The University of Minnesota Board of Regents on Friday signaled support for the permanent shutdown of three mens sports programs as the U begins to chip away at an expected shortfall of up to $70 million in this year’s athletics budget caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The termination of mens tennis, gymnastics and track and field should save $2 million next year and $2.7 million a year by 2024-25, when the last of the teams’ 58 current student-athletes leave school. The U will honor the students’ 18.4 scholarships until they earn a degree or transfer.

Regents discussed the proposal Friday but will not take official action till a future board meeting. None indicated opposition to the plan.

Regent David McMillan said the board has pressed Athletics Director Mark Coyle since his hire to make athletics into a revenue-positive department, and that can’t happen without this kind of move.

“I appreciate you coming forward with difficult, painful and challenging moves like this,” he said.

Regent Richard Beeson bemoaned the “arms race” in intercollegiate athletics, in which the U and other schools have ramped up spending while relying on big media rights contracts to pay for it.

The U, he said, invited this day; he just expected it to come after the Big Ten’s media deal ends, not because of a pandemic.

“It’s a shock to see us drop sports,” he said.

GENDER CONCERNS

It’s no coincidence that all three targeted sports are mens teams.

Even before the pandemic, Coyle was studying how to reduce the number of male athletes in order to comply with federal Title IX law, which requires gender equity in school athletics.

The loss of 58 male athletes brings the U into better gender balance between its athletes and the general student body, which is increasingly female.

“I feel like we’ve exhausted every possible avenue and these are the difficult decisions we have to make,” Coyle said.

Addressing whether the U could solicit donations to keep the programs alive, McMillan said they’d have to raise money to not only support the programs long-term but also for additional womens sports.

FOOTBALL’S IMPACT

Rhonda McFarland, deputy athletic director, said the department expects to lose $60 million to $70 million this fiscal year. That assumes minimal revenue from winter and spring sports and nothing from football or other fall sports, which the Big Ten canceled last month.

“While there are many possible outcomes for our fall sports to compete before the end of the fiscal year, there is no certainty as to the amount of revenue that might be generated during what could be a shortened football season with very limited or no fans,” she said.

Football, which in 2018-19 netted $31.2 million on $65.7 million in revenue, subsidizes the school’s money-losing sports.

Mens gymnastics that year lost $825,000 and tennis $775,000. Mens track and field and cross country, whose budgets are reported as one, lost $1.84 million.

The U entered this school year expecting to spend $123 million on athletics.

The cancellation of fall sports should save $5 million on operations.

Other cost-saving measures the athletics department has taken include:

• Voluntary pay cuts for Coyle and five head coaches, saving $1.2 million this school year
• Additional furloughs and pay cuts, saving $1.1 million
• A hiring freeze, saving $700,000.

Regents voted 11-1 on Friday — Michael Hsu opposed it — to approve another $1.3 million in spending cuts through a combination of furloughs, reduced hours and position eliminations.

The loss of the three sports — four counting both the indoor and outdoor track seasons — leaves the U with 21 sports programs.

President Joan Gabel called the decision “heartbreaking” but said “significant change is needed to create stability in Gopher athletics.”