Maj. Gen. Wins seeks $5M more for NCAA teams to win.

Editor's note: a full transcript of Maj. Gen. Win's presentation, video and slides are available for download with the online version of the article at www.cadetnewspaper.com. With the Virginia Military Institute's National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) programs operating in the red and the programs approximately $2 million reserve fund to be spent by the end of this academic year, Superintendent Maj. Gen. Wins is asking the Board of Visitors (BOV) for an additional $5 million per year for the program. During the Nov. 30, 2023 BOV meeting Maj. Gen. Wins stated the additional funds were essential "to allow our Division 1 athletes to compete to win". Maj. Gen Wins stated his intention "upfront to try to reiterate the value and the importance of athletics here at VMI, that I believe has been well understood for a number of decades, and the recognition that over the decades, there have been times when analysis has been done, studies have been done to highlight an ever-present and continuing effort where we are challenged with our athletic budget." Without specific examples, Maj. Gen Wins referred back to 1975 and up to 2022 "that routinely, the Institute has to grapple with challenges to our athletic budget." His conclusion, as presented to the Board, was "the fact [is] that going as far back as 1992, it was well-recognized that when it came to how we competed, consistent with how we were budgeting, we were getting a certain type of outcome from our Division I athletic program, because we were fairly consistent in how we funded our athletic programs, we were probably only about 2% to 4% off in terms of funding compared to the average 1AA school." Maj. Gen Wins then presented the BOV various statements he attributed to various different, unnamed Institute leaders to include Institute superintendents about the value and the importance of athletics. He stressed the words came from prior administrations about the importance of cadets participating in athletics, the value that athletics brings and how the VMI spirit is centered around athletic success. He concluded by referring to how essential athletics are to the success of all cadets at VMI stating, "the fact that we give college athletes an experience here at VMI that has a significant impact on the overall morale and value to the Corps, along with other sporting activities through club sports." The slides presented (attached below) did not contain specific references for all the quotes Maj. Gen. Wins provided, but The Cadet was able to fact-check one attributed to the 1928 VMI yearbook, The Bomb, that "Too many words of praise cannot be showered on our athletes. They are responsible for the larger part of the perpetuation of the 'Spirit of VMI"'. While the quote is accurately copied from the 1928 Bomb, the omitted portions of the full quotation provides important context: The men who take part in athletics at V. M. I. deprive themselves of practically all of their spare time and gladly give all they have for their Alma Mater. Due to our very heavy schedule, little time is available in which to practice, but from the looks of our teams we are sure this time is used to the best advantage. Playing under the Southern Conference rules, we have only around three hundred and fifty men from which to pick the teams, but this fact is rarely considered when we are up against teams from schools six and eight times our size. With an undaunted spirit our warriors take the field to FIGHT from start finish. To play the game fairly and squarely is always foremost in their minds, and the reputation of "the clean athletes of V. M. I." is unsurpassed. They care not whether they win or lose, but only how they played the game. [emphasis added] In barracks our athletes cannot be distinguished from the other men. Though they hold the world in their hands, they never take advantage of their popularity gained in combat. They make some of the best officers in the Corps, even though they do exist under greater hardships. [emphasis added] As long as we have men of the same high character and manhood as our past athletes, V. M. I. shall never fail to put a team on the field of which an alumnus will not be justly proud. They will always "carry on" and do their part in the realization of our Greater V. M. I. [emphasis added] The importance of intramural and Club sports was also recognized by the cadets in 1928, "Intramural athletics has been a great thing for the corps in many ways during the past few years. It has meant a great deal to the cadets, helped to build up a strong company spirit within the corps, and more than once has developed men who have been successful on varsity teams during the following season, but who would never have been 'discovered' had it not been for their activities on company or class teams." The actual emphasis of the sentiment was not on "winning" but doing one's best while participating in all parts of the Corps and VMI experience. As also stated in the 1928 Bomb: "Although sports are not allowed to interfere materially with prescribed duties, every assistance is rendered to overcome the drawbacks of short time for practice and the comparatively small number of men available." [emphasis added] Today, without the additional $5 million requested, according to the VMI 2022 Independent Accountant's Report on Applying Agreed-Upon Procedures Performed on the Intercollegiate Athletics Program as Required by NCAA Bylaw 3.2.4.17, VMI's combined operating revenues for football and basketball alone totaled $4,437,286 with operating expenses at $6,162,991 for those same two programs resulting in a net loss of $1,725,705. During that same period, according to VMI records for the 2021 – 2022 academic year, VMI budgeted a total of $134,800 for club sports as praised in the 1928 Bomb, including club basketball ($7,000), boxing ($20,000), ice hockey ($15,000), men's rugby ($45,000), women's rugby ($10,800), soccer ($9,000), lacrosse ($20,000), and wrestling ($8,000). A $6,028,191 difference. Last academic year the wrestling club won a national title and this academic year men's rugby won the conference title. Maj. Gen. Wins continued his presentation emphasizing the correlation between great funding and winning, "I think we need to be thinking about how we can support an effort that will allow our Division I athletes to compete to win." He informed the BOV that he's discussed this with Keydet Club members about the "strong correlation between how you fund athletics and the results that you get from funding athletics appropriately." "You can't treat VMI athletics like a call center," said Maj. Gen Wins. "If you do, then you're gonna get the results that we're getting" and stated "we remain approximately $5 million behind the average funding for SoCon [Southern Conference] competitors." He confirmed that is an annual deficit, but not actually a deficit stating, "Because it's not necessarily a deficit, it is a gap between how we fund athletics versus what other schools in our conference are funding their athletic programs." Maj. Gen Wins then presented a "pyramid of success chart" showing that over the last seven years VMI's 18 NCAA sports teams finished in the middle third of the conference seven times and in the bottom third of the conference 10 times. A situation the additional $5 million would resolve. The BOV then discussed the various impacts from COVID and the fact that the athletic reserve fund will effectively be expended at the end of the current academic year and the sports program will operate at a deficit starting next academic year. Maj. Gen. Wins then covered the different strategies the administration is considering to bring the budget back into alignment but emