Arkansas cuts both men's and women's tennis

[615dawg]

Big news than an SEC school is cutting sports. Won't be the last. I hate what college athletics is becoming.

https://www.swtimes.com/story/sports/college/sec/2026/04/24/arkansas-cut-tennis-programs-hunter-yurachek-budget-2026-seasons/89776029007/

We talked about it a couple months ago when Alabama released their sport by sport profit and loss. Schools just can't lose $2-$3 million on a sport anymore. State is at the minimum number of sports for Division I, so we will not cut anything, but I imagine swimming, tennis, rowing and equestrian/rifle type programs are on the chopping block pretty soon.

 

[patdog]

Sad. And for minimal savings. You’re right though. This is just the tip of the iceberg.

 

[Anon201138]

Big news than an SEC school is cutting sports. Won't be the last. I hate what college athletics is becoming.

https://www.swtimes.com/story/sports/college/sec/2026/04/24/arkansas-cut-tennis-programs-hunter-yurachek-budget-2026-seasons/89776029007/

We talked about it a couple months ago when Alabama released their sport by sport profit and loss. Schools just can't lose $2-$3 million on a sport anymore. State is at the minimum number of sports for Division I, so we will not cut anything, but I imagine swimming, tennis, rowing and equestrian/rifle type programs are on the chopping block pretty soon.

 

[POTUS]

-5 Million for Baseball.

 

[patdog]

View attachment 1270183

So why not cut women’s basketball instead? Questionable decision.

 

[Anon201138]

-5 Million for Baseball.

Yeah they lost $5.2 million. Our baseball program lost $4.2m in 2025, up from $3.1m in 2024:

https://www.clarionledger.com/story/sports/college/mississippi-state/2026/02/17/mississippi-state-athletics-budget-2025-fiscal-year/88625461007/

With our baseball head coaches salary going from $1.3m in 2025 to $3.0m in 2026, we’re likely to lose around $5.5-6m in baseball this year.

Edit: also somehow, our mens’s basketball lost money. Not much, but we’re in the red there.

 

[Bulldog from Birth]

It’s just the nature of the beast being created. Football used to subsidize the other sports. But football now wants a much bigger cut of their own pie to enable higher NIL offers. Funding other sports will kill your football competitiveness in this new world.

 

[DesotoCountyDawg]

So why not cut women’s basketball instead? Questionable decision.

They’d have to cut a men’s sport too. Title IX

 

[Anon201138]

So why not cut women’s basketball instead? Questionable decision.

It’s for title IX law reasons. Throughout any athletic department, there has to be as many women’s scholarships as men. This is why there are usually more women’s sports than men, to make up for the 85 football scholarships.

They cut the women’s and men’s tennis team. If they cut women’s basketball, they’d likely have to cut men’s basketball. Or maybe both men’s golf and men’s track and field.

 

[patdog]

They’d have to cut a men’s sport too. Title IX

I know. Also, the optics of cutting women’s basketball would be bad. But the could have saved 5 times as much money by cutting men & women track & field. They literally cut the 2 sports that lose the least money.

 

[615dawg]

Note that Arkansas only has women's swimming and diving and they lost $2.5 million.

 

[Anon201138]

I know. Also, the optics of cutting women’s basketball would be bad. But the could have saved 5 times as much money by cutting men & women track & field. They literally cut the 2 sports that lose the least money.

What I would do at State is absolutely cut women’s basketball (2nd biggest money loser behind baseball) and then cut men’s golf, and also possibly men’s tennis if needed to stay at a level title IX ratio. Who cares about optics.

 

[patdog]

What I would do at State is absolutely cut women’s basketball (2nd biggest money loser behind baseball) and then cut men’s golf, and also possibly men’s tennis if needed to stay at a level title IX ratio. Who cares about optics.

We’re at the minimum number of sports now. But we could cut women’s basketball & replace it with women’s beach volleyball. That could save close to twice what Arkansas is saving with this.

 

[615dawg]

I bet Ole Miss cuts rifle (10 women) and men's cross country (14 men). State does not have a men's cross country team and rifle is the sport they have that we do not have.

Patdog beat me to it. Cut women's basketball and add beach volleyball. We'd save $3 million and attendance would go up.

 

[aTotal360]

They’d have to cut a men’s sport too. Title IX

Cut mens and womens T&F. That would save 10M.

 

[Anon201138]

We’re at the minimum number of sports now. But we could cut women’s basketball & replace it with women’s beach volleyball. That could save close to twice what Arkansas is saving with this.

Ah I forgot about the 14 sport requirement to stay FBS. Well, since it and baseball are by far the biggest money losers, I do think there are changes that can be made.

