It would be tragic if the University of New Orleans had to step down in the National Collegiate Athletics Association, from NCAA Division I to Division III, given the school’s size and sports history.
Chancellor Tim Ryan last week served notice the school was looking at this possibility in the wake of continuing budget shortages as a dual consequence of the state’s rough budget picture that forces a disproportionate amount of cuts onto higher education and from the continued lingering aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The latter damaged the campus and has reduced enrollment about 30 percent for the university that in the past had about 80 percent of its student body from the metropolitan New Orleans area that still is down around 150,000 in population since then.
It has added up to a predicted annual shortfall in the athletic department of $3 million, or about half of the budget already being cut slack with utilizing a bureaucratic assist. The NCAA has allowed UNO to operate on a waiver from having it keep the 15 sports necessary to enjoy DI status, letting provide only nine. This expires in two years, with the DIII requirement being only 12 sports.
While in the past 25 years the general trend has been for schools to move up in classification, a few have moved down; in fact, Shreveport’s Centenary College is joining in the latter move to be completed in 2012. But like Centenary, most of those moving down are smaller, private schools. The last time a larger, public institution chose this course was Brooklyn College over a decade ago. As it is, UNO would be the 18th largest public university in the country at its current enrollment not to play in Division I (at its all-time high, 2004, enrollment, it would have been the sixth largest).
More galling is the fact that, in several sports, UNO regularly competes well in DI and has a recent history of success in baseball and men’s basketball. UNO’s golden era for baseball was from the early 1980s to early 1990s with a College World Series appearance, regular NCAA tournament participations, and some All-America players. In basketball, that golden era lasted from the late 1980s to late 1990s with a few NCAA tournament appearances, rankings in the Top 25, and some All-America players. While the basketball team is a dozen years removed from its last tournament appearance, as recently as last year the Privateer baseball team was in the tournament.
Even during the decade or so that UNO was a Division II school, it made a significant mark. The only national championships UNO has won at any level came courtesy of the men’s golf team, and the men’s basketball team lost a two-point heartbreaker in the 1975 DII championship. Unlike almost every other school that has moved down where lack of competitiveness was as much if not more responsible than monetary needs as the reasons, inability to compete satisfactorily has nothing to do with this. It would be a shame for a school to move down when some of its teams clearly have no problems competing at the highest level, and that has a history of some success – some more prominent schools in size or reputation never have tasted any NCAA postseason in men’s basketball or baseball.
However, the stark reality is that the state cannot save DI sports at UNO, so if it’s going to happen, supporters must step up. If alumni have money left over after donating for academics, it should go to athletics. Anybody near enough to campus with the time and resources should attend athletic events. It would be a waste for the school to be unable to live up to the record it has set and the potential it promises in finding it must compete at a level lower than which it is capable.
7 comments:
Wow, I usually agree with your posts but this is just crazy off the mark.
UNO should be held up as leaders for proposing what will be an unpopular cut so they may focus on academics.
It surprises me sometimes how carelessly people read things. Nowehere in the post do I advocate UNO spend extra university money to stay at DI. Instead, I argue for supporters to step up with attendance and donations beyond what they give to academics. If that succeeds, then there will be no decision for Ryan to make, UNO can stay at DI.
Jeff,
I agree with your position that the Alums must step up to the plate, particullarly those in a position within the local business community to influence their companies and/or employers to support this effort.
What truly is a farce is that the state will keep SUNO open with only 800-900 attending just down the street. SUNO needs to go the way of Lincoln Beach--time to retire another tired vestage of segregation. That student population and the state funds that follow should be allocated to UNO.
Brad Duhe'
UNO '90
You had 6 paragraphs that said it would be "tragic" if UNO sports got downsized and one on how donors should step it up.
Techincally you are only calling for alums to step it up. However none of your arguments differentiate between how alums should spend they and how the state should spend its money.
If it's tragic, it's tragic regardless of source of funds. I submit UNO will be better off focusing on academics. How about if donors have "left over money" they fund more academics?
I totally agree. I am a tad perplexed though. I thought a supporters had died recently and left the UNO Athletetic deparment 10;s of millions of dollars. Why is this happening. I swear I read that in the paper this year
The good Dr. has one of the more malleable standards of good and evil I've seen. I can imagine the ridicule he would have leveled at any of the other institutions in the state that he regularly attacks had made such a decision. But as a UNO alum, his standards change. The usual self-serving comments we've come to love pop to the surface.
I guess I have to repeat myself:
>It surprises me sometimes how carelessly people read things. Nowehere in the post do I advocate UNO spend extra university money to stay at DI. Instead, I argue for supporters to step up with attendance and donations beyond what they give to academics.
Note that "supporters" don't mean just alums, but anybody interested in UNO athletics through both donating and attending. Also note that I say there should be support beyond what is being given to academics. If somebody came to me and said, "I can only give this much to UNO, where should I donate it," my first response would be to give it all to academics. In other words, I'm asking that extra support on top of what already is being given to academics now be forthcoming for athletics.
The fortune of the presumed large estate was, according to Ryan, exaggerated. He also noted that the commitment by George Shin, owner of the Hornets, may not be forthcoming (can't blame the guy facing his health problems).
> I can imagine the ridicule he would have leveled at any of the other institutions in the state that he regularly attacks had made such a decision. But as a UNO alum, his standards change.
Why would anybody ridicule this kind of decision? Inform us about what institutions that I "regularly attack" -- unless you count saying some ought to be merged and another ought to get out of the hospital business as "attacks." Imaginative view on this ...
>The good Dr. has one of the more malleable standards of good and evil I've seen.... The usual self-serving comments we've come to love pop to the surface.
> ... but from these remarks, obviously neither perceptive nor bright.
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