UMass is on cutting edge AD says more will follow - The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)

A day after football coach Jim Reid resigned because ofscholarship cuts, University of Massachusetts athletic director FrankMcInerney said yesterday that further budget reductions are possible.

'It could get worse,' McInerney said. 'We are not different thananyone else and our state budget is probably not going to improve inthe next two or three years.'

Reid, 41, resigned from his $64,000-a-year job after he was toldthat UMass would be eliminating football scholarships for incomingfreshmen.

McInerney said UMass would remain in the Yankee Conference and heexpected that some opponents would also make serious budget cuts.

'From a public funding point of view, I'm not optimistic,'McInerney said. 'But there are other ways. People might rallyaround this. They might say that since money is not coming from thestate, we are going to get it other ways. Each coach is just goingto have to spend time in development for his particular sport.

'I don't think our situation is unique. Unfortunately, we aretaking the leadership, in a negative way, and other institutionsmight have to fall in line.'

Reid had planned to offer eight scholarships worth $80,000 thisyear. He said the offers to five players would be honored and thatonly two would likely accept.

'People have asked me if I am doing this to force somebody'shand,' Reid said while cleaning out his office yesterday. 'My answerto that is that I could have done that and I have done that. I'vesaid that I take a six-pack of Coke and sack lunches on the road andthat I've slept on floors while recruiting.

'This is it. Nothing can change. It's a problem with the stateeconomy.

'I've taken 12 days vacation in six years. I went in and askedfor three months vacation I have coming and I am going to take sometime off.'

UMass had 58 scholarship players last year, two below the YankeeConference limit. The average attendance for five home games wasabout 9,000, of which about 5,000 were students admitted free.McInerney said the gross gate receipts for the season totaled about$95,000.

'No 1-AA program pays the bills,' Reid said. 'Basketball, becauseof the numbers, is a different type thing.

'We are making a push to become a national program in basketballand I endorse that 100 percent. There is no resentment. There isgreat money-making potential in basketball.'

The university plans to complete a $43 million facility forbasketball and hockey by next year.

'It is a curious phenomenon,' McInerney said. 'Every day I readabout how bad things are in the state. They are closing homes forbattered women, letting criminals out on the street because theycan't afford programs for them.

'But when it comes to athletics, a certain part of our societythinks this is incredible, that it can't be happening.'

UMass has eliminated several 'minor' sports and also orderedseparate cuts of 5 percent and 10 percent from all athletic programsin the last three years, McInerney said.

'This is an ongoing process,' McInerney said. 'We haveblue-ribbon committees working on this, and the decision was thatmore elimination of minor sports didn't make any sense.

'Eventually, you eliminate yourself out of the athletic business.The school is here to give as many kids the opportunity toparticipate in sports as possible. We had no other place to turnexcept to football.'

Four of Reid's assistant coaches departed before last season,apparently expecting cuts. No full-time replacements were hired.

'We {had} one of the most charismatic coaches around,' McInerneysaid. 'As the state's land grant college, we are the big guys.Others might have been waiting to see what we would do.'

McInerney said there was 'no indication' UMass would eliminate thefootball program.

'To be recognized in the athletic business as a major athleticprogram, you must have football,' McInerney said. 'There is noquestion it should stay. But we have no chance to be a 1-A program.The answer might be the 1-AAA level proposed by the NCAA.'

Reid, who could remain at UMass as a teacher, was upset by thetiming of the latest cuts. National letters of intent will be signedduring the first week in February.

McInerney said the decision to cut scholarships 'crystallized andfocused in the last three or four days.'

Reid's replacement would likely be someone like him.

'There are coaches who want the opportunity to work in a programthat has financial problems,' McInerney said. 'They view it as afine step in their career if they can achieve some success.'

But the cutbacks should have been anticipated, senior widereceiver Dwight Richardson said.

Richardson, a sports management major from Camden, N.J., has beenorganizing an outreach program that could provide private funding.

'We're looking to expand into the community,' Richardson said.'There are a lot of private funds out there, and by doing this, wehope to raise the consciousness of people in the Pioneer Valley.'