Nov. 21, 2011

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Dr. Wallace Loh on Monday accepted the recommendation of the President's Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics that eight of the 27 athletics teams be discontinued as of June 30, 2012.

Click here to view Loh's message to the University community.

The University held a news conference on Monday afternoon at Riggs Alumni Center. Dr. Loh and director of athletics Kevin Anderson, as well as commission members Dr. Linda Clement and Barry Gossett, were on hand to address the media.

Click here to view the news conference on Terps TV.

Quotes from Monday's News Conference

Dr. Wallace D. Loh
University of Maryland President

Opening Statement:

"This morning I announced that I am accepting the recommendations of the commission. The principle recommendation is the discontinuance of eight teams beginning June of 2012. I want to make it very clear that this perhaps is one of the most painful and heart-wrenching decisions I've made. Over the past two weeks, I've met with coaches, student-athletes, and communicated with many, many parents and alumni. This is not something that any of us wanted to do. I know that for our student-athletes, who I found so impressive as young men and women who represent this university and who are good students and committed to the institution and their team, this is more than just about the discontinuation of their sport. It affects their lives and their identity.

"This is not a decision that I arrived at lightly. I arrived at this decision after consulting extensively. Talking to many people and yes, praying about it. I reached this decision because I have to act as president, not just as the parent of a student-athlete at another institution who I know would be devastated if her team were eliminated. I have a responsibility to ensuring the financial responsibility of this institution and financial responsibility means we cannot continue year after year adding expenses that are greater than our revenues, living beyond our means, and kicking the can down the road. I have tried to explain that to our students. If they don't take action, than simply making cuts across the board will not solve the problem. It permeates the entire Maryland athletics program.

"It is also my responsibility for the excellence of the programs that we have. It is the choice between having many programs, all of which are relatively under-supported, one of the largest programs in the ACC and in the nation ranking near the bottom in support, versus a model that says we should have a simple, smaller program and better support so our student-athletes can compete in the classroom and on the field. That is the choice I made. When we faced similar budget reductions at this university years ago after making some across-the-board cuts, we made the hard decision to terminate academic programs because we wanted to pursue excellence rather than simply have poorly-supported programs across the whole spectrum of the university.

"Let me simply conclude by saying this. This is not a problem we predicted would happen. As you well know over 90 percent of Division I programs are in the deficit. But we are different from many other public research universities in that we receive no state support. We have a financial model for two programs, only two programs, which have to subsidize all the rest of the sports. It is a national model that is faulty, that is inequitable, and that is unsustainable. I express the intent to work on this issue in the ACC and in the NCAA but today the issue is not that larger issue. It is a day of enormous sadness because we will be saying goodbye to some of the members of the Maryland Athletics family June of next year."

On the business practice of the dept. of athletics prior to his arrival:
"We are addressing the problem as we face it today. We are looking forward. We have a plan that will restore financial health and sustainability by 2019 and how we came to this situation is not our primary focus. But I should also point out that these were, in my judgment, business decisions that were made and I don't know that any of us in this room would have anticipated the catastrophic financial meltdown of 2008 and 2009. I don't know that any of us - it's not always the eternal optimist - that things would be better than they seem because, after all, our situation is really a microcosm of what our nation has been facing: living beyond our means, spending more than we have and instead of borrowing abroad, we've been borrowing from our own savings."

On speeding up the decision as opposed to waiting until the end of the year:
"When I first formed a Commission, I had suggested that I would make a decision by the end of December. When the Commision's report came out on the set date of just before November 15, many, many students and parents said to me, `We hope you take the time to deliberate carefully, but we look to know the sooner the better so we can make plans accordingly.' I have had, for example, a couple parents say that if the decision were to discontinue their programs, they would seek to transfer as early as January. So it's in the best interest of the students that I decided as quickly as possible."

On whether the buyout of former football coach Ralph Friedgen's contract affected the decision:
"I would simply add that there is a difference between one-time expenses and continuing expenses. Those one-time expenses of that one year salary were covered from other ways, so even if [the buyout] had not occurred, we would still be faced with these growing, continuing budget deficits."