This includes not paying a women’s basketball coach $800k a year, and also not flying to games nearly as much. Trying to schedule as close away nonconference games as possible. Taking the bus more to away conference games. Tough luck but sorry you don’t get paid top dollar and charter jets when you’re hemorrhaging money.

The only difficulty with this logic would be the fact baseball in fact loses more money. A baseball coach should probably not be getting paid $3m and the team chartering jets everywhere for a sport that is our biggest money loser at likely around $6m this year.

Plug your ears if you don’t want to hear it.

 

[615dawg]

Ah I forgot about the 14 sport requirement to stay FBS. Well, since it and baseball are by far the biggest money losers, I do think there are changes that can be made.

This includes not paying a women’s basketball coach $800k a year, and also not flying to games nearly as much. Trying to schedule as close away nonconference games as possible. Taking the bus more to away conference games. Tough luck but sorry.

You are right. Women's basketball is a terrible product and is worthless. We were at the very top of the pyramid for a couple of seasons and it brought us nothing of significance. Get rid of it.

 

[patdog]

You are right. Women's basketball is a terrible product and is worthless. We were at the very top of the pyramid for a couple of seasons and it brought us nothing of significance. Get rid of it.

For all the hype about how popular women’s basketball is, it generates less than 10% the revenue baseball generates.

 

[615dawg]

For all the hype about how popular women’s basketball is, it generates less than 10% the revenue baseball generates.

The hype is fake and manufactured by ESPN.

 

[Anon201138]

For all the hype about how popular women’s basketball is, it generates less than 10% the revenue baseball generates.

https://www.clarionledger.com/story/sports/college/mississippi-state/2026/02/17/mississippi-state-athletics-budget-2025-fiscal-year/88625461007/

Baseball lost $4.2m in 2025 with a head coach salary of $1.3m. It will likely lose closer to $6m in 2026 with the new head coaches salary being $3m.

I’d link the entire fiscal report instead of the Clarion Ledger article, but it’s in like a huge 150 page prospectus. But the bottom line is—our baseball program lost more money (simple math: revenue - expenses) than any other program at Mississippi State in 2025 and is set to lose more in 2026.

No one wants to hear this, but the debt service on the Dude is an outrageous expense for the biggest money losing sport. BOC should not be making $3m, and we should be taking the bus to more baseball series.

I have laid out the baseball numbers in black and white before and people in an emotional craze act like I shot their dog.

 

[Willow Grove Dawg]

https://www.clarionledger.com/story/sports/college/mississippi-state/2026/02/17/mississippi-state-athletics-budget-2025-fiscal-year/88625461007/

Baseball lost $4.2m in 2025 with a head coach salary of $1.3m. It will likely lose closer to $6m in 2026 with the new head coaches salary being $3m.

I’d link the entire fiscal report instead of the Clarion Ledger article, but it’s in like a huge 150 page prospectus. But the bottom line is—our baseball program lost more money (simple math: revenue - expenses) than any other program at Mississippi State in 2025 and is set to lose more in 2026.

No one wants to hear this, but the debt service on the Dude is an outrageous expense for the biggest money losing sport. BOC should not be making $3m, and we should be taking the bus to more baseball series.

I have laid out the baseball numbers in black and white before and people in an emotional craze act like I shot their dog.

The seat licenses for chair-back season tickets will increase dramatically along with the continued increases for Outfield Rigs. MSU just has to take advantage financially of the demand.

 

[Anon201138]

The seat licenses for chair-back season tickets will increase dramatically along with the continued increases for Outfield Rigs. MSU just has to take advantage financially of the demand.

I have a sibling who works for the firm that audits MS State’s entire athletics department. I freaking love the baseball team I’m watching the stream right now and will be at the Saturday game.

Baseball is going to lose more money this year, and is the biggest money losing sport at Mississippi State. It will likely be somewhere between $5.5-6m in 2026. If we host a regional it might stay at $4.5-5m. We nearly tripled the coach’s salary. The annual debt service on the Dude is absolutely crazy, it is the highest in the country for a college baseball stadium.

From a financial perspective, paying BOC $3m, players getting big time NIL, chartering 40+ person jets that cost 6 figures each trip, and building a $80m baseball stadium all for the most-money-losing-sport are the worst financial decisions we have ever made as an athletic department. These are just cold hard numbers.

But fandom is not just a bottom line, corporate business. Emotions and tradition are involved. So I’m not even saying it’s wrong to do. But yes, “going all in on baseball” is a financial black hole. For any university in the United States.

 

[DAWGSANDSAINTS]

Dubmass Conference realignment caused a lot of the deficits I have to believe.
You can’t fly across the country or even halfway or even bus long distances and not bleed money.
But the smart Presidents and AD’s all thought this was a great 17-ing thing.

 

[StillTbonewannabe]

I have a sibling who works for the firm that audits MS State’s entire athletics department. I freaking love the baseball team I’m watching the stream right now and will be at the Saturday game.

