“I used to stuff my running shoes with a nylon sock just so my foot
wouldn’t fly out.”
By Scout Bassett, as told to Alexis Jones
Oct 20, 2020

scout basset

I was abandoned as a baby after losing my right leg in a chemical fire
in China. I lived in an orphanage there until the age of 7, when I was
adopted and moved to Michigan.

I spent a lot of my childhood struggling with my identity. Being a girl
with such a visible disability, being a minority, being adopted, being
an immigrant—I’m all of these things that everybody else around me is
not.

But then, when I was 14, I got my first sports prosthetic from the
Challenged Athletes Foundation. The first time I ran, I just thought,
“This is it.”

I had this freedom that I’d never had before and this feeling I was
going to be okay—and that I could do anything. It just took me to a new
place. I never had any aspirations to become a professional athlete,
but I knew I’d always continue to run because I loved the feeling. My
passion for the sport eventually led my to joining the track team in
college at UCLA, and later to the Paralympics.

The more I ran, the more confident I became in myself and my body. But
when it came time to find the right clothes to wear on practice runs or
the most comfortable shoes for race days, it was really tough. There
just wasn’t anything out there that made me feel empowered.

Join Runner’s World+ for more stories like this one!

I remember wearing such ridiculous clothes to exercise as a young girl.

I used to wear baggy basketball pants on runs, even during hot and
humid Michigan summers—partially because I wasn't ready to expose my
prosthetic, but also because those pants legs were the only ones wide
enough for my blade to slip through. And running tights were out of the
question. To fit my leg through just one side of the tight was
impossible.
Related Story
Strength Train Like Paralympian Femita Ayanbeku

But in 2012, I saw a picture of an Australian Paralympian. She was an
above-knee amputee like myself, and her running tights had been cut at
the start of her prosthetic. I just remember thinking how how sleek and
cool she looked. So I began buying my own tights and asking local
seamstresses to cut them. The first few places I went to seemed really
confused. “Oh wait, you only want one leg cut?” I got asked repeatedly.
Others told me they didn’t have a machine that could tailor raw
material or workout apparel without making it all bunched or damaged.
So it took some time to find the right person, but now I have a
seamstress here in San Diego who gets the drill.

I think people are so unaware of how the little things, like what you
wear and how it looks, can bring so much joy. Before, I would have to
pull down my pants in public to swap my prosthetic. It’s uncomfortable
to do that in open spaces. But with my altered tights, I can switch
between my walking leg and my running leg at any time—at a park or the
beach, from my car or at the track where there’s not always a restroom.
scout basset

Able-bodied people put on clothes and shoes and they don’t even think
of how a style or look could impact someone that has challenges with
putting it on—or getting it to look a certain way. The tailored
leggings gave me more options in terms what I wanted to look like. I
didn’t always have to wear big, wide shorts or baggy pants. I could put
on something that was sleek, functional, and comfortable.
This content is imported from Instagram. You may be able to find the
same content in another format, or you may be able to find more
information, at their web site.

View this post on Instagram

To see the bottom means the top is just as real and just as
obtainable. I was once burned in a fire, lived 7 years in a Chinese
orphanage and endured countless struggles throughout my journey. Today
I am incredibly humbled and proud to announce that I am a Nike
athlete!!!!! I never dreamed that this would ever happen to someone
like me but God is unreal and I am grateful for every person who has
made my story possible. #NeverGiveIn #Unashamed #OnAMission #RoadToRio
#TeamUSA #TrackNation #NikeWomen #NikeRunning

A post shared by Scout Bassett (@scoutbassett) on May 27, 2015 at
4:02pm PDT

But shoes were even more difficult to figure out.

I’m a children’s size 11 in sneakers, and I’m missing my left big toe,
which creates a huge balance issue. Early in my career, the smallest
track spikes I could find on the market were a woman’s size 5. And to
make up for the difference in sizing and comfort, I used to stuff my
running shoes with a nylon sock just so my foot wouldn’t fly out.

