Missouri State to eliminate five sports in effort to save money

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (AP) -- Missouri State University will cut five of its 21 intercollegiate sports at the end of the current school year to save a projected $350,000 to $500,000 annually as the university faces potential state budget cuts.

Missouri State's board of governors on Friday unanimously approved the proposal by school President Michael Nietzel to cut men's indoor and outdoor track, men's cross country and men's and women's tennis. Nietzel said the cuts were necessary to keep the athletics budget from growing as state funding stays flat or declines.

"This board and this president were forced to make decisions, but they were forced to make decisions by the reality handed to us by this state's Legislature and this governor," board Chairman Michael Franks said.

The decision leaves Missouri State with six men's sports -- the minimum for NCAA Division I membership -- and 10 women's sports.

The cuts affect 41 athletes. Officials said the athletes' scholarships would be honored even after the programs are cut at the end of the 2005-06 season and any students who want to transfer would be helped.

The head of the Springfield chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said the civil rights organization opposed the cuts because it would affect minority athletes when Nietzel, who took over this year, has said increasing diversity on campus is a priority.

"How can you tell students that you are interested in the increase of diversity when you seemingly so eagerly want to eliminate those sports?" the Rev. Larry Maddox told the board.

Maddox said he was in contact about the issue with the state and regional leadership of the Baltimore, Md.-based NAACP. He did not say what action the NAACP might take.

Nietzel argued the cuts would affect a lower-than-average percentage of minority athletes. He said 14.6 percent of students in the five sports were minorities, while minorities make up 19 percent of students in all university athletics programs.

The vote followed over an hour of emotional testimony by current and former coaches and players of the five sports, who urged the board to postpone any decision and look at other options, including spreading the cuts over more sports or finding outside funding.

"I believe we can find a solution if given time," said Jim Giachino, women's tennis coach.

But Franks said the state was already warning it could cut funding next year and that the university must decide now how to handle decreasing revenue and increasing costs.

"This is the critical reason why we cannot postpone making any of the decisions that will be made in the next six months. I assure you, if we don't make those decisions, time will make them for us anyway," Franks said.

Nietzel said the cuts were recommended by a special committee he appointed in August. That committee included athletics leaders, faculty and staff but no students.

Nietzel said the current intercollegiate athletics budget is about $11.1 million, with about $5.1 million coming from the university's general fund -- an increase of $600,000 from the year before. The rest is raised from outside donors, sponsors and revenue from sports.

Missouri State will have to continue looking for budget cuts, Nietzel said. The school already has a partial hiring freeze and a maintenance and repair backlog of $28 million, he said.

"We are out of choices that will keep everybody happy in terms of how we spend the money we got to operate this university," Nietzel told the board.

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