Smaller Budget, Smaller Scale

When the NCAA cancelled March Madness, everyone knew the financial hit would be tremendous.  And not just for the smaller schools that rely on their NCAA Tournament money to fund most (or all) of their athletic departments.  The Power 5 schools won't feel it as much immediately, but if this extends into football season, it might end up impacting their bottom line, too.

It hasn't come to that yet, and those big football schools are already starting to think of contingency plans in case it does (including moving the football season to the spring).  But for the smaller schools, that's already the new reality.  So, their changes will likely be a little more immediate.  And those changes may actually end up being good for both college basketball and college football.

Under normal circumstances, John Calipari's season would've just ended...and he'd already be back out on the road looking for Kentucky's next crop of one-and-dones.  Instead, for the last month, he's been stuck at home like the rest of us.  And he doesn't seem to mind!

College basketball recruiting is a year-round job.  Outside of the dead periods, which only add up to a couple of weeks total, assistant coaches are on the road virtually every weekend, both during the season (when they also have to do their other duties associated with the current team) and especially over the summer.  The months of June, July and August are full of AAU tournaments all over the nation, and coaches jet back-and-forth between all of them.

Why is college basketball recruiting a year-round activity?  I have no idea!  Does it need to be?  Absolutely not!  These coaches work so hard during the season that they deserve a few weeks off where they can spend some time with their families.  They almost never get that time, of course, since it's always go, go, go and teams can't take the chance of not being out on the recruiting trail while their competitors are.

This year is different, though.  It's obviously because of the very different circumstances, but they're finally getting that time off.  And who knows when the recruiting cycle will actually begin again?

Once this is finally over and we begin to feel a sense of normalcy again, coaches will be right back on the recruiting trail.  And everyone will be more refreshed from finally getting some time off!  (I don't kid myself.  I know they're still in touch with recruits.  But it's vastly different to meet virtually than physically going to a game.)

And, if certain coaches have their way, that additional time off could become a permanent change.  It's almost too much.  There's no need for recruiting to be a 24-7-365 part of the job.  After this forced paused, maybe everyone will realize that.  Because nobody's allowed to go out recruiting right now (and there are no games for them to check out anyway), so you're not putting yourself at a disadvantage.  Just like you won't be at a disadvantage if six fewer weeks of in-person recruiting ends up becoming the standard!

Another change that may come about as a result of our current situation is fewer coaches out their recruiting.  That's not because of any lack of desire.  It might come out of necessity.  Every school is going to be looking for ways to cut spending anywhere they can.  And limiting the amount they spend on recruiting is a very easy way to do that.  Whether that means fewer coaches on the road or fewer days on the road (or both), schools will be able to save money by reducing their recruiting budgets.

There's another way to reduce the football and basketball budgets that have gotten overblown at many schools, too.  Go to the website of a Power 5 school and look at the coaching staff page for either the football or men's basketball program.  There are more people on the bench in suits than in uniform at some of these schools!

The NCAA does have rules for the maximum number of official coaches you can have at the Division I level.  Those are the only people allowed to go recruiting and actively "provide skill instruction" to the student-athletes.  However, there's no limit on non-coaching support staff.  Which is why you see men with such creative titles as "Special Assistant to the Head Coach" and "Coordinator of Basketball Operations" (in addition to the standard "Director of Basketball Operations").

Generally speaking, the larger the program, the more staff members they have.  And, frankly, I'd be hard-pressed to tell you what some of them do!  Meanwhile, smaller programs don't have the budget for all these extra employees, so they have much smaller staffs and assistant coaches with many more responsibilities.  It's just another example of the competitive inequality even within the Division I level.

But, if the budgets become even more crunched, some of these extra positions may end up being eliminated.  Salaries are either going to be frozen or reduced in a lot of places, so it's not that crazy to think that shedding entire salaries--especially if they're deemed unnecessary--is possible.  Will there be some pushback from the head coaches who are making a million dollars a year and "need" all of these "assistants"?  Absolutely!  But, either way, there'll likely be some pay cuts.

Is the NCAA likely to step in and enforce a limit on the number of additional support staff programs are allowed to have?  Probably not.  But some changes to the financial structure of college athletics are inevitable.  And if those extra jobs are reduced or eliminated, it just may make the playing feild a little more level.