But in 2015, I signed with Nike and was given my first pair of custom
running spikes. I was already running 100 meters in 19 seconds. But
wearing spikes that actually fit, were stable, and didn’t flex too much
was a game changer. I was able to do the same run in 17 seconds. To
drop more than two seconds off 100 meters is just crazy. And it goes to
show what a difference adaptive activewear can make.

It’s not like our training changed or we did anything different in
terms of that. Just having a spike where I wasn’t spending as much time
on the ground when I made contact with it was a huge benefit. I went on
to train, qualify for, and compete in the Paralympics in Rio the
following year and placed fifth in the 100 meters. And the same people
used to make fun of me as a kid were suddenly bragging to everybody
about how they knew me.

This content is imported from Instagram. You may be able to find the
same content in another format, or you may be able to find more
information, at their web site.

View this post on Instagram

We all have the same two choices: Stop or keep going. When the
suffering becomes overwhelming. When there's no end in sight. When our
dreams seem out of reach. When we want to surrender. When people tell
us we can't. When we tell ourselves we can't. When we've improved. When
we've achieved. When we've overcome. When we're record chasers. When
we're breakers. When we don't make the podium. When we're on top of the
podium. No matter the circumstances, always choose to press on.
#NeverGiveIn #BetterForIt #OnAMission @ottobockus_ca
@ottobock_passionforparalympics

A post shared by Scout Bassett (@scoutbassett) on Jun 12, 2019 at
5:28pm PDT

Now, several brands are developing clothing for people like me—and it’s about
time.

Zappos, for example, features a collection of brands and companies
that sell adaptive clothing, shoes, and underwear. And Nike has an
entire line of adaptive sneakers called the FlyEase. To be able to
slide those on and zip them around the backside instead of lacing them
up has been really convenient for my prosthetic foot. Now obviously,
I’m not running in that shoe—I have a blade. But being able to leave my
house without having to put on two completely different shoes has been
really nice.
Related Story
He Wants to Tackle Running’s Diversity Problem

But we still have a long way to go. I have a teammate who’s a high-arm
amputee, for example, and she’ll wear long-sleeve shirts in the summer
because she can tuck the sleeve on the inside and the arm isn’t left
dangling like it would be in a short-sleeve shirt. I hope that the
industry will continue to evolve, whether it’s by offering more options
for people like my teammate or creating better alternatives to the
zipper or things that require tying. (For arm amputees, those actions
are hard to do!)

And if you don’t have great upper-body mobility or range of motion,
getting a tight-fitting shirt on can be a serious challenge. The
industry needs more options that don’t involve pulling your arm through
a shirt or over your head.

The imaging around adaptive athletes also needs to change.

Our culture has a way of portraying men with disabilities as being
heroes and transformer-like. I’ve heard, “They’re so cool to have that
bionic technology” or “Those blades make them look awesome.” A man’s
disability has a cool factor, but it doesn’t always feel that way with
women. Society is taught to look at a woman with a disability, or a
bodily imperfection, and see it as weakness.

The 2021 Runner's World Calendar features gorgeous photos, monthly
motivation, and tips to inspire your running all year long.]

I remember my seventh grade ski trip. I’d been debating whether or not
to go since I’d already skipped the previous year’s. I didn’t know how
skiing would work with my prosthetic leg, but I decided to give it a
try. When my turn came, I skied down the slope and saw a patch of grass
with little to no snow on it—and I was heading right toward it. I had
no ability to steer my skis, so I hit the patch and fell down, and my
leg flew off with the ski while my classmates stood there either
laughing or staring in shock. They’d never seen anything like it. I
became the girl whose leg flew off and didn’t ski again for another two
years.

I want to help change the narrative and show that women with
disabilities who compete in sports can be incredible. We are powerful,
we are strong, and we are no less attractive than anyone else. And this
leg is not the thing that makes me weak. My scars, my burns, my
prosthetic tell a story of all the hardships, the struggles, and the
trauma that I have survived. I’ve overcome it all. This is my
power—that’s what makes me strong. And I want whatever I put on my body
to reflect that, too.

