Winston Salem State University has decided to give up its aspirations of competing in Division I athletics because of the high costs of the transition.
The expenses of competing in Division I caused the school’s athletic department to fall into almost a $2 million budget deficit, forcing WSSU’s Chancellor Donald Reaves to abort the school’s transition.
The Board of Trustees approved the decision unanimously in September to end the process.
“In the final analysis the resources to complete the reclassification simply were not available,” Reaves said in a written statement.
“If there were any reasonable way to complete this transition without diverting resources from competing academic priorities, I would have recommended that we stay the course,” he said in the statement.
Although revenues from ticket sales and fundraising have increased since the transition began, they did not keep pace with the costs of athletic scholarships, advertising and coach salaries associated with moving to Division I.
“We only have 300-plus athletes here,” said Chris Zona, the assistant director of athletics for media relations. “The fact is we are an academic institution, and funds should go there.”
For a school to move from Division II to Division I, it must go through a five-year transition process overseen by the NCAA and is required to have 14 varsity teams.
WSSU began transitioning from Division II’s Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association to Division I’s Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference in 2004.
From 2005 to 2009, WSSU’s athletic spending almost doubled, from $2.88 million to $5.58 million.
Over the same time span, revenue grew from $2.07 million to $3.77 million.
The result was a $1.8 million budget deficit and the decision to remain in Division II athletics.
N.C. Central University is attempting to make the same transition to Division I athletics. Like WSSU, N.C. Central has had to weigh the financial risk of the transition.
“Finances are a huge part of the transition,” said Kyle Serba, NCCU’s associate athletics director for media relations.
“We had to more than double our operations budget for the move and will have to continue to grow in order to compete in the MEAC,” he said.
NCCU expects to complete the five-year transition to Division I by fall 2011.
Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.
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