Financial Solutions for College Athletic Budgets

Michael Cross, Executive Associate Director of Athletics at Princeton University, writes a blog entitled "Ultimate Sports Insider," which is dedicated to news, observations and commentary about college athletics with a focus on the relationship of athletics to higher education as a business and educational enterprise. The goal of UltimateSportsInsider.com is to be the most thoughtful, content driven and thought provoking forum available for discussing the real issues in college sports and the NCAA.

Back in January, Cross wrote a two-part feature on Financial Solutions for College Athletic Budgets. Part One dealt with institutional ideas, while Part Two dealt with conference and national ideas.

Some of these suggestions were on the table during the Annual Meeting of the Centennial Conference at McDaniel College in May. You can see that escalating athletic budgets are being questioned not only in Division III, but Divisions I and II as well.

Conference Joins Group to Initiate START Officiating Program

The Centennial Conference and the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association (PIAA) Associate Executive Director Robert A. Lombardi, in conjunction with four other NCAA Division II and III conferences, announced the initiation of the START program at the Pennsylvania State Alliance of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (PSAHPERD) annual convention recently.

START stands for Students of Today Are Referees of Tomorrow, with a goal of recruiting new officials in all sports on the collegiate campuses as well as increasing opportunities for scholastic officials to advance to the intercollegiate level.

Member institutions of these conferences will be offering classes to become a registered sports' official with Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association or their sister association in each member institution's respective state throughout the Middle Atlantic Region.

Working in conjunction with the Centennial and the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association are the commissioners of the Division II Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) along with Division III Capital Athletic Conference (CAC), Colonial States Athletic Conference (CSAC) and Middle Atlantic States Collegiate Athletic Corporation (MAC).

"This program will enable students to learn about what it takes to become an official and give graduates of START the opportunity to begin working games immediately," stated Steve Ulrich, Executive Director of the Centennial Conference.

The initial courses are to be offered during the spring semester at several college campuses.

The pilot program offered by the Centennial Conference will aim to recruit officials for baseball, softball, boys lacrosse and girls lacrosse on the first three Thursdays of February, 2009 (2/5, 2/12 and 2/19).

The three sessions will run approximately 75 minutes, beginning at 6 p.m. in the Steinman College Center at Franklin & Marshall College. Although the program is primarily for students from any college or university, others interested in becoming scholastic, and potentially collegiate, officials are encourage to attend.

At the end of the third meeting, students with proper college ID will be offered the opportunity to take the PIAA officiating test for that sport free of charge. Non-students may take the PIAA test at the regular $30 fee.

Those that pass the test will be assisted in contacting local officiating chapters so they can begin officiating PIAA sanctioned events (and other intramural, youth or recreation league events) as soon as possible.

Other pilot programs are tentatively scheduled to be offered at York College of Pennsylvania (CAC), Cabrini College (CSAC), DeSales University (MAC) and Lock Haven University (PSAC).