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The University of Maine athletic department announced Wednesday afternoon it is suspending both the men’s soccer and the volleyball teams effective June 30, 2009.
In a statement issued earlier today, the decision to suspend both programs came only “after exhausting every feasible option for managing these unprecedented budget challenges,” according to Athletic Director Blake James.
The athletic department originally faced a $253,000 cut as a portion of the overall $8.8 million that the university as a whole must cut for the next fiscal year, but the department was forced to consider “other economy-related factors.”
Those factors are expected to create an additional shortfall of $618,000 for the upcoming fiscal year.
James expects the suspension of the two programs to make up $600,000 of the shortfall immediately, leaving only $271,000 in shortfall.
“This was a very difficult decision, and one that no one wants to be a part of,” he said.
The men’s soccer program had 26 players on its roster, to whom 7.5 scholarships were distributed. “The savings will result from those scholarship budget lines, in addition to operating costs (coaches’ salaries, recruiting expenses, travel expenses and other miscellaneous expenditures).”
Last season’s leading scorer, junior Nikola Bogdanovic, said that he was in complete disbelief when he first heard the announcement.
“My first expression, I was mad, I was disappointed, I was surprised,” said Bogdanovic. “But after thinking about it I understood that when there’s a problem you have to solve it, and they decided to cut [soccer] off.”
All scholarships, of players that are currently on the roster, will be honored if they choose to remain a student at the UMaine. However, newly recruited athletes scholarships will only be honored for one year, if they decide to attend the university in the fall of 2009.
Still, Bogdanovic said that nearly all of the players will try to find a roster spot on another Division I team.
Both the men’s soccer and volleyball teams’ coaches will offer aid to the student-athletes that are considering transferring to a program elsewhere.
According to NCAA guidelines on discontinued sports, UMaine will grant any institution permission to contact any student-athlete affected by the situation. Also, NCAA guidelines state that a student-athlete may be immediately eligible for financial aid, practice, and competition.
“In both programs you have tremendous representatives of our university and our athletic program in coaching and in our student athletes,” James said.
When asked if this decision was something that he was able to foresee, James replied, “I wouldn’t say that it’s a sudden decision, but it’s something that as the realization of having a budget shortfall of over $800,000 and you start looking at what the options are. Then you start thinking that we might have to cut a program.”
To make up the remainder of the shortfall, the department will look toward internal revenue-generating and cost-saving procedures, but James stated that a conference-wide initiative could also contribute.
“We’re looking at thing from a conference wide perspective right now. For example, this year we went to only Saturday, Sunday conference baseball series that will help save money.”
As a result of the loss of the two programs, UMaine will sustain 17 Black Bear programs. James believes that the decisions announced today will position the program to meet budgetary expectations in the future.
There will be more coverage of the sports budget cuts on our website and in Monday’s edition of The Maine Campus.
