now. I really don’t think you’ll see any more separation from the power five to the next five.”
The question becomes: What will it take for the conferences outside the power five to keep up and where will the resources come from? Larranaga and others worry the money will come from cutting Olympic sports. Maryland, California, Temple and Robert Morris are among the schools that have slashed Olympic sports in recent years as a way to cut costs.
Dave Odom, the former basketball coach at Wake Forest and South Carolina, offered a viewpoint shared by many cynics of autonomy.
“I don’t think those asking for autonomy are concerned about anybody else or what’s good for anybody else,” Odom said. “They’re thinking about their institutions and their conferences and others like them. I don’t think they’re concerned at all about the schools at the next levels. That’s not a criticism, that’s just the way it is. I don’t think they’re concerned about what the NCAA thinks about it, either.”
As a new season begins this month, Wichita State and others like it will step on the court knowing that they currently have a place among the game’s elite. Maintaining that position will very likely cost a lot more money in the future.
