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Schools Could Face Tough Choices With Athletic Programs Amid Crisis

Football revenue accounted for almost $40M of UNC's budget and $47M of N.C. State's budget in '18-19getty images

In a world where college sports "no longer command the same price, schools will have difficult decisions to make about what sports and what athletes they want to support -- and whether they even can," according to Luke DeCock of the Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER. Univ. of North Carolina AD Bubba Cunningham said, "We're always going to have sport. It's just a question of how we organize ourselves. Is there a different organizational structure? Is 16 sports the right number? Is 85 (football) scholarships? Those are going to be conversations we're going to have more now." DeCock noted if the football season is "canceled or abbreviated, which certainly appears to be a possibility at this point, then the numbers change drastically." Football revenue alone accounted for almost $40M of UNC's budget and $47M of N.C. State's budget in '18-19. But football "could just be the beginning." DeCock: "Will donors have the financial capability to continue to support athletic departments at current levels? What will happen to media rights fees the longer games go without being played?" Schools now may face "difficult decisions about their commitment to athletics." The criteria by which those decisions are made "could divide public and private schools, fracture conferences and further divide big from small" (Raleigh NEWS & OBSERVER, 4/7).

TOO EARLY TO WORRY? In Dallas, Chuck Carlton writes from a financial standpoint, a "college season without football would be a financial disaster with implications for all sports on campus." Texas A&M AD Ross Bjork said, "There's nothing that I've heard that makes you wince or anything. I think it's the unknown that we all keep running through our heads, going 'OK, what if this happens and what if that happens.' To me, it's way too early at this stage" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 4/8).

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