From The Toledo Blade:
BOWLING GREEN — The alumni-driven fund-raiser to save baseball at Bowling Green State University passed the million-dollar mark in less than a week.
After the holiday weekend, organizers of the Save Baseball at BGSU campaign said they stood at $1.3 million in committed contributions, which would be distributed during the five-year window the campaign set to find alternative sources of revenue for baseball.
Further, organizers said 10 percent of the contributions — about $130,000 — came from the families of current Falcons players. The campaign said that it had 140 total contributors as of Monday.
Among a number of cuts, including 119 layoffs and non-renewals on the university side and a furlough plan that impacts nearly every BGSU employee, the school announced on May 15 that it would discontinue baseball effective immediately.
The school is facing $29 million in projected losses for the 2020-21 school year due the coronavirus pandemic, which included a directive to cut the athletics budget by $2 million for next year.
BGSU estimated that cutting baseball would save about $500,000, which factors in its commitment to honor scholarships for players who wish to stay at the school. The department of athletics made reductions to all teams — some of which included the elimination of staff positions and travel cutbacks — but no other sports were cut.
The baseball program at Bowling Green reported $775,000 in operating expenses during the 2018-19 school year, the most recent year for which data is available.
The entire athletics budget for the same year is just more than $26 million, about half of which was funded through mandatory student fees that are collected with tuition. BGSU, like many universities, is expecting a decline in enrollment next year.
Fellow Mid-American Conference schools also have eliminated teams during the pandemic. Central Michigan cut its men’s track and field team, dropping it to five men’s sports, while Akron eliminated men’s golf, women’s tennis, and men’s cross country.
For the time being, Bowling Green and Buffalo are the only two full members of the MAC that do not field a baseball team. Akron cut its baseball team in 2015, but with the help of its own capital campaign, revived it for the 2019-20 school year on a non-scholarship basis.
Timing will be a critical factor for the campaign to revive baseball at Bowling Green. When the program announced that it would cease to operate, the majority of the Falcons’ baseball team entered the NCAA's transfer portal, which allows players to communicate freely with recruiters at other schools.
Players may withdraw from the transfer portal at their discretion — as Falcons basketball player Justin Turner did earlier this spring — but baseball players currently do not have the option to return and play varsity baseball at Bowling Green.
While the campaign quickly surpassed the seven-figure threshold, it has significantly more work to complete in the coming weeks. Its stated goals are to raise between $3.5 and $4 million across the five-year period, establish a limited liability company to serve as a fundraising arm for the program, and to meet with university officials about the possibility of reversing course on their decision to cut baseball.
The campaign is still soliciting donations from individuals and companies who wish to aid the cause, and said "no contribution is considered too large or too small." Interested parties may contact an email address, savebgsubaseball1@gmail.com, for information about how to contribute.
This is astounding. Hope they are able to do something.
Unfortunately the $29 mil deficit for 2020-2021 sounds like there has to be some financial mis-management for a state university to be that far in the red.
