On May 18 Furman University made the decision to cut its baseball and men’s lacrosse programs due to budget cuts stemming from the coronavirus outbreak.
Furman baseball alums and members of the 2020 baseball team have shared their disappointment with the decision since then.
Furman Athletics Director Jason Donnelly recently had a lengthy discussion with The State. He addressed a number of topics, including how Furman got to this point and if the program could ever be brought back.
Here is the exchange with Donnelly, which has been edited for length and clarity:
What was it like going through this process?
This has been incredibly difficult. No university or no Director of Athletics ever wants to cut sports. It’s been hard emotionally. It’s been really hard because we care deeply about the student athletes and their families and our alumni. There’s a rich history and tradition at Furman that really matters, and it’s a really strong, central part of our community. It can’t be understated how important athletics are at Furman.
What I think is not understood as much is some of the challenges that Furman has right now and where we are. And just to kind of give you some insight into that, Furman is a tuition funded athletic program. Different than Clemson or South Carolina that are athletic departments that they’re running their own department and the subsidy comes from football or from revenue generation, the majority of how we operate comes from student tuition.
In the case of baseball, unfortunately we lose $1 million a year. In the case of men’s lacrosse we were losing $1.7 (million) a year. The majority of that is tuition. A strong part of that is salaries and to operate at a competitive level. In 2019 we only had $8,000 in ticket sales for baseball. You’re talking about an institutional investment in sports that’s intended to provide a great experience for your student-athletes and your alumni. But it comes with a cost that’s a pretty substantial cost.
Why did this decision have to be made?
When I took the job, this is going back to August of 2019, on the way in the president was very clear to me we have some financial challenges related to athletics. She was clear with me that we needed to reduce 45 scholarships as a part of our athletics plan. This had never been presented publicly. This is a private strategy the university was putting together with the trustees and trying to figure out: ‘How do we afford athletics?’ Because we couldn’t afford it anymore.
The problem is that Furman had the most sports in the Southern Conference, had the most student-athletes in the Southern Conference and the hardest part — had the most scholarships in the Southern Conference at 200 scholarships at $55,000 a year. So had the highest tuition but it was the third-smallest school in the conference. So the numbers just weren’t right.
Within the first month of taking the job I explained this to our athletic department. I met with our head coaches and our administrators. During that time I was also trying to formulate a plan to buy us some time. I was told ‘You have five years to work through this.’ It wasn’t an overnight thing. I wouldn’t have taken a job if it was an overnight thing. We’re gonna have to drive revenues through fundraising and revenue generation and we’re gonna have to reduce on the expense side. What I presented to the Board of Trustees at the first Board of Trustees meeting I was at in October, I presented them my observations about the athletic department and where we stood. What I asked them for is that I could meet in the middle. Let’s reduce x amount of scholarships and let’s raise the rest. So we were gonna reduce by 25 scholarships and we were gonna raise the money for the other 20.
Now fast forward from there to March. We just finished the Southern Conference tournament in basketball. We get back here and the COVID virus hits. And no one really had a full understanding what this was. This was changing by the minute and by the hour. So we would be in meetings and you’d be going through things and the next thing you know this would be canceled and that would be canceled. In that process all of our spring sports ended up getting canceled, which was really hard. But we basically stopped working on campus and shut everything down and we were able to basically figure how are we going to survive this fiscal year? You had students leaving campus and getting refunds.
Legislation was being passed by the NCAA about fifth-year student athletes. And we’re pushing this. Our spring sports didn’t get to play so we think it’s important they come back and not only are we going to ask them to come back, we’re going to fund it. In our mind we’re still moving forward as planned. We’re not cutting sports. Cutting sports was never on the table. Going back to when I first got here the president said, ‘We’re going to operate as 20 sports. We’re not cutting sports. We’re just going to cut scholarships as a part of this larger plan and reduce the deficit.’
Then we get into April, and in April, which is about a month after the pandemic hit, our institution began to realize the hole we were going to be in moving forward for the institution based on the virus. And that wasn’t an athletic department deficit. That wasn’t a specific deficit. It just was the response to this virus, the loss of $100 million with the endowment for us. The loss of revenue in the spring. The loss of revenue in the summer. The loss of revenue next year. And Furman, just the same as other schools, got caught into a process of the deficit was so large that the deficit was actually large enough that the only way you could really pay for it is you’d have to cancel our entire athletic department. That’s how big the deficit is. So now we got to a point of crisis mode, which was how do we go through this process and how do we figure out how to get through this?
