Big 12 Schools that Cut Swimming for "Budgetary Reasons" All of a Sudden Are Flush with Millions
January 22, 2002

PHOENIX, Jan. 22. THREE schools that cut men's swimming last year, ostensibly for budgetary reasons, apparently are flush with money for new projects or for profligate spending on other athletic teams. Few people believed the schools' protestations of poverty last year, but the latest information makes it clear just how craven these universities -- and their presidents -- have become in their pursuit of football glory, even to the detriment of academic programs.

Iowa State University announced last week that it is going to build an indoor football practice facility to the tune of $9 million. ISU already has this sort of space in the Lied Recreational Center, which was built on campus less than ten years ago. But the Lied Center is open to all students and considered too far away (8 or 9 blocks) from the stadium and athletic offices. (We don't want the athletes or coaches to have to run or walk that great distance.)

Said one ISU observer: "It is ironic that the athletic department has this kind of money when it cried 'poor' last year while cutting out men's swimming and baseball.

Also ironic is the fact that ISU is suffering from drastically reduced legislative moneys and a big dip in Foundation funds. The school is cutting out programs, reducing faculty and staff positions, increasing class size, and increasing tuition. Yet it wants to be cutting-edge in its "revenue" sports (which actually lose revenue) and build a better indoor facility by spending $9 million. Now that's educational leadership!

Said the same ISU observer: "I truly thought ISU was having financial problems when all this happened last March but I guess I was wrong. Is the trend in Athletic Departments moving towards pumping all your money into football and basketball? It appears that Athletic Departments are operating with little or no accountability from their university administration. That certainly is the case at Nebraska."

Speaking of Nebraska, some of you may have watched its football team in its bowl game earlier this month. What you, undoubtedly did not notice is that the school took 170 "players" to the game. According to a reliable source inside the Nebraska athletic department, it cost approximately $2,000 to send each player to the bowl game. Of the 170 "players" on the team, only about 50 actually played in the game. So the university spent approximately $240,000 to send 120 spectators to the game. That's about 60 percent of the men's swim team budget.

Of course, that was only one game. NU played five or six other road games this season. Taking non-playing players easily cost the university hundreds of thousands of dollars more.

Not that anyone believed Nebraska's AD Bill Byrne or Chancellor Harbey Perlman when they claimed they were cutting men's swimming for budgetary reasons. That rationale was given the lie when swiminfo revealed that Nebraska would be the recipient of an $8 million gift from the Alltel Corporation--a revelation first denounced, then confirmed in all particulars by the university. Shortly thereafter, the university gave its coaches and AD a record $1 million+ in bonuses.

Meanwhile, the University of Kansas is spending $8 million to build a new weightlifting facility. That school, too, cried poor last year too when it cut swimming.