From: Women's Health US
This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported
onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be
able to find more information about this and similar content at
piano.io
--- up 8 weeks, 1 day, 6 hours, 50 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (24:150/1)

Just weeks after photographing a track meet in the area, they are
selling photos to help with recovery.
By Taylor Dutch
Nov 10, 2020

jake willard at mckenzie community track
HOWARD LAO

The night prior to the Big Friendly track meet on July 17, Jake Willard
was so excited he couldn’t sleep.

It had been months since the Eugene, Oregon-based photographer covered
a race of any kind, due to the COVID-19 outbreak. And he couldn’t
wait to shoot the elite-only competition at the McKenzie Community
Track, situated among towering pine trees next to the McKenzie River in
Vida, Oregon.

Sign up for Runner’s World+ to become a stronger, healthier runner

On July 17, Willard and fellow photographers Howard Lao and Tim Healy
took pictures of some of the world’s best athletes. They watched world
bronze medalist Shannon Rowbury run 8:40.26—the fastest performance
in the world at that point—to win the women’s 3,000 meters. Olympic
silver medalist Nijel Amos ran a world lead in the men’s 600 meters.
And three professional training groups competed against each other in a
rarely contested mixed-gender relay, among other standout performances.

The meet at the McKenzie Community Track was the second of five
competitions in the Big Friendly Series, which were COVID-adjusted
events organized by Portland Track this summer. With most tracks
closed during the pandemic, Portland Track scrambled to coordinate
competitions with different facility organizers. And the McKenzie
Community Track board of directors was one of the groups that offered
to help.
Related Stories
NAZ Elite Wins the First-Ever Michigan Pro Ekiden
Galen Rupp Returns to Racing

“We thought was a really good gesture,” Duane
Aanestad, vice president of McKenzie Community Track and Field, told
Runner’s World. “We got the track here, there’s nothing going on, go
for it.”

Big Friendly organizers required negative tests from everyone in
attendance, didn’t allow spectators inside the facility, and asked the
competitors—some racing for the first time this year—to socially
distance. While documenting these unprecedented moments, Willard felt
at peace for the first time in months.

“It felt like a good day, and the athletes had fun with it,” Willard
told Runner’s World. “There was a noticeable camaraderie for everyone
in attendance, a lot of smiles, a lot of laughing, a lot of elbow bumps
instead of high-fives. It was cool to see everyone there enjoy that for
a moment, life was normal. Track was the center of our universe.”
mckenzie community track
Mel Lawrence, Konstanze Klosterhalfen, and Shannon Rowbury in the
women’s 3,000-meter run.
HOWARD LAO

But weeks after the Big Friendly meets, the same community that
welcomed local track athletes needed major assistance. In early
September, the region was nearly decimated by the Holiday Farm
Fire, a 173,000-acre blaze that burned more than 430 homes and
infrastructure in the McKenzie River Valley. As reported by The
Oregonian, the photographers and Portland Track organizers responded to
the crisis by giving back to the community that opened its doors to
them.

“ were such a great, welcoming community
when we were trying to figure this out,” Michael Bergmann, president of
Portland Track, told Runner’s World. “We were literally flying by the
seat of our pants, and so we just wanted to return that favor as part
of the track and field community in bringing that care for a community
that’s in pain.”
Related Stories
Molly Huddle Breaks Three U.S. Records in One Run
Lizak Sets an American Women’s 48-Hour Record

As Lao monitored the fire from his home in Portland, he emailed Willard
and Healy on September 12, suggesting they sell prints of their
photographs from the competition and donate the proceeds. In
coordination with Portland Track, the photographers each donated three
photos for an Etsy shop, where funds from every photo sold goes to
the McKenzie Community Recovery Fund. As of November 10, the
Portland Track Store has made 12 sales.

“It was a really big team effort from everybody,” Lao told Runner’s
World. “We’re just trying to get some relief down to the people there.
The track was used for a track meet in the summer and then it was used
for a safe meeting place during the fire. It’s more than just a track.”

Retired track coach Jeff Sherman is one of the local contacts that
helped coordinate the Big Friendly. When the fire hit the McKenzie
community, Sherman and his family were able to evacuate to eastern
Oregon. But many were unable to leave because debris blown over by the
blaze blocked the roadways. Residents took refuge in the track infield,
where a fire crew worked tirelessly to protect them from the flames.
Related Stories
Linden’s October: 496 Miles, 196 the Final Week
Letesenbet Gidey Breaks the 5,000-Meter WR
Cheptegei Breaks 10,000-Meter World Record

“ burned right up to the fencing on the track and a metal
building with hurdles stored inside, it scorched the back of that,”
Sherman said. “From what I understand, people were there for about four
or five hours.” He said rescue crews ultimately led residents to safety
with road-clearing equipment around 5 a.m. local time.

Weeks later, the McKenzie community is working to rebuild after the
fire’s mass destruction. But the gesture from Portland Track and the
photographers is providing a bright spot in a time of need.

“ were reaching out from the get-go to ask if we needed
help,” Aanestad said. “It seemed like we were part of a family, and you
take care of family.”
Taylor Dutch Taylor Dutch is a sports and fitness writer living in
Chicago; a former NCAA track athlete, Taylor specializes in health,
wellness, and endurance sports coverage.
This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported
onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be
able to find more information about this and similar content at
piano.io
--- up 11 weeks, 1 day, 7 hours, 51 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (24:150/1)

Across college sports, athletes and observers worry that cuts will
continue to hit track and cross country. Can anything be done to save
them?
By Daniel Petty
Nov 11, 2020

ncaa track and field
Jamie SchwaberowGetty Images

On November 5, Clemson University became the second Power 5
school—after Minnesota—to announce it was cutting a track and field
program at the end of the current academic year. Unlike Minnesota,
however, Clemson is getting rid of the entire program: men’s cross
country and indoor and outdoor track & field. No other sports were
affected by the cuts.

The school’s athletic director, Dan Radakovich, said in a letter
the decision was the result of numerous factors, but he acknowledged
the department faced difficulties because of the coronavirus pandemic,
including a projected $25 million budget shortfall.
Get the latest news and insights with RW+
runnersworld.com
Sign Up Today!

“The annual $2 million plus in savings will
be reinvested into other athletic department initiatives, including our
remaining Olympic sports and will help to provide additional financial
stability moving forward,” Radakovich wrote.

The school has sponsored men’s track & field since 1953, and the
program has won 23 ACC team championships and produced 16 individual
NCAA champions, 22 Olympians, and four Olympic gold medalists.

But as with many other college athletic departments, Clemson’s athletic
priorities are on the gridiron. The football team won national
championships in 2016 and 2018, and in 2017, the school opened a
142,000-square-foot, $55 million football training facility.
According to athletic department figures, football accounted for 74
percent of the revenues generated directly by the school’s sports teams
in 2019. Men’s track accounted for 1.5 percent of revenue—and the
program operated at a loss.
ncaa division i men'swomen's indoor track championship
John Lewis of Clemson runs the 800 meters at the 2018 NCAA indoor track
& field championships.
Doug Stroud/NCAA PhotosGetty Images

By this point in 2020, the script seems familiar. With COVID-19
cited as a major factor, at least a dozen schools this year have
ended track or cross-country programs or both, including Minnesota,
William & Mary (which announced that it was reinstating all sports
programs it cut, though promising only to do so through at least the
2021–22 school year), Central Michigan, University of Akron,
Appalachian State, University of Connecticut, Florida International
University, and a handful of other smaller colleges. Some, such as
Brown University’s, were spared after blowback.

Across the college sports landscape, coaches and observers expect the
pain to grow in the coming months. Athletics departments that were
already running deficits have come under even greater pressure.
Shortened football seasons, smaller conference revenue distributions,
and mostly empty stadiums have combined with declining enrollment to
create a dire situation at many schools.