Kevin Anderson
Director of Athletics

On what it was like informing teams and the possibility of saving teams:
"This last month has been one of the most difficult times in my life. The only thing that I could equate it to is losing some family members. It was heart wrenching to go team to team and look these young people in the eye and tell them that there was a possibility of discontinuing their program. I didn't come to the University of Maryland to cut sports and I believe that we have an opportunity now to raise the kind of funds that we need to save them. And by the grace of Dr. Loh, he has given me that opportunity. We are in the planning stages now of putting together a fundraising program to help save all these teams."

On the possibilities of saving sports through fund raising:
"I wouldn't be sitting up here in front of you if I didn't think that we had a possibility to raise these funds. I had the great fortune to work [at] University of California-Berkeley and I've kept in touch with what they had to overcome last year. And the great people that support that University and that athletic program came forward and raised money to save their program and I think we're looking at similar dollars. I have every hope in the world that with all the e-mails that I've received in the last couple weeks, that folks want to help out and save these teams. I'm counting on that and I think that we will be successful."

On how long $11 million (amount needed to save men's and women's swimming and diving) could sustain itself, if raised:
"One of the things we looked at in the model that we're putting together is that I don't, and I don't want anybody ever to come after me, to have to do the same thing that I did in the last couple weeks and look any teams and any young people in the eyes and say that we're no longer going to have your program. So, this initially will provide funding for eight years and we [would] get two classes through. Dr. Loh and I are still talking about the terms and conditions, but the other thing is after the eight years we look at building an endowment so we would sustain these programs indefinitely."

On if this season's football attendance affected cuts:
"[Football attendance] had no factor into [the decision]. In fact, our attendance and revenue was up from last year for football. This is something that we need to look at moving forward and even with our projections with our revenue, we've been very conservative. So, we've taken into account growth in football, but not at a point where it's unrealistic for us to continue the program the way it is now."

On the drop in athletics fund raising:
"I think as Dr. Loh just stated a minute ago, we're looking at the economy and how it's affected everything we do as a country and as a nation. But the other thing is that, we are now fundraising and talking about the benefits that student athletes get from that investment that the donor makes. We're trying to get away from tangible things that people are giving and that you're making a wonderful investment in these young people. One reason that I'm athletic director here today is because we have student-athletes and we're going to build on that and I think that once people touch and feel these wonderful young people that they are able to see compete, they'll be more willing to make more of an investment. That's what we're going to move forward with and that's what we're counting on."

On whether the buyout of former football coach Ralph Friedgen's contract affected the decision:
"Yes, [the contract buyout] was secured in other ways in that we had a plan moving forward that the circumstances that took place with the football coach, as far as replacing Ralph [Friedgen], that we had a plan and we made good of the plan. We had a one-time revenue investment and we were able to cover that cost where it didn't come out of the general operating budget."

Barry Gossett
Co-Chair of the President's Commission

On whether this decision will be revisited since it was based on revenue-producing teams:
"Well, I think what we said really is that football and basketball are the two revenue producing sports and without success in those, we're not going to have a great deal of income to work with. What I think we said also is that we felt the teams were at their low ebb [and] we have made an investment in coaches and facilities to get us back to the levels of national prominence. We were there, there's no reason why we shouldn't be there again."

On whether the decision process of the commission was similar to a jury deliberation:
"I don't think I would characterize it as a jury deliberation. Early on, we divided the members up into five work groups. Each had tasks to look at various segments of our task of increasing revenue or decreasing expenses with the idea of coming up with a plan that would be sustainable for the athletic department and that the student-athletes could compete academically and athletically. So with that background we all looked at what we needed to do. We looked at the amount of dollars that was needed to come up with a plan over a period of time. As Dr. Loh said in his charge it may take several years to balance the budget, so we looked at it that way. Then, in cooperation with the athletic department we said, `we need this amount of money, what kind of recommendations might you make?' They came to us and we looked at what they had in terms of ideas for fundraising as well as if we said we had to eliminate some teams, what were the expenses associated with those teams. So that's what we did and we deliberated and came up there."

Dr. Linda Clement
Co-Chair of the President's Commission

On whether this decision will be revisited since it was based on revenue-producing teams:
"I think after our interviews with coaches and with students and with alumni, I think there's confidence that the two coaches in place [in men's basketball and football] can do that job and help us sustain the entire program."

On the commitment of the Commission panel:
"I would just add that this panel was broad-ranging and these people came from as far away as New York and almost all members of the panel participated in almost every meeting, so that speaks to a commitment by this group of people to really dig in and debate these issues and accomplish this task."