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Hyman Q&A: Money matters in A.D.'s tenure
Posted on 05.29.09
CommentsUSC athletics director Eric Hyman sat down with The State’s Joseph Person on Thursday at the SEC spring meetings in Destin, Fla., and discussed a number of subjects, including how the economic crisis has affected Gamecock athletics.
QUESTION: When you came to South Carolina, people joked about your frugal nature. Were you ahead of the curve on cost containment?
ANSWER: Other people call it all different kinds of things, but the word I like is prudent. I’m just conservative. I’ve always felt you’ve got to be a good steward of people’s money and you’ve got to treat it like your own. ... I’ve always tried to take that approach. Obviously, it’s become more in vogue now than it has been because of the economic crisis.
Q: What measures have you taken to cut costs?
A: We have taken a look at different things in the athletics department (to see) how we can be more efficient. John Kasik, our director of sports medicine, looked at a different way of getting the medicine for our athletes. We came up with a different way to do it, and we saved like $15,000 to $20,000. The football team driving up to N.C. State and then flying back, we saved money. ... We talked to the administrators who supervise sports. There’s no sense in us flying to Las Vegas and playing in a golf tournament. There’s just logical things like that.
Q: You have a year left on your contract. Has that (discussion of an extension) been back-burnered because of the economy and with what’s going on at the university?
A: I don’t know. I think you need to address that with someone else.
Q: We’ve heard from people about not re-upping for football tickets because of the YES program. I know you’ve said there’s a normal attrition rate (at schools that implement seat licenses), but are you concerned that it’s surpassing that rate?
A: We went to 19 schools. The average is 10 to 12 percent (of people who drop their seats). We knew we were going to have attrition, and a lot of (the schools) said it takes you a couple years to recover from that. From a financial standpoint, the reading I get is that our people have been spectacular. All the top-level seats are gone. Ironically, some of the $50 (seat fees), people haven’t returned as of this moment. But we need to get a picture a little bit closer as the summer goes on.
Q: Wasn’t the deadline in May?
A: It was May 22. But it takes you a couple weeks. One of the concepts in doing this was to free up more tickets to allow some of the younger generation to have access to them. And that’s what’s happened. We’ve had some people that maybe had 16 tickets, and they’ve cut to eight tickets. Or had 10 tickets, and now they’ve cut to four tickets. So you’ve seen some of that. Obviously, the economy doesn’t help. If the economy wasn’t a factor, I don’t think we would have come close to the average. I think we would have been much better because of the strong feeling people have toward the Gamecocks. ... We will have season tickets (available). We will not have what we’ve had in the past the last X number of years. But we’re going to sell out Florida. We’re going to sell out Clemson. There are games we’re going to sell out. I think the most vulnerable ones are going to be like South Carolina State and Florida Atlantic.
Q: Changing gears, you’ve had a couple of recruits from high-profile sports charged with felonies. You have a policy when a current athlete gets in trouble. What’s the policy when that happens with an incoming athlete?
A: The question has been posed to student affairs. What kind of impact that has on admissions, I don’t know. We have asked for guidance from the university. ... I know the university used to have on their application (a question about) if you’re charged with a felony. And then they did away with it. And I think the university’s now considering putting that back on the application for admission for everybody.
Q: Men’s basketball lost scholarships back-to-back years because of APR scores. Are you comfortable with where that program is academically?
A: Ecstatic. Huge commitment by Darrin Horn. I have a very strong comfort zone with him, very strong confidence in him. I haven’t gotten the official (grades) back, but the unofficial is over a 3.0, and that’s just spectacular with men’s basketball. And it’s a commitment from Darrin. Darrin holds them accountable. Darrin commits to the parents that he’s going to do everything he possibly can to see they get their degree. What I thought was neat the other day — Darrin made a commitment to a young man at Western Kentucky when he was a freshman that if he graduated, he was going to be there. He graduated about two weeks ago, and Darrin has long left Western Kentucky, but who flew all the way up there? It was Darrin. He is concerned about their education.
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