The Health Of College Athletics After COVID-19 Will Depend More On Akron And Miami (Ohio) Than LSU And Texas

Centuries from now, the wise among sports historians won’t use Notre Dame, Alabama or other traditional powerhouses to gauge how college athletics recovered or imploded from COVID-19.

They’ll study Miami (Ohio) University.

Uh-oh.

To put things into perspective about the dwindling “haves” and the many “have nots” among the ability of colleges to survive this epidemic regarding sports, here’s a quick comparison between the athletics departments of Miami (Ohio) and Clemson University per officials at both schools.

When you include administrators, coaches and supporting staff, Clemson has around 250 full-time employees. At Miami (Ohio), you might reach 135, but only if you include part-timers and those passing through.

Clemson’s athletics department budget reached more than $122 million, according to the last time it became public after the 2017-18 academic year. Miami’s budget for 2020 was barely $27 million.

You get the picture.

Miami (Ohio) isn’t Clemson, but in the massive universe of the NCAA, there are more Miami (Ohio)s than Clemsons.

So if you want a feel for how college athletics will evolve down the stretch of this COVID-19 horror show, you should just concentrate on the past, present and future of my alma mater in Oxford, Ohio.

You can’t get more mom, apple pie, the American flag and “mid-major” than the Mid-American Conference (MAC), and the Miami (Ohio) RedHawks have been the most dominant member of the 74-year-old league since joining 73 years ago as the Redskins.

I attended Miami (Ohio) in the 1970s, when the football team finished 15th, 10th and 12th in the final Associated Press polls in consecutive years after beating Florida, Georgia and then South Carolina. That was despite the huge financial gap even then between Miami (Ohio) and the traditional powerhouses.

During what evolved into a glorious football run for the Redskins of 32-1-1, rumors surfaced about the Big Ten replacing Northwestern
NWE
with Miami (Ohio), but this was for sure: In February 1976, when the host Redskins nearly upset a top six-ranked North Carolina basketball team for the second time in three years, legendary Tar Heels coach Dean Smith told me as a sophomore reporter for the student newspaper and those for major ones that with “a few nuances here and there,” Miami (Ohio) could compete in the ACC.

“If all of the teams in the Mid-American Conference are like Miami, I don’t want any part of it,” Smith said, referring to the liberal arts college in southwestern Ohio known as the Cradle of Coaches, mainly due to football icons such as Paul Brown, Bo Schembechler, Woody Hayes and Ara Parseghian.

As for the present, Miami (Ohio) is the only school with two current NFL head coaches (Sean McVay of the Los Angeles Rams and John Harbaugh of the Baltimore Ravens) as graduates.

The RedHawks’ football team won the MAC last season for a record 16th time, and for the 2018-19 academic school year, Miami (Ohio) became the first program in conference history to hold the Reese (most prolific men’s teams) and and the Jacoby (most prolific women’s teams) trophies simulataneously.

There’s more . . .

Which brings us to the University of Akron.

For Miami (Ohio) and others wanting college athletics to live a fairly normal life beyond the SEC, Big Ten and maybe the ACC after the pandemic, the news reeked Thursday from Akron’s campus. This MAC school of the Zips whacked golf, cross country and women’s tennis to save $4.4 million since the university wants to remove $65 million from its overall $325 million budget.

Miami (Ohio) has been there, done that with sports teams. In April 1999, university officials killed the tennis, wrestling and soccer programs for gender equity reasons, but they say no such cuts will happen this time.

Even so, the blade is so sharp for Miami (Ohio) bosses, they can slice one of the school’s famous red bricks in half with a touch.

They’re slicing, too, mainly people.

They say they haven’t a choice.

Even though the Dayton Daily News re-named Miami (Ohio) the Cradle of CEOs after producing so many for Fortune 500 companies in recent years, and even though the school is known for its high level of alumni giving, Miami (Ohio) still is a public school with dwindling state funding (slightly more than 50% during my time on campus to less than 10% now).

Not only that, but the coronavirus forced Miami (Ohio) to send students home early from campus this spring to complete their semester online.

As a result, the university reimbursed students $27 million for room and board and other fees. According to Miami (Ohio) officials, it contributed to their cutting most of the school’s visiting professors from the fall schedule, and this is after they announced in January the layoffs of 40 staff members on July 1.

Now all Miami (Ohio) departments have been ordered to slice even deeper, including athletics, where the sports information department last week was paired from seven employees to one.

No question, the Clemsons of college athletics also are downsizing due to the pandemic, but their cuts require Band-Aids.

As for Miami (Ohio) and other mid-majors, they’ll likely need major surgery, with the beeps from their vital signs monitor attached to more funding getting fainter by each positive test for COVID-19,

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