Bringing Back Porter

NCAA slashes distribution to schools by $375 million -- Schools competing in mid-major conferences are preparing to make sacrifices.

I've learned that a number of UP Athletic Department employees are anticipating financial cuts and furloughs in their departments as a result of loss of day-to-day revenue and the NCAA cuts.

https://news.yahoo.com/pandemic-fallout-ncaa-slashes-distribution-052205622.html

DoubleDipper wrote:...he was told that the NCAA is currently NOT looking at granting an extra year of eligibility to basketball playing student-athletes.  

NCAA grants spring-sports athletes additional year of eligibility...

Winter sports were not included in the decision as the Council declined to extend eligibility for athletes in sports where all or much of the regular seasons were completed.

The NCAA Division I Council voted Monday to allow all spring-sports athletes an additional season of eligibility and will allow schools to carry more players on scholarship than rules presently allow to make room for both incoming signees and any players electing to return. However, schools will not be required to provide scholarship aid to returning senior athletes who would have otherwise exhausted eligibility in 2019-20.

https://www.oregonlive.com/sports/2020/03/ncaa-grants-spring-sports-athletes-additional-year-of-eligibility.html

Hard to say how the ruling will effect UP or UP's student-athletes financially, but the two seniors I spoke with were "ready to move on" with their lives once they graduate in May.

For students who do not plan for a professional career in sports, moving on seems like the wisest choice.

A free year of graduate school doesn't seem like it will be a bad choice either given the likely difficultly of finding an entry level job right away thus year.

dholcombe wrote:A free year of graduate school doesn't seem like it will be a bad choice either given the likely difficultly of finding an entry level job right away thus year.

I cannot think of any UP spring-sport that offers a full-ride athletic scholarship (someone should check me on this), although women's tennis comes the closest at UP with 8 allowed scholarships for the current team of 10 that includes 3 seniors. (My hazy memory seems to recall men's tennis is allowed only 4.5 scholarships).

Apparently, baseball is being allowed to increase its maximum roster size from 35 to however many seniors may return under the new COVID-19 rule...and for UP that is 5 seniors, so a max roster of 40 next season, apparently. But I didn't see any provision to increase the number of scholarships baseball is allowed from the current 11.7 that are divided among the entire roster as the coach sees fit, and this is often based upon other scholarships the student-athlete may qualify for. (Even if there were an increase in scholarships, one must wonder where the money would come from to pay them, as it now costs over $63,000 per year to attend UP, including room and board).

The way I understand the new rules, for any spring sport the school reserves the right to pay a returning senior whatever they want as long as it doesn’t exceed the scholarship amount they had in 2020. If the school wanted to, it could give a student-athlete zero percent of their scholarship, and this could lead to plenty of awkward conversations and tough decisions for student-athletes and coaches.

So graduate school is certainly a possibility, but I doubt it would be free.

DoubleDipper wrote:

dholcombe wrote:A free year of graduate school doesn't seem like it will be a bad choice either given the likely difficultly of finding an entry level job right away thus year.

I cannot think of any UP spring-sport that offers a full-ride athletic scholarship (someone should check me on this), although women's tennis comes the closest at UP with 8 allowed scholarships for the current team of 10 that includes 3 seniors. (My hazy memory seems to recall men's tennis is allowed only 4.5 scholarships).

Apparently, baseball is being allowed to increase its maximum roster size from 35 to however many seniors may return under the new COVID-19 rule...and for UP that is 5 seniors, so a max roster of 40 next season, apparently. But I didn't see any provision to increase the number of scholarships baseball is allowed from the current 11.7 that are divided among the entire roster as the coach sees fit, and this is often based upon other scholarships the student-athlete may qualify for. (Even if there were an increase in scholarships, one must wonder where the money would come from to pay them, as it now costs over $63,000 per year to attend UP, including room and board).

The way I understand the new rules, for any spring sport the school reserves the right to pay a returning senior whatever they want as long as it doesn’t exceed the scholarship amount they had in 2020. If the school wanted to, it could give a student-athlete zero percent of their scholarship, and this could lead to plenty of awkward conversations and tough decisions for student-athletes and coaches.

So graduate school is certainly a possibility, but I doubt it would be free.

That was kinda what I figured re spring sport scholarships, and played a factor in my moving on comment.  I always wonder, though, when you say "where the money would come from".  A scholarship is basically a waiver of tuition and fees, isn't it.  The money comes from the school and goes to the school, so it is not like they write a check to someone else.  Isn't it simply a reduction in income for the school?  The cost is perhaps an opportunity cost if the returning athlete takes up a spot that would otherwise go to a paying student.  The school would have out of pocket costs for the food plan and book, but the margin on those is pretty good I bet.  So however much in the red or black the school operates, some extra scholarships for returning seniors would be a little more in the red or a little less in the black.  Please correct me if my understanding of how scholarships work is wrong.

up7587 wrote:  So however much in the red or black the school operates, some extra scholarships for returning seniors would be a little more in the red or a little less in the black.  Please correct me if my understanding of how scholarships work.

Um, I guess that correct...I think all the (other?) accounting majors out there would agree with your reasoning.

DoubleDipper wrote:I cannot think of any UP spring-sport that offers a full-ride athletic scholarship (someone should check me on this), although women's tennis comes the closest at UP with 8 allowed scholarships for the current team of 10 that includes 3 seniors.

Okay, I checked myself on this, the 8 scholarships for women's tennis are all full-ride, meaning they cannot be split-up between other members of the team.

If UP has ten women on the tennis team, two of them are not getting any scholarship money from the athletic department.

If there are currently any seniors on the team that are on full-ride athletic scholarships, they can choose to return to play again next season, but it would be up to UP to decide if they will again get a full-ride athletic scholarship.

DoubleDipper wrote:

NCAA slashes distribution to schools by $375 million -- Schools competing in mid-major conferences are preparing to make sacrifices.

I've learned that a number of UP Athletic Department employees are anticipating financial cuts and furloughs in their departments as a result of loss of day-to-day revenue and the NCAA cuts.

Today:

Eugene Register-Guard wrote:Oregon announced on Thursday that all of the school’s head coaches have agreed to take 10% salary reductions for the 2020-21 academic year, which will save the department about $1.1 million.

Cristobal was negotiating a new deal after leading the Ducks to a 12-2 finish. His $2.6 million base salary last season.

Altman has the highest base salary among Oregon’s head coaches at $3.2 million   for the 2020-21 fiscal year. Graves’ base salary is $750,000.

Shocked emoji mine....

This was how Kelly’s pay was structured a year ago:

Graves’ base salary this season is $650,000. He has earned an additional $25,000 for winning the Pac-12 regular-season title, $25,000 for being selected for the NCAA Tournament and $10,000 for advancing to the conference tournament championship game.

If the Ducks make another run through the bracket, Graves has additional incentives for advancing to the second round ($10,000), Sweet 16 ($15,000), Elite Eight ($25,000), Final Four ($50,000) and national title game ($50,000). He would receive a $150,000 bonus if Oregon wins the NCAA championship.

So if the base  is $750,000 this next  year. A 10% cut still a higher base than 2019-2020. It looks like his 2019-2020 bonuses took a big hit, though.
He only secured $60K in bonuses.

Altman’s base is also a half million higher than in 2019