But why are running programs quick to get the axe? And what can be done
to save them? Here are some possible answers.
This content is imported from {embed-name}. You may be able to find the
same content in another format, or you may be able to find more
information, at their web site.

What happened at the University of Minnesota?

2018 ncaa division i men's and women's outdoor track field championship
Minnesota’s Obsa Ali wins the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the 2018 NCAA
track & field championships. Men’s outdoor track at Minnesota has been
spared for now, but indoor track has been cut.
Jamie SchwaberowGetty Images

In early September, the message came down from the University of
Minnesota administration without much warning: Budget shortfalls would
force the school to cut four sports, including men’s indoor and outdoor
track. In October, the board of regents at Minnesota cut men’s indoor
track and two other programs while agreeing to spare men’s cross
country and outdoor track, though the latter program is expected to
be “re-evaluated” in the spring, the university said in a statement.

Related Story
Tracksmith Hosting Race to Save College Programs

Supporters of Minnesota’s program argue that the savings from
cutting men’s track and field are small: About $630,000 for the
combined men’s programs—less than 1 percent of a previously
estimated $75 million loss in athletic revenue for this year. One
member of the board of regents confirmed that assessment, telling
Runner’s World that the first-year savings from cutting indoor men’s
track would total $110,000.

Also, the $75 million budget shortfall was projected before the Big Ten
conference announced that football was coming back. The actual
shortfall could be less, depending on how many games Minnesota football
plays, as the athletic department will collect media rights revenue for
every game.

Minnesota’s overall athletics budget picture is much like Clemson’s,
according to a USA Today database of NCAA finances: From 2005 to
2019, Minnesota’s total athletic department revenue increased 145
percent from $53.2 million to $130.4 million, and its expenses went up
nearly as much—$53.8 million to $129.4 million.

The vast majority of the expense growth has come from coaching and
staff salaries, which jumped from $16.7 million in 2005 to $43.8
million last year, and facilities and overhead, which surged 182
percent over the same time period, from $10.5 million to $29.6 million.

“I learned a long time ago there’s always more money,” said Gary
Wilson, who coached cross country and track for Minnesota for 20 years
before retiring in 2013 and has been involved in the effort to save the
Minnesota track programs. “It’s just who’s got it? And how do you get
it? The priorities are completely screwed up.”

Are athletic programs at colleges and universities profitable?

The vast majority of college athletic departments operate at a loss:
Just 25 NCAA Division I athletic departments—all of them in Power 5
(SEC, ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-12) conference schools—generated more
revenue than expenses in the 2018–19 academic year. But even in the
Power 5 conferences, which together have 65 teams, 40 lose money.

In 2019, the range of Division I athletic department budgets was vast:
From roughly $4.6 million at Coppin State University to $204 million at
the University of Texas. The large majority of schools are dependent on
institutional funding and fees to subsidize their athletic programs.

What role do football and basketball play in these decisions?

Football and men’s basketball are usually the primary
revenue-generating sports in an athletic department. But they’re also
where the majority of the money goes.
Related Story
College Runner Leading Weekly Protests on Campus

“Since the late 1980s, spending on football and men’s basketball has
gone up 500 percent,” Dave Ridpath, an associate professor of sports
management at Ohio University and past president of the Drake Group,
which focuses on maintaining academic integrity in intercollegiate
athletics, told Runner’s World. “ not a gender equity
issue. It is a spending and budgeting issue. And I will say that till
the day I die—that it is absolutely budget mismanagement and budget
misprioritization.”

Ridpath says the “arms race” between schools over football and men’s
basketball programs results in schools pouring the extra revenue back
into those sports, while the Olympic sports receive little. In the end,
most athletic directors are judged by the success of those two sports.

“I learned a long time ago there’s always more money.”

“The real evidence is with Title IX,” he said. “Spending on male sports
has quadrupled since Title IX enforcement. It was supposed to help
balance budgets and equalize spending, but the opposite has happened.
More revenue just means more excess toys for football and men’s
basketball, and Title IX is used as an excuse for cutting Olympic
sports.”

