July 1, 2021
Dear Colleagues:
Earlier today, the Board of Trustees conducted a special meeting to approve several agenda items related to intercollegiate athletics.
Despite the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, this past year was the best in our University’s athletics program in more than a decade, with our student-athletes excelling on the field and in the classroom.
Last Fall, our football team won the MAC championship for the first time since 1996, won the program’s first post-season bowl game, and finished the season ranked 23rd in the nation in the Associated Press Top 25 poll—another first.
This Spring, our women’s tennis team captured its third MAC title in the last five seasons to qualify for the NCAA Division 1 Women’s Tennis Championships for the second time in program history.
And with two MAC champion programs and three programs earning runner-up finishes, our University climbed the charts this year in the final all-sport standings for the MAC. Our women’s athletics program finished fifth in the Jacoby Trophy standings, and our men’s athletics program finished third in the Reese Trophy standings.
Our student-athletes also excelled in the classroom. Across all sports programs, our student-athletes earned a median GPA of 3.35 for the Fall 2020 semester and a median cumulative GPA of 3.37 through the Spring 2021 semester—the best academic performances in our history. We graduated 75 of our student-athletes in May. And the NCAA’s most recent annual graduation rate report showed that our student-athletes have earned a Graduation Success Rate of 90 percent, another record.
During today’s meeting, the Board took several personnel actions related to intercollegiate athletics.
The Board approved an extension of our contract with Beth Goetz, our Director of Athletics. Beth’s leadership has been instrumental to the comprehensive improvement of our athletics program. I am grateful for her service to our University and for the impact of her leadership.
The Board also approved contract extensions for several of our head coaches: Mike Neu, head coach of our football team; James Whitford, head coach of our men’s basketball team; Brady Sallee, head coach of our women’s basketball team; and Rich Maloney, head coach of our baseball team. The Board also voted to approve the hiring of Donan Cruz as the new head coach of our men’s volleyball team.
Some of the amended contracts approved by the Board today provide additional compensation for our coaches, primarily in the form of performance and retention incentives. The athletics department will fund these commitments from the department’s existing budget, as well as with external revenues generated by the excellent performance of our athletics programs, including philanthropy. The contract extensions required no additional funding from the University. In fact, since 2018, the athletics department has reduced its operating budget by approximately $1.5 million—or more than 5%.
The Board also voted to approve a one-time supplemental payment to all coaches and staff in athletics who last Fall agreed to a voluntary, one-time pay reduction, work-schedule reduction, or furlough. Our athletics coaches and staff were the only University employees directly affected by the pandemic in this way.
Initially, we anticipated that significant financial losses within our athletics department would be incurred as a result of the pandemic. But as the academic year unfolded, this economic impact was not nearly as severe as we anticipated. Moreover, because many of the Fall sports teams competed in the Winter and Spring, our staff actually had a more difficult workload this past year.
As a result, the Board and I felt it was fair and appropriate to restore the compensation that our colleagues had agreed to sacrifice because of the projected economic uncertainties due to the pandemic.
