UNM athletics has not balanced its $33M annual operating budget in eight of the past 10 FYsGetty Images
The Univ. of New Mexico Board of Regents yesterday "passed an athletics department budget" that includes a "reduction in sports" in future years, according to a front-page piece by Geoff Grammer of the ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL. UNM AD Eddie Nunez said that there is "still a possibility, though an unlikely one," that the department can arrive at $1.9M in sports-reduction savings "without the elimination of any of the department's 22 varsity sports." UNM President Garnett Stokes, who presented the proposal specifically including the line "reduction in sports," was "less optimistic," suggesting after the meeting she does not see how that can be avoided. Stokes said, "We don't have other revenue sources to fill that kind of recurring deficit." A decision by Nunez on which sports "could be cut is due by July 1." The 22 "varsity sports sponsored at UNM" is more than the Mountain West Conference average of 17-18. UNM athletics has "failed to balance" its roughly $33M annual operating budget in "eight of the past 10 fiscal years and projects at least an $800,000 shortfall this fiscal year that ends June 30" (ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL, 4/18).