For administrators seeking to cut roster spots and expenses, the large
roster sizes characteristic of track and cross-country teams make the
sports easy targets. (In many cases, those roster spots are reallocated
to other teams.) NCAA rules require its 130 FBS schools—those with the
top college football programs in the country—to sponsor at least 16
sports, a number that appears to be keeping at least some schools from
cutting more deeply after the NCAA declined to allow a blanket
temporary exemption to that figure because of the coronavirus.

What about the finances of track and field programs?

The median men’s head track and field and cross country coach at
Division I FBS schools went from $52,000 in 2004 to $103,000 in 2016,
according to an NCAA report released in 2018. The median salary for
women’s head coaches in track and cross country moved from $55,000 to
$108,000 over the same time period.

Although running programs can generate revenue from fees for hosting
home meets and through conference distributions, track and cross
country programs are almost universally unprofitable. The combined
men’s and women’s LSU track and cross country programs lost $4.5
million from 2015–16, and the University of New Mexico’s combined
program lost $1.2 million in fiscal year 2017.

According to a 2018 NCAA report, the median of the 94 men’s Division I
FBS track and cross country program in 2016 generated $60,000 in
revenue—through ticket sales from meets, for instance—and had $681,000
in expenses. Factoring in allocated revenue from student fees,
initiation support and state funding, the median men’s program operated
at a $420,000 loss. The median of 125 women’s DI FBS programs pulled in
$49,000 in revenues, had $739,000 in expenses, and, factoring in
allocated revenue, operated at a $462,000 loss.

The real differences can be seen in Power 5 versus non-Power 5
conference schools (what the NCAA refers to as autonomy versus
non-autonomy). In 2016, the median Division 1 Power 5 men’s program
(there are 61) generated $193,000 in revenues and had $1.62 million in
expenses, and, once other revenues were factored in, operated at a
$1.32 million loss. The median Division 1 Power 5 women’s program had
$170,000 in revenues, $1.87 million in expenses, and with other revenue
considered, operated at a $1.42 million loss.
Related Story
How International Runners Are Returning to College

Non-autonomy schools also lose money, though their revenues and
expenses are considerably less: The median men’s program lost $265,000
and the median women’s program lost $556,000.

What role do alumni and donors have to play in ensuring these programs
survive?

Relying on pledges from alumni and supporters and raising money after a
school announces its decision is an effort that comes almost always too
late. At UConn, the track team raised at least $1.5 million in
pledges in a few weeks, fearing the worst. The school ended up
eliminating men’s cross country.

But that doesn’t mean the money from alumni doesn’t matter. It does.

“Encouraging a culture of philanthropy is a key to survival,” Elaine
Calip, a former collegiate swimming and diving coach who now serves as
a development director at the University of California, Berkeley, and
previously led an effort at the University of Texas at Austin to endow
the men’s swimming and diving program, told Runner’s World. “When I
talk to donors who graduated in the ’70s and ’80s, they are under the
impression that the state of California still supports the UC system
schools with 50 or 60 percent of their budget. Well, that number has
been dwindling for decades, and it keeps getting lower.”

Kendall Spencer, a member of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate
Athletics and former University of New Mexico track and field athlete,
told Runner’s World that athletes need to do a better job of
communicating the value they bring to their schools—especially to those
outside the athletic department—and what they can do for schools after
they graduate.

“It’s important to get those stories and that value out to people in
the community, to people in academia—your provost, your dean,” said
Spencer, who recently graduated from Georgetown Law and is hoping to
make the 2021 U.S. Olympic team in long jump. “Sometimes communicating
the athletic value doesn’t quite do it. However, when I go outside of
that, and say, ‘Hey, I had this great experience at the University of
New Mexico. Here’s what it did. And guess what? I just graduated from
Georgetown Law. I’m now representing X, Y, and Z legally. And here’s
what I’m doing for your community.’ They hear that.”

What role do endowments play in college athletic departments?