Baseball is going to lose more money this year, and is the biggest money losing sport at Mississippi State. It will likely be somewhere between $5.5-6m in 2026. If we host a regional it might stay at $4.5-5m. We nearly tripled the coach’s salary. The annual debt service on the Dude is absolutely crazy, it is the highest in the country for a college baseball stadium.

From a financial perspective, paying BOC $3m, players getting big time NIL, chartering 40+ person jets that cost 6 figures each trip, and building a $80m baseball stadium all for the most-money-losing-sport are the worst financial decisions we have ever made as an athletic department. These are just cold hard numbers.

But fandom is not just a bottom line, corporate business. Emotions and tradition are involved. So I’m not even saying it’s wrong to do. But yes, “going all in on baseball” is a financial black hole. For any university in the United States.

But you can't discount what donations are generated from baseball and also specifically donated to baseball. It is always interesting seeing business decisions made and the decision maker doesn't fully understand the total repercussions. I am not saying I understand or you don't. Just making a blanket statement.

 

[Anon201138]

But you can't discount what donations are generated from baseball and also specifically donated to baseball. It is always interesting seeing business decisions made and the decision maker doesn't fully understand the total repercussions. I am not saying I understand or you don't. Just making a blanket statement.

The donations are absolutely accounted for. If a group donated let’s say $10m for the new Dudy Noble and it cost $80m, you’re only servicing debt on $70m. Donations paid for only about 34% of the Dude by the way, and this is reflected in the fiscal year numbers because we’re only servicing debt on about 45-50m.

The other donations are for NIL. In general, those are not an expense line item or revenue inflow for the university, the collective’s money paid to players does not come into the university’s coffers, and it does not come out of the university’s coffers.

As I said, I freaking love the baseball team. But I am an investment professional with a degree in accounting. Baseball is the biggest money losing sport at MSU. There’s no emotion in numbers—it’s just math.

From an emotional/tradition/fandom perspective, MSU baseball is great. From a financial perspective, shoveling money into a baseball coach, chartering jets, and having a huge debt to service annually on a college baseball stadium is a terrible decision. Not just for us—for any university.

 

[L4Dawg]

Dubmass Conference realignment caused a lot of the deficits I have to believe.
You can’t fly across the country or even halfway or even bus long distances and not bleed money.
But the smart Presidents and AD’s all thought this was a great 17-ing thing.

It was that way before any of that ever started.

 

[RocketDawg]

Blame it on NIL, pay for play, whatever you want to call it. And then there's revenue sharing that hurts the schools even more.

 

[QuaoarsKing]

https://www.clarionledger.com/story/sports/college/mississippi-state/2026/02/17/mississippi-state-athletics-budget-2025-fiscal-year/88625461007/

Baseball lost $4.2m in 2025 with a head coach salary of $1.3m. It will likely lose closer to $6m in 2026 with the new head coaches salary being $3m.

I’d link the entire fiscal report instead of the Clarion Ledger article, but it’s in like a huge 150 page prospectus. But the bottom line is—our baseball program lost more money (simple math: revenue - expenses) than any other program at Mississippi State in 2025 and is set to lose more in 2026.

No one wants to hear this, but the debt service on the Dude is an outrageous expense for the biggest money losing sport. BOC should not be making $3m, and we should be taking the bus to more baseball series.

I have laid out the baseball numbers in black and white before and people in an emotional craze act like I shot their dog.

It's OK to spend money when people like what they get for it.

 

[Anon201138]

It's OK to spend money when people like what they get for it.

Exactly. But that’s the justification you need to use when making the decision to cut sports. You can’t say “we should cut women’s basketball because it loses $4m annually” when baseball loses more than that.

What you CAN say is that our fans care about baseball way more, so if these sports both lose millions, we’ll cut women’s basketball.

Financially, there would be almost no difference in cutting baseball versus women’s basketball from the athletic department’s bottom line perspective.

 

[Bulldog from Birth]

Financially, there would be almost no difference in cutting baseball versus women’s basketball from the athletic department’s bottom line perspective.

Not exactly true. We have to pay the New Dude debt payments whether we play baseball or not.

 

[OG Goat Holder]

https://www.clarionledger.com/story/sports/college/mississippi-state/2026/02/17/mississippi-state-athletics-budget-2025-fiscal-year/88625461007/

Baseball lost $4.2m in 2025 with a head coach salary of $1.3m. It will likely lose closer to $6m in 2026 with the new head coaches salary being $3m.

I’d link the entire fiscal report instead of the Clarion Ledger article, but it’s in like a huge 150 page prospectus. But the bottom line is—our baseball program lost more money (simple math: revenue - expenses) than any other program at Mississippi State in 2025 and is set to lose more in 2026.

No one wants to hear this, but the debt service on the Dude is an outrageous expense for the biggest money losing sport. BOC should not be making $3m, and we should be taking the bus to more baseball series.

I have laid out the baseball numbers in black and white before and people in an emotional craze act like I shot their dog.

We all know the numbers hair. We just don’t care. It’s worth that investment.

You understand none of this matters right? A small group of rich people bankroll all this stuff across the country. What they say generally goes.

We don’t have those guys. The few we do have, give where they want, including baseball. No matter if the final checks say MSU AD on them, that’s where they initially come from, it all flows back from them.

Bottom line for MSU football is that’s it’s going to have to get used to doing more with less.

 

[Podgy]

This thread desperately needs Bulldoghair. I wonder what his take is on spending money on baseball.***

 

[Anon201138]

We all know the numbers hair. We just don’t care. It’s worth that investment.

You understand none of this matters right? A small group of rich people bankroll all this stuff across the country. What they say generally goes.

We don’t have those guys. The few we do have, give where they want, including baseball. No matter if the final checks say MSU AD on them, that’s where they initially come from, it all flows back from them.

Bottom line for MSU football is that’s it’s going to have to get used to doing more with less.

I don’t know where you get the idea that a couple rich guys completely fund our baseball program. If they did, we wouldn’t owe 40+ million on the Dude in debt servicing. The university wouldn’t have had $8m in baseball expenses last year. The donors aren’t chartering a 40+ seat $200k flight to Austin and back to play Texas.

The donors do fund the NIL. It’s not a university expense or revenue.

Donors pay for NIL, with the occasional large gift that goes to the stadium etc (and it’s just a fraction of the stadium cost. MSU pays for everything else.

 

[StillTbonewannabe]

The donations are absolutely accounted for. If a group donated let’s say $10m for the new Dudy Noble and it cost $80m, you’re only servicing debt on $70m. Donations paid for only about 34% of the Dude by the way, and this is reflected in the fiscal year numbers because we’re only servicing debt on about 45-50m.

The other donations are for NIL. In general, those are not an expense line item or revenue inflow for the university, the collective’s money paid to players does not come into the university’s coffers, and it does not come out of the university’s coffers.

As I said, I freaking love the baseball team. But I am an investment professional with a degree in accounting. Baseball is the biggest money losing sport at MSU. There’s no emotion in numbers—it’s just math.

From an emotional/tradition/fandom perspective, MSU baseball is great. From a financial perspective, shoveling money into a baseball coach, chartering jets, and having a huge debt to service annually on a college baseball stadium is a terrible decision. Not just for us—for any university.

But the numbers don't reflect the emotional giving. My wife and I got engaged at Dudy Noble. Honestly, if MSU shut down baseball then I just might quit giving entirely. I don't have season tickets due to now living in Florida so what I give to the Bulldog Club is purely for the love of the university. Those numbers aren't reflected anywhere.

 

[TheDawg-Pound]

No one is going to mention their women's tennis team only brought in $82.

 

[FactCheckerBot]

They’d have to cut a men’s sport too. Title IX

Seems they would cut WTennis and MGolf given what they bring in.

 

[Seinfeld]

No one is going to mention their women's tennis team only brought in $82.

I paid $16 last week for my son and I to walk in to my daughter’s 9th grade soccer game. How is $82 even possible?

 

[Anon201138]

Seems they would cut WTennis and MGolf given what they bring in.

They should cut women’s basketball, and then probably men’s golf + less scholarships for tennis if still needed for title IX. Women’s basketball loses the most by far of any women’s sport at MSU.

That would drop us below the 14 team threshold to stay FBS though, so I would add women’s beach volleyball or bowling.

People will say the optics look bad. We shouldn’t care.

 

[Anon201138]

But the numbers don't reflect the emotional giving. My wife and I got engaged at Dudy Noble. Honestly, if MSU shut down baseball then I just might quit giving entirely. I don't have season tickets due to now living in Florida so what I give to the Bulldog Club is purely for the love of the university. Those numbers aren't reflected anywhere.

Man there’s nothing wrong with being a huge fan, baseball is the last money-losing sport I’d advocate to cut.

But the scale of their losses can’t be ignored when talking about adjusting spending in certain sports. The baseball team can take a bus to Athens. There’s a reason MLB teams don’t charter flights for their double A teams.

 

[patdog]

Man there’s nothing wrong with being a huge fan, baseball is the last money-losing sport I’d advocate to cut.

But the scale of their losses can’t be ignored when talking about adjusting spending in certain sports. The baseball team can take a bus to Athens. There’s a reason MLB teams don’t charter flights for their double A teams.

Run the numbers without the debt service. There’s not an expense. It’s paying for a capital investment. And, in terms of this thread & cutting sports, its not something you can eliminate by cutting the sport.