Yesterday was a rough day. UNM AD Eddie Nuñez and President Garnett Stokes proposed a series of cuts to the athletic department that were unanimously adopted by the board of regents. These cuts included the reduction of scholarships in some sports and, in the case of Skiing, Beach Volleyball, and Men’s Soccer, complete elimination. The cuts were deemed necessary to fulfill budgetary and Title IX requirements, but they really don’t sit well regardless.

If we look at the cut sports individually, one of them isn’t a surprise. The Ski Team nearly got cut a little while ago and was only saved thanks to a groundswell of support. But, while it’s an important sport to our state, it is hardly an important sport to the NCAA. Only a handful of D1 schools even have skiing programs and while we won a National Championship in 2004, that’s hardly a blip on most Lobo fan’s radars. In a perfect world, we’d keep both ski teams. But in a world where we have to cut $1.9M, they were probably the first to go.

More curious was the removal of Beach Volleyball. It was a new women’s sport, didn’t come with a huge price tag, and was implemented because of Title IX in the first place. I guess they didn’t want to build a $300K facility for them, but if that wasn’t in the plans to begin with, why form the team in the first place? Weird.

Now we get to Men’s Soccer, which means that I am going to try to write this without either getting depressed or falling into a blind rage. Soccer is, from where I’m sitting, the best men’s program at UNM (perpetual shoutout to Women’s Cross Country!) It is competitive nationally, is part of a statewide community, academically strong, and a sport that I believe will continue to grow in popularity in the US. Cutting soccer right now feels short-sighted.

I can’t help but think the Regents made cuts to the wrong football program. Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to see Football go away. It’s an extremely important sport for the department and school in a variety of ways. However, a few facts remain. First, a good chunk of the budget problems were caused by Football in the first place. When the previous coach effectively killed the program, he took a lot of fans down too, greatly reducing the department’s income. And the department never really overcame that lost income, leading to several years of deficits. Second, the program has the largest budget by a wide margin. If I was the one looking to make cuts to the overall budget, making sure that there is no bloat in the Football budget would be my first task. Finally, the team has 116(!) members on it. 85 are on scholarship, so that means that there are 31 walk-ons, all of which are counted for Title IX. That feels like a lot.

To the last two points, what would happen if we shaved 600K from the Football budget and reduced the number of walk-ons to 15? Would we see much of a change in the quality of the program? I can’t imagine that we would. If we did that and kept Beach Volleyball, along with the roster changes to the other varsity sports, wouldn’t that make room for Men’s Soccer? By my count, what I just suggested would be effectively equivalent for both the budget and Title IX as what was proposed.

But Football, apparently, was off limits, necessitating the axing of at least one popular program. It reminds me a little of trying to balance the National Budget without touching military spending or entitlements. The only options left aren’t appealing.

I hope that this can be fixed in some way and that we get to keep one of the premier programs at UNM. Otherwise, yesterday will go down as one of the worst days in Lobo history.