There were different scenarios. The best case scenario we’d be able to get back to school in the fall. The next scenario we don’t come back in the fall. The next scenario we don’t come back at all (in 2020-21). This is how far out these scenarios are going. So we’re planning for best case scenario coming back in the fall. And that was the point where we basically all sat down as a leadership team and with our trustees and said, ‘The deficit we’re going to go into here is going to be critical and it’s going to require severe changes.’
We quickly hired outside consultants on the financial side to help us. And at the end of the day we needed to provide $5 million in relief to the university. So if you’re looking at a $5 million deficit, you’ve got to make a decision. Does this devastate your whole department? Or do you have to make strategic decisions about what you do? So these are the conversations we’ve had with our consultants and trying to come up with a plan and trying to figure out what would work to allow us to do this to provide $5 million in relief. Ultimately we settled on we could only look at men’s sports based on the Title IX gender equity rules. Considering women’s sports was not an option. We needed to look at sports with large rosters, because we had to make a significant financial impact.
We went through this whole process with the consultants. Then as an institution we had to make decisions relative to that. We presented these options to our Board of Trustees. We didn’t know what the final outcome of this was going to be until Monday (May 18). At the end of the day, when we went through this, Monday was the day we finally got to this consensus. And it was very painstaking. It wasn’t taken lightly. But it was a process where the trustees didn’t want to do this. This isn’t what they wanted to do. This isn’t what I wanted to do. This isn’t what the president wanted to do. It was just such a financial need for the institution that something had to be done. Unfortunately it has negatively impacted these two programs and their alumni.
What we discussed with the teams is that every student-athlete would have their scholarships honored knowing how hard this is that if they wished to stay at Furman the financial aid would be there. If they wished to transfer we’d help them transfer and go where they wanted to go. All of our coaches were kept on contract for a minimum of six months. The head coaches will be here longer if they wish to do so. And again, if they wish to take other jobs, we’ll be supportive as well. But this is awful. It’s devastating. It’s hard. It’s not what we wanted to do. But it came about through necessity. We just couldn’t afford to operate anymore without making these decisions.
Was there any way to keep the baseball program?
Different people will say different things. ‘Well why didn’t you go non scolarship in the sports?’ And just being honest, at the level the Southern Conference competes at, to go non scholarship is just not fair to anyone involved. It’s not fair to the athletes. It’s not fair to the coaches. It’s not fair to the alumni. It’s just not a reasonable model at this level of competition.
People ask questions and say, ‘Well why baseball versus another sport?’ And that was the analysis that we did with our consultants to try to figure out what was the appropriate decision? With regards to men’s lacrosse it was the last sport to get here. So it has the least amount of alumni and it just made the most sense. That wasn’t really debated. The baseball decision was debated heavily. It was debated to the point that we almost didn’t do it, even going into Monday when we announced all of this because everyone knew the hurt and the harm and the difficult this would be for everyone involved, how hard this was going to be. And ultimately the decision with the trustees was made because they just knew how severe the financial consequences are. And that’s how this all went down. That’s unfortunately where we’re at.
What was the original plan for cutting the 25 scholarships?
It was communicated to all of the coaches, so every coach knew what their reduction was going to be. So baseball went from 11.7 or 11.5 down to 9. You had another sport that would lose two scholarships here. Another sport that would lose three scholarships there. So it was distributed evenly across all of our teams. We’re still going to have to do that. The hard thing here, and what people don’t realize, is that it’s not just baseball and lacrosse. All of the sports are getting affected because of the deficit. But then we’re going to fundraise and raise revenues to make up for those differences.
The thing I’ll tell you, I’ve been on calls with ADs around the country, every one of us is going through this. Every one of us is trying to figure out this model. The difference with different schools is that at a large state school that sponsors Power 5 football, they’re dependent on football being played this fall. So for them the decisions aren’t being made now because it’s going to be based on getting back for football. For a small liberal arts school like us if you are able to trim expenses then you just trimmed expenses. And we’re gonna have to do that as well. But the gap was so significant for us that we didn’t have any options.
