What Ray Tanner said about the possibility of cutting sports at USC
The possibility has to be out there.
The coronavirus pandemic could well put a sizable dent in the revenues of the South Carolina athletic department, primarily by disrupting the Gamecocks’ football season, which athletic director Ray Tanner will tell you is the engine of the department’s financial side. Basketball disruptions have already led to some pay cuts and a reduced distribution from the NCAA and some programs getting cut at smaller schools.
Could South Carolina see a program cut? Tanner prefers strongly not to go that route, but nothing is truly off the table.
“There’s no question that we’re in a period that we have to reduce cost,” Tanner said Friday while speaking with reporters. “Dropping sports, is that a consideration? It has to be on your list. Is it high on my list? No. Is it something that I want to do? No. So it’s not an immediate priority.
“There’s still some time in front of us to make some determinations, and to understand exactly what the financial pressures are going to be.”
In the state, Furman shuttered its baseball team, and schools such as Akron, Bowling Green, Cincinnati and East Carolina have already cut a few programs.
South Carolina sponsors 19 teams across 21 sports (indoor and outdoor track account for the difference).
Tanner was specifically pressed about the future of men’s soccer, a non-SEC sport. (The Gamecocks play in Conference USA.) Mark Berson started the program and is set to retire at the end of the 2020 season. The program has been to 22 NCAA tournaments in 41 seasons.
“We’ve had men’s soccer for a long time and there’s been some success and we have young people who play the sport that are passionate about it,” Tanner said. “It’s more, I think, emotional than it is looking at the fact that it’s not an SEC sport. But it’s important ... What we do at this university? It has been here for a long time.”
Last year, the men’s soccer program reported $231,707 in revenue, $215,215 of which was direct institutional support. It has an operation expense of $1.396 million.
The football program reported more than $65 million in revenue last year, and likely also accounts for a notable part of the $54.5 million in revenue not allocated to specific sports.
Tanner said there’s no timetable for when sports might have to be cut. In a radio interview with SportsTalk SC later Friday, he laid out the terms more starkly.
“Is that part of what we’ve had to look at as cost containment? Yes,” Tanner said. “I’m charged to run the athletic department in the black.
“That’s our goal. Taking a look at reducing sports is an option. I don’t want to be in that position. That would be one that I would try to save as a last resort.”
This story was originally published May 23, 2020 at 11:53 AM.
