Deromedi: We cannot cut a sport
Athletics Director Herb Deromedi says cutting a sport is not an option despite faculty and student requests for more cuts to the athletics department.
CMU sponsors 16 sports, the minimum amount of sports the NCAA requires for Division I institute status. Cutting one sport would not only drop the Chippewas to a Division II institute. It would drop the university out of the Mid-American Conference.
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“We have serious limitations on where we can take those cuts. We have 16 sports; therefore, we are not in a situation where we can cut another sport and still meet NCAA criteria,” Deromedi said. “Same way with the amount of scholarships. We can’t take away a lot of scholarships, if that was a way we were looking to cut and not jeopardize our responsibility to be a Division IA institution or member of the Mid-American Conference.”
During the first cut, all 16 sports had to reduce their operating budgets, while athletics cut two scholarships. The pep band for basketball games was cut to weekend games only along with reducing the amount of workers at the games. The Chippewa Club — the organization of alumni, friends and companies with the primary mission of supporting athletic programs — also was hit, reducing the number of mailings and publications.
“We also reduced the amount of tutoring offered in the athletic center. They are still getting the necessary tutoring but the convenient time is being taken away. We are reducing the number of hours tutoring is being offered,” Deromedi said. “We don’t feel we are doing anything from the academic standpoint to jeopardize the health and welfare of our athletes.”
For the next round of cuts, increasing revenue by fund-raising will be important to some of the smaller programs. Most programs, including men’s cross country and track, were cut $2,000.
“It isn’t that much,” said Men’s Cross Country Head Coach Craig Fuller. “My worries are about the future, but our alumni are backing us a lot.”
Deromedi said he does not want to cut anything that would sacrifice the well-being of student-athletes.
“We didn’t want teams traveling by car when it was more important that they travel by bus. Also, we didn’t want to put four athletes to one room,” Deromedi said.
He also did not want teams to have to cancel events.
“I chose not to micro-manage the cuts, but to allow the coach to look at their budget and look and see if a trip was necessary. In track, for example, should we travel and run in a non-scoring meet or could we have someone come here and utilize our facility, but, from this chair, I have not canceled our participation in a contracted event.”
Fuller, an assistant coach for the men’s track teams, said cutting events is something the men’s team has already went through.
“It’s a concern. We cut out the Drake Relay trip, but we found some better competition around here,” he said.
Deromedi said if Tuesday’s cuts are too large, the department may have to make sacrifices to meet the number.
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“We may have to look at everything from a ticket pricing increase to putting on different events that would fall in the category of fund-raisers. It is one of those situations where you are going to do as much as you can to resolve the challenge. Obviously, we will do everything we can.”
He said making students paying for tickets is not something he would like to do.
“I have always been anti-that. That is a position I have been as a coach and as a director. I think when dollars are tough, I would rather have the student there and be a participant — be a part of the excitement of the Rose Rowdies, or any type of event or championship we are apart of — than make them cover (the expense).”
CMU is one of three schools in the MAC that does not charge a student fee.
“Not many schools charge for events. I don’t think any of them do. A few have a student ticket price after a certain amount of tickets are gone,” Deromedi said. “There are 10 schools of a 13-team conference with Central Florida for football that have an athletic fee that goes to athletic program. We don’t have that. At this point of time, I still favor our students not having to pay. ”
The department also is looking at ways to raise revenue.
“When I sat down with our coaches we suggested not only ways to cut but ways to increase revenue by holding a clinic or an event to try and recover the dollar amount that was lost,” Deromedi said.
Fuller’s program has taken it upon itself to raise money it had to cut.
“Herb has been very upfront with us. He doesn’t hide this from us,” he said. “He have done a good job fund-raising. We have been working since the beginning of cross season — we are getting prepared by being proactive.”
Deromedi pointed to the Chippewas signing to play the University of Michigan in football as a way of increasing revenue.
“It is increases not only by not having to travel by plane to Arizona but the difference in the guarantee which was significant ($60,000-$80,000 more). That actually made us cancel a Thursday night football game in which we would have to pay for lights,” he said. “And all of this was done as we were preparing our budget. We constantly try to do as many things as we can to maximize the dollars we have.”
Deromedi said the sports budget does not have a lot of extra costs to cut.
“There is not a lot of fat in this program,” he said.