Endowing scholarships or coaching positions is perhaps the only
guaranteed way to ensure a program survives long-term, but it’s also
impractical for most schools—especially in the short-term. At
Minnesota, officials estimated that to save all four teams that were
cut or are facing cuts—men’s indoor and outdoor track, men’s tennis and
men’s gymnastics—would require a $60 million endowment, an amount they
believed would have been impossible to raise quickly under any
circumstance, much less during an economic downturn.

Establishing endowments requires large donations, which sometimes come
all at once or are built up over years-long campaigns. That amount is
invested, and the income earned from that investment is distributed to
pay for the scholarships or coaching positions. Harvard, Princeton,
Stanford, and the University of Pennsylvania are among the schools
whose track and field head coaches are endowed.

Development officers certainly prefer unrestricted athletic donations
because it enables departments to use the dollars for any purpose in
the department. Many donations, though, go to endowments for specific
teams. Flexibility can be valuable as budget needs change and rules
change: The costs of travel, recruiting, game, and meet expenses are
increasing, so having a team endowment with the ability to support any
of those expenses is helpful.

Many universities that have cut athletic programs have endowments in the billions of dollars. Why can’t athletic departments tap those?

Even colleges and universities with endowments in the billions of
dollars aren’t safe from cutting sports. Stanford University’s
endowment was valued at $27 billion in October 2019, but the school is
cutting 11 of its 36 varsity sports anyway—none of which were track and
field or cross country—citing the coronavirus and the need to be more
competitive in fewer sports.

A university’s endowment is almost always a series of smaller funds
that are restricted for specific purposes—scholarships, research,
professorships and other needs. At larger schools, perhaps 10–20
percent of a total endowment might be available to tap for reserves,
said Jim Hundrieser, vice president for consulting services with the
National Association of College and University Business Officers
(NACUBO). At smaller schools, there’s far less flexibility, and school
endowment managers generally aren’t willing to spend down large
portions of their endowments, because doing so takes away from future
returns. As a general rule, schools spend about 4 percent of the
earnings per year, leaving any extra to help grow the endowment
further. In difficult times, some schools might bump that spending up
to 5 or 6 percent.

Endowment sizes vary considerably. At the University of Akron, which
cut men’s cross country earlier this year, citing the pandemic’s impact
on finances, its endowment was $235 million at the end of the 2019
fiscal year, according to NACUBO. In other words, not even 1
percent the size of Stanford’s.

With so many programs operating at a loss, which ones are safe?

ncaa cross country championships 2016 pre race press conferences
Colorado coach Mark Wetmore appears at a press conference before the
2016 NCAA cross-country championships.
Daniel PettyGetty Images

Athletic departments and universities ultimately decide their
priorities. At the University of Colorado, a school with a storied
distance running program that has produced eight team championships and
seven individual cross-country titles, about 23 percent of its 350
student athletes are on the cross-country and track and field teams.

“I don’t see us ever getting rid of those programs because there’s just
too much history and tradition,” Cory Hilliard, senior associate
athletic director overseeing business operations at Colorado, told
Runner’s World. “But that doesn’t mean that budgets aren’t getting
squeezed.”

Colorado’s men’s and women’s track and field and cross-country programs
annually cost a little more than $3 million to operate, which includes
about $438,000 for coaching and staff base salaries and $600,000 for
travel and equipment. CU coach Mark Wetmore agreed to a three-year
contract in 2018 that pays him $135,360 annually, not including
performance bonuses. In April, Wetmore took a voluntary 5 percent
pay cut—not counting lost bonuses—as the coronavirus canceled
championships and seasons.

As many other schools have, Colorado has also trimmed its travel and
operating budgets, keeping its teams closer to home. The Air Force
Academy and Colorado State University are nearby.

Colorado’s athletics department fields 17 NCAA sports and pulled in
roughly $94 million in revenue in 2019 while incurring $98 million in
expenses, according to a USA Today database. That puts Colorado’s
three-season cross country and track program—one that has produced
several Olympians—at around 3 percent of Colorado’s overall athletics
expenses. Football and men’s basketball makes up 70 percent of
Colorado’s annual athletics department revenues, Hilliard said.

