The coronavirus pandemic wiped out March Madness.
It took away all NCAA spring sports.
Five months later, there was more bad news delivered to athletes and coaches. The Big Ten on Tuesday canceled all fall sports, with the possibility of playing in the spring.
“I want to express I share the real disappointment of our coaches and our student-athletes that will be forced at least to wait a while and delay doing what they love to do, in many cases what they’ve trained most of their lives to do,” Michigan State athletic director Bill Beekman said during a Zoom call with reporters on Thursday afternoon. “But I think it’s possible to be disappointed and to still understand the logic of the decision that, based on medical advice that the Big Ten received from its infectious disease working group and its sports medicine working group, that there were really just too many unknowns to proceed with the season.”
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The Big Ten’s decision to cancel fall sports came just six days after revised 10-game, conference-only football schedules were released. Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren called it a “holistic decision” based on medical advice and an emphasis on the health and safety of athletes. Beekman said he’s hopeful fall sports can be played in the spring, including football, but there are serious budget issues to address.
With no football in the fall, Beekman estimates Michigan State could lose $80 to $85 million in revenue from an athletic department budget that brought in $140 million in the 2019 fiscal year. Football and men’s basketball are the only sports among the 25 the university sponsors that take in a profit.
“If we have the ability to play sports that generate revenue we absolutely will,” Beekman said. “I’m very hopeful that we’ll play football in the spring, that we’ll play basketball. … As it relates to the other sports, there are some open questions as to how and when we’ll be able to play them from a health, safety and wellness perspective and then certainly there are financial implications of playing those sports. We haven’t made any final decisions. In some cases we’re in a little bit of a wait-and-see mode.”
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Michigan State in July announced pay cuts for the athletic department, including a 10 percent reduction for Beekman and 7 percent for football coach Mel Tucker and basketball coach Tom Izzo. That’s just a small part of addressing a significant problem. Beekman said his view of managing the budget is to start at $0 and spend as little as possible.
The pandemic resulted in some schools cutting sports. Michigan State hasn’t done so but that could change as Beekman called the lack of fall football an “existential moment” for college sports.
“We have to be in never-say-never mode,” Beekman said. “I think there’s nothing that we’re going to immediately take off the table. Everything has to be an option as we explore how to close this gap as best we possibly can.”
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