Wittenberg University dropped 3 sports, representing 2% of their students

Attempting to understand the finances of that decision

Wittenberg University announced last week in a Friday news dump a number of measures designed to improve the school’s financial situation, which has been grabbing headlines for a month (link, link). The school reported a $17 million budget deficit in the 2022-23 academic year. Now, as part of the overall campus cost-cutting, Wittenberg will discontinue three sports: men’s tennis, women’s tennis, and women’s bowling.

Springfield News-Sun, Sept. 6, 2024

If you are a regular here on Glory Days (if you are not, please subscribe!), you know that I get nervous about a university’s overall financial health when the percentage of athletes as students on that campus begins to exceed 44 percent due to the associated expenses. Wittenberg was sitting at 58.6% athletes as students according to its most recent EADA filing (for the 2022-23 year), reporting 709 unduplicated athletes out of 1,210 total students. A staggering 162(!) of those athletes were football players. (Seriously, 162?).

According to the Tigers website reviewed on Sept. 9, 2024, the 2024-25 women’s bowling roster has 9 athletes (2 seniors/5 freshmen). The 2024-25 men’s tennis roster has 9 athletes (3 seniors/3 freshmen) while the 2024-25 women’s tennis roster had 6 athletes (1 senior/3 freshmen). Therefore, this decision effects 24 athletes, 11 of whom are freshmen.

My logic in identifying the number of freshmen on each roster is to suggest these are athletes who would be prime transfer candidates, thereby potentially representing lost revenue for the institution. As primarily a spring sport, the six tennis players who are freshmen this year could, conceivably, transfer in January 2025 without jeopardizing a graduation timeline or eligibility. The four senior tennis players obviously won’t be replaced next year.

When a tuition-dependent university is deciding whether to cut a sport, a necessary part of the calculation should be the relationship between the potential lost revenue should the sport’s athletes not be replaced on campus and the cost of maintaining the sport (coaches, travel, equipment, etc.). Let’s examine revenue first.

Per the university’s 990 report, Wittenberg had $78.7 million in revenue (against $96 million in expenses) in 2022-23. The same 990 report indicates $51.5M in tuition and fees revenue from all sources (scholarships, federal, cash, etc.), an average of $42,562 for each of the 1,210 reported students. The 15 tennis players combined, therefore, represent $638,430 of that total tuition revenue.

On the expense side, the primary cost is coaching. In 2023-24, Wittenberg employed one full-time head coach (Jacob Rankin) and one assistant coach (John DeVito) for both the men’s and women’s tennis programs (plus two volunteer assistant coaches). Rankin, however, resigned in June and DeVito appears to have been promoted for the 2024-25 season. There is one assistant listed for this season, and no volunteer coaches.

Based on the 2022-23 EADA report, the assumed cost for Wittenberg coaches in 2024-25 would be one head coach at about $61,000 (the average of a women’s and men’s head coach in 2022-23). The average annual institutional salary per FTE assistant coach was about $33,500. Thus, we have a grand total of $94,500 in personnel costs. The school disclosed $27,595 in operating expenses for men’s tennis in 2022-23 and $32,171 in operating expenses for women’s tennis, so let’s ride with those figures for this year as well.

Total tennis costs, therefore, are roughly $154,266 for 2024-25. Of course this is not a complete figure. Inflation has likely spiked operational costs and I know teams incur other expenses not reflected in these figures (e.g. support personnel such as athletic trainers and SIDs need to be split across all sports). So these figures are merely crude estimates. Nonetheless, $638,430 minus $154,266 equals $484,164.

CAVEAT: I have not talked to anyone at Wittenberg to verify any financial information other than what Wittenberg has reported publicly through its 990 and EADA report.

On the surface, then, it seems the tennis programs are making a profit. However, and this is a HUGE however, these calculations only consider athletic expenses and do not count the cost of instruction. In other words, Wittenberg still needs to pay the faculty, academic advisors, student affairs specialists, parking services personnel, campus security, and so on (plus utilities, maintenance, and so much more).

The bet any school makes when it cuts a sport is this: the loss in net revenue via tuition (in this case, ~$484,164) can be recovered through either a) enrolling more students; b) further reducing costs; or c) combination of both. A school can also increase revenue from other sources (e.g. auxiliary) but that is not as immediate.

Wittenberg would need to enroll an additional 11 students at $42,562 total tuition and fees to offset the revenue loss assuming all 15 tennis players either graduate or transfer. This is a tall order in today’s higher education climate, particularly for schools in the area Springsteen sings about in “Youngstown” (western New York, Ohio, western Pennsylvania). But, in addition to the sport cuts, Wittenberg announced the elimination of 24 full-time equivalent faculty and 45 full-time equivalent staff, ostensibly aiding part b) of the above.

CAVEAT: Again, I am not privy to any local conversations on the Wittenberg campus and my thesis here is based on my research and experience at a similar institution.

Now that we have passed the census date on most college campuses, I imagine we will continue to see more universities - public and private - making retrenchment-type announcements. In the past week alone, we saw stories about cuts at the University of Dayton, Columbia College Chicago, and Cal State San Bernadino. The post-Covid sport sponsorship boom has reached its apex and the roller coaster is beginning to free fall.