“Our last resort is to cut the sports or any of the student athlete
support areas,” Hilliard said. “So the pressure was immediately put on
the salary and benefit line (because of coronavirus). These were tough
pills to swallow. But I think at the end of the day, the coaches
understood that the priority was keeping our student athletes safe and
healthy and maintaining their scholarships and commitment to them.”

What role do diversity and socioeconomic opportunity play in efforts to save teams?

Supporters of Brown University argued earlier this summer that the
school’s decision to cut the men’s track and field team would end one
of the school’s most racially diverse teams. The school reversed its
decision just a few weeks later.

NCAA data from 2019 show that aside from football and men’s and
women’s basketball, men’s outdoor and indoor track attracted the
greatest percentage of Black athletes of any sport on campus across all
NCAA divisions—23 and 22 percent, respectively. Women’s outdoor and
indoor were close behind, with 21 and 20 percent of student athletes
identifying as Black. The vast majority of the other sports beyond
track have single-digit percentage Black representation.

“If you’re thinking about track and field as a provider of
opportunity... track and field does that when you look at it
these other sports, some of which are prohibitively
expensive.”

Former Princeton track and field sprinter Russell Dinkins has taken up
the cause of several programs facing cuts, including those at Minnesota
and Brown—and now, Clemson. At Minnesota, Dinkins told Runner’s
World that its cuts would have affected 85 percent of the non-football
and basketball Black athletes at the school.

“When you factor in the seasons of play, is spending a lot
more money on a lot fewer athletes and some of those sports, they’re
losing just as much money and sometimes more money than track and
field,” Dinkins said. “And these other sports are overwhelmingly
white.”

Track and field is one of the most accessible sports available to youth
athletes in the United States, Dinkins argues. It doesn’t require
expensive equipment, extensive travel expenses, or money to rent space
at a facility.

“If you’re thinking about track and field as a provider of opportunity,
not only in terms of gender, but also in terms of social economics,
track and field does that when you look at it these other
sports, some of which are prohibitively expensive,” he said, citing
lacrosse and ice hockey as examples.

What opportunities are there for reform?

As colleges continue to cut, proposals for sweeping reform are growing
louder. A study commissioned by the Knight Commission on
Intercollegiate Athletics conducted in June found that 80 percent
of 362 Division I campus leaders — including presidents, athletic
directors, conference commissioners, student-athletes and others—want
to see major reform to address NCAA Division I governance. Most
respondents said they didn’t believe NCAA Division I schools “shared
common values about what intercollegiate athletics should be at an
educational institution” and that there was far too much difference in
resources across schools. The survey found majority support for
conference-level agreements to cap sports’ operating budgets —
including coaching salaries.

The NCAA earns most of its annual revenue from the Division I men’s
basketball broadcast contract and championship ticket sales. This year,
the distribution across DI schools was expected to be $600 million
before being cut to $225 million because of the cancellation of the
tournament. Separately, Division I FBS schools receive a distribution
from the college football playoff, which was $468 million in 2019 and
could be used for any purpose by the school.

The Knight Commission has recommended changing the distribution formula
to exempt football, whose postseason the NCAA does not control or
administer.

But the pressure on Olympic sports—like men’s cross country and track &
field—during the pandemic has led to further soul searching about how
those athletes are develop into the country’s future stars.

“U.S. sports’ development level needs to change,” said Ridpath, who
advocates for greater government support to develop Olympic athletes,
as is the case in other countries. “We cannot have a primary source of
elite development being in the education system.”

More immediately, schools could be given the flexibility to fund sports
at different levels and divisions. So, for example, a school may decide
to fund five sports at the Division I level, but many more at a
different level. “We need to play sports at a level we can afford and
sustain,” Ridpath said. “And I do believe that that would be the
catalyst for outside systems for elite development to manifest
themselves.
__________________________________________________________________

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported
onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be
able to find more information about this and similar content at
piano.io
--- up 11 weeks, 2 days, 7 hours, 51 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (24:150/1)