So there was no talk at all before the pandemic about trying to cut baseball or men’s lacrosse or any other programs?
Specifically we were told no cuts. That was directly from the president before the pandemic that no sports would be cut. That was from the president and the board. I think there’s a misconception out there that there was a long term plan to do this. That was not the case. The directive was not to do this. This was a decision that we had to make. And it’s not me alone. This is the trustees, the president, leadership, athletics, all of us had to come to the table and make a hard decision relative to our profile. But the directive was to not cut sports. We were going to move forward with 20 sports and that was the plan.
Part of the reason we weren’t going to cut sports is because Furman already went through this 5 to 10 years ago with golf. They cut men’s golf and they brought it back. They already went through that and the trustees were clear they didn’t want to go through it again. They’ve already been down this road and they chose not to do it. That’s why coming into this cuts were never on the table.
Can you share a little more about the role Title IX played as far as why only men’s sports could be cut?
Yea, we’ve been in compliance with Title IX gender equity, but when you make decisions you have to lean on Title IX gender equity in your decision making process. So the fact that they were both men’s sports at an institution that is predominantly female, your athletic program has to reflect that. If the percentages were 60-40 female at Furman, the athletic department is supposed to reflect that in your decision making. Some people say, ‘Why didn’t you drop one men’s sport and one women’s sport?’ We weren’t able to. In our decision making process we had to be on the men’s side because of Title IX gender equity rules about proportionality.
I believe you said going into Monday you were still hoping that saving baseball would be an option. What happened Monday to where it tilted that this had to be done?
It was a trustees meeting that was done over several days. It was Thursday, Friday and Monday. The trustees were given time, but really it was to communicate to them the severity of the financial challenges. Furman is financially strong, but the deficit for the next few years is significant. So they were given time to think about this and go through all the scenarios to try to figure out what was the right option for Furman.
Unfortunately, when you’re trying to fix a deficit that’s in the tens of millions, you don’t have a lot of options. Athletics specifically needed to cut $5 million. So the only way to get to $5 million was to have cuts. It was impossible to make the changes in other ways without making the reductions to get to $5 million. We still haven’t gotten all the way to $5 million. We still have more work to do to trim budgets and resources to do that, but the only way to get to a number of that significance at a small school is to work through the reduction of sports.
How was the decision finalized? Was there a vote?
The trustees voted to endorse the decision moving forward. It was them saying, ‘We understand the financial implications of this and we’re going to endorse the plan.’ So it’s up to the leadership to go through all the options and it’s up to the trustees to endorse the plan.
I know you said it was a really tough decision. Was there some push back? Was there some back and forth with that group?
There was really good dialogue and conversation with that group. They all acknowledged the pain and the difficulty of making this decision. But ultimately Furman is the place that when they make a decision it’s going to be a united decision. And that’s how it came about. The trustees acknowledged that this is very painful and very difficult but unfortunately necessary to get through the financial challenges that we had.
Was there any last-ditch effort made to try to reach out to alumni to raise money and try to save the program?
Unfortunately no, and the reason being is two reasons. No. 1 it was a confidential process that was intended to let the university go through this process and try to figure it out. If we had more time it would’ve made sense to try to go through the process with the alumni and say, ‘Here’s what it’s going to take to operate these programs. Can we get it done?’
The difference with the long-term plan over five years is we were going to communicate it. ‘We need your help. We need your support.’ But that would take place over five years. That means you can plan. You can get behind initiatives and do things and plan together over time. In this case we had no time and there was a sense that it was important for us to notify the student athletes as soon as possible of the changes in the program so they could make decisions relative to staying at Furman or going elsewhere. As I communicated to the student-athletes, I know this is incredibly hard to hear, but part of why we’re sharing this with you now is to allow you to have a chance to go somewhere else if you want to go somewhere else.
Is there any talk of trying to bring the baseball program back? Is that something that could be considered down the road?
We’ve tried to be realistic about it that it’s unlikely, and the only reason we say that is what we went through with golf. It was a really difficult process for the university. This was before I got here so I wasn’t a part of that. But in order to fund these programs it would require an endowment that would allow the programs to be supported by the endowment. That’s going to be millions and millions of dollars to do that. It’s a big number, because ultimately the university just can’t keep paying for the programs that it can’t afford.
The university has made decisions that they’ve chosen to prioritize all students, the academic mission, and all the things that come with it. There’s an investment here. The institution’s got to invest in academics and invest in the student experience for all students. The challenge for us is now to take this model and for us in athletics to prioritize the 18 sports that we do have coming back and really invest in those 18 sports so that they can be successful. We just couldn’t pay for 20 sports anymore. We couldn’t pay for the amount of scholarships that we were paying for anymore.
I’ve personally heard from several Furman players that shared with me that they would’ve loved to have had the opportunity to raise money and they wish Furman would have reached out and asked.
We’ll have that conversation with everyone and we’ll talk through it, but we just want to be realistic about the cost. We’ll have that conversation with the alumni. I’m preparing a proactive conversation with them to get together with them on all of this to talk about it. If we’d have had more time before we had to make this decision then we would’ve communicated that to everyone. Given the timeline and given the severe financial challenges that were affecting us immediately we weren’t able to provide that communication to them.
The hard part, particularly for baseball, is that if you’re a baseball alum you’re really frustrated with Furman because this is so sudden and didn’t have a chance for them to respond. We will communicate with the alumni. We will figure out if options are available. But the number that’s required to keep the program sustainable is a really large number.
I’ve been in touch with several alumni already who have given significantly to the program to communicate what I just shared with you so that they can know and understand what this is. As I shared with them, we’ll keep the conversations going. We certainly don’t want to lose everyone here. And we’re certainly not minimizing what this is. We know this is really difficult for everyone involved. It’s just an incredibly difficult situation that without the virus we’re not in this situation right now. I can’t underscore how deep this impact has been financially for Furman and for higher education as a whole. That’s the challenge that I don’t know if people fully understand how difficult this situation is.
With the student-athletes and incoming freshmen, do you have any idea how many might stay, if any?
I think it’s hard to say. I think the majority of them are interested in continuing to compete in Division I. But the reality for all of them is they’ve got to find the right situation. So even though they may intend to transfer, given the uncertain climate of college athletics, colleges, the virus, I shared with them that they may need to be patient in their thought process and decision making process relative to where they’re going to go.
One thing that we’ve asked our coaches that are a part of this is to keep working with their student-athletes so that if they wish to stay here that they can continue to train, they can continue to take classes, they can continue to work out. And to get ready for an opportunity whenever that is if they wish to do that.
Do you anticipate any other programs being cut or is that something that is being looked at?
That’s a good question. Our student-athletes when I got on a call with them asked the same question. The answer is no. We don’t anticipate any other changes. But the one caveat to that is that’s based on the virus. That’s based on the best case scenario that we get back to school in the fall. I’ve said repeatedly to our staff that the most important thing we’ve got to do is we’ve got to get healthy. We’ve got to get back to school. We’ve got to get back to sports. And we’ve got to get back to work. If we’re on schedule to get back to school as we anticipate I don’t anticipate any more changes to Furman.
Are you concerned at all about trying to raise funds and support the athletics department while at the same time a lot of alums and baseball alums in particular are not pleased with what has happened?
Yes, I’m definitely concerned. It’s one of those things, this isn’t what I signed up for either. This isn’t what I came here for. It was never my anticipation having to go through this. We were working very hard on building a culture and a community. And we were going to be very aggressive with fundraising and asking people to help us grow this department. So I’m obviously very concerned moving forward.
The one thing that I could tell you, for as many negative things as we’ve heard, there’s also been a lot of positive. There have been a lot of people out there that recognize how hard this is given the circumstances. And I will say we’ve been fortunate in the Upstate. Things are a lot worse in other places. And different institutions and different communities are going through things even harder than we are. So at the end of the day if we’re healthy, if we’re safe, and if we can get back to school we’re gonna be fine. But I know that this is going to be hard for baseball alumni moving forward. We may lose their support and we’re gonna work hard to get it back. That’s the best that we can do.
I’m going to talk to the baseball alumni and work with them about how do we get them to come back? How do we remember their legacy? How do we celebrate that in the future? What are the appropriate things that they want to do?
This story was originally published May 27, 2020 12:12 PM.
