When it was first introduced at the beginning of the year, before its details were hammered out by legislators, Virginia House Bill 1897 was considered to be detrimental to the future of Longwood athletics, potentially threatening to significantly alter the percentage of student fees that could help fund intercollegiate sports programs. But by the time it made its way through the House and was approved on March 27, the bill’s bark proved, at least for Longwood, to be worse than its bite. Business will continue as usual for Lancers athletics, with student fees as its driving force.
Through a Freedom Of Information Act document request filed with the university in February, The Rotunda has reviewed athletics budgeting information, demonstrating the immense role student fees play in funding the university’s athletics programs. In addition, the documents highlight other forms of departmental revenue, including monies that, according to the university’s contracts, provides one program, men’s basketball, the opportunity to utilize a $50,000, head-coach-controlled discretionary fund.
According to documents provided by Longwood athletics, the department’s total operating revenue in 2013-2014 was $9,774,504. Of that revenue, $8,416,055, roughly 86 percent, is solely generated from student fees. Those fees funding athletics has steadily increased in recent years, from $6,944,755 in 2011, to $7,873,144 in 2012 to the highest total in school history last year. Overall, the department expenses totaled $9,650,604 at the end of the last academic year, putting Longwood athletics in the black with a surplus of $123,900.
The athletics department’s reports for 2013-2014 breakdown the student fee distribution with $1.23 million allocated for men’s basketball, $895,654 for women’s basketball, and $3.1 million split among the school’s other 12 remaining sports, as well as $3.18 million to non-program specific revenues. While the student fee distribution changes from year to year, the men’s basketball program has seen a significant increase in budget allocation, from $897,092 in assigned student fees in 2011, to $1.08 million in 2012, to $1.23 million last year.
The men’s basketball program’s allocated increase of $146,986 between 2012-2013 to 2013-2014 coincides with the arrival of Head Men’s Basketball Coach Jayson Gee. Recently named the Fellowship of Christian Athletes’ Barnabas Award winner, Gee is 19-47 (8-26 in Big South Conference play) in two years at Longwood. A review of his contract shows Gee himself is directly responsible for helping to boost departmental revenue and, if he meets his contractually negotiated goal, his program stands to benefit.
Outside of the $8.4 million from student fees, remaining funds are also raised from contributions to athletics or to a specific program, but a total of over half a million dollars, $507,513, of the departmental revenue comes from monies associated with game guarantees. Men’s basketball brought in $470,000 in Gee’s first year on the job, nearly 93 percent of the entire department’s game-guarantee revenue.
As part of The Rotunda’s documents request, contracts were provided for the head coaches of the men’s basketball, women’s basketball, baseball and softball programs. In those contracts, only men’s and women’s basketball directly referenced game guarantee scheduling and men’s basketball was the only program with a coach-controlled fund stemming from that revenue.
Game guarantee money falls on page 3 of Gee’s contract under Duties and Responsibilities and is listed as ‘Scheduling.’ It reads, “The Coach must work in collaboration with the AD to develop competitive game schedules designed to reach the NCAA post-season tournament, secure a minimum of $300,000 annually in game guarantees and meet other program priorities. It is understood that $50,000 of the $300,000 will be used at the discretion of the coach for the benefit of the Men’s Basketball team.”
While Director of Athletics Troy Austin has final approval of the scheduling, the monies are Gee’s to spend after meeting the annual minimum, which was surpassed by $170,000 in 2013-2014.
Ken Copeland, named Longwood’s vice president of administration and finance in July 2012, said spending of that $50,000 “would have to be at the discretion of the athletics department who ultimately answers to the president.”
While university representatives state that oversight is implied, it isn’t reflected in the actual language of the contract.
Copeland said, “This contract was negotiated between the athletics department and the attorney general’s office. Most other employee contracts are initiated by the human resources office.”
The Rotunda requested to interview Gee to specifically understand how he personally managed and spent the $50,000 discretionary fund from 2013-2014. The athletics department responded to the interview request by asking all related questions be provided to a representative in an email. Austin, whom has led Longwood athletics for the past ten years, then responded with an emailed statement on behalf of the department.
In his statement, Austin noted money generated from guarantee games is “redistributed across the entire athletics department to offset various operating expenses for all of our athletics programs.”
Austin’s statement called the men’s basketball guarantee game discretionary fund “common practice in college athletics to include language in a head coach's contract to stipulate that a portion of those men's basketball game guarantees be earmarked specifically for the men's basketball program.
It is within Coach Gee's discretion to decide where those funds are allocated within the men's basketball program, but they are typically spent on operating costs such as travel, lodging and meals for student-athletes, equipment, professional development and recruiting expenses.”
Copeland stated the language in Gee’s contract itself does provide Longwood “checks and balances” when evaluating funds such as the one in question, “While this says at the discretion of the coach, there is not an end around for a member of our coaching staff that they can get reimbursed for travel other than following protocol.”
In his emailed statement, Austin said all discretionary funds “are considered state revenue and are subject to Virginia's specific purchasing guidelines for state institutions.”
However, Copeland, Longwood’s chief financial officer, said game guarantee revenue is not treated as state revenue and therefore would not be held to related purchasing guidelines.
“The game guarantee money goes into a local account, which is differentiated between a state account because it has no strings attached to it as far as the state is concerned, because we aren’t charging a student for that money.”
Copeland continued, “Because a game guarantee has no student revenue stream associated with it, it is held in a local account and is not subject to some of the same regulations from the department of accounting.”
The Rotunda will be hosting all related Freedom Of Information Act-requested documents on therotundaonline.com.
Documents that are related and support this article were obtained through a Freedom Of Information Act request by The Rotunda to Longwood University.
Director of Athletics Troy Austin (left) and Head Men’s Basketball Coach Jayson Gee at Gee’s inaugural press conference in spring 2013.
