The university’s four tier divisions of athletic teams have enabled certain programs to dominate financially while leaving many smaller programs with limited expense accounts.
The men’s and women’s basketball teams, which are the only two teams that comprise the university’s Tier I programs, received the most revenue per athlete of any other athletic team last year, according to the Athletics Disclosure Act (ADA).
Director of Athletics Eugene Doris says there is a three-fold system that was used to determine which teams lay within a certain tier.
“Pretty much what we do is compare with other schools in the league,” Doris said. “Another part of it is where we are located. And the third part of it is based on institution priority in terms of where we decided to emphasize certain sports.”
Along with having the highest revenues amongst the athletic programs, the basketball teams received the most operating expenses or “game-day expenses” of any other teams. The men’s basketball team received $153,957 last year which was broken down to $9,622 per player to pay for travel, lodging, meals, uniforms, equipment and officials.
While basketball encompasses much of the athletic department’s funding, receiving the NCAA limit of 15 women’s scholarships and 13 men’s scholarships according to Doris, the soccer teams, men’s lacrosse and women’s volleyball are considered Tier II sports. These teams are not fully funded, but receive substantial athletic aid.
According to men’s lacrosse head coach Ted Spencer, the NCAA limit for lacrosse scholarships is 12.6, the Stags have nine players under scholarship. Women’s soccer head coach Maria Piechocki says the NCAA allows 12 scholarships and like the men’s soccer team, the women receive 9.9 scholarships.
With much of the athletic department’s funding going to the top two tiers, Fairfield’s Tier III sports have limited scholarship opportunities while members of the Tier IV division do not receive any athletic aid. These teams include football, women’s crew, and both the men’s and women’s golf teams.
This trickle down effect of money distribution leaves many of Fairfield’s teams at a disadvantage, making it more difficult for these teams to acquire more talented recruits.
“There’s no question it has an effect,” Doris said. Although some coaches make mistakes with money and it doesn’t wind up helping them, if we gave more money then we’d obviously do better [athletically].”
Coaches’ salaries are consistent with that of the team’s revenues and operating expenses, according to Doris. “It’s a rule of thumb that if you’re going to be spending more on the program, obviously an investment has been made, so they would have more availability to full-time coaches than others do,” Doris said.
According to last year’s ADA report, Fairfield’s average head coach’s salary was $48,263 for men’s teams and $40,995 for women’s teams.
“Although volleyball and men’s lacrosse are good salaries, if you look at the competitive market and at some of the other conferences that we compete against, it’s not exactly [high],” Doris said. “That’s why we lose our volleyball coach after so many years, they go somewhere else. Our program is considered a good program. But it’s still not at a level where you are going to keep your coach while the salary is where it is.”
Several programs have turned to student fund raising and alumni support to help bolster their expense account.
According to Piechocki, the women’s soccer team has raised several thousand dollars in fund raising and through alumni and clinics to make up for the team’s limited operating expense account.
The women’s soccer program received $44,324 last year for operating expenses, which has not allowed the team to compete in spring games, limited the team’s equipment and prohibited the team from taking more than one trip per year, according to Piechocki.
The men’s lacrosse team has raised more than $40,000 in fund raising activities to help pay for travel to some non-conference games and a trip to Florida.
“We didn’t need to do this, we did it to further enhance the program,” Spencer said. “We’re not a high-powered athletic department, everyone always wants more money. Compared to the teams we’re up against, we’ve achieved a lot with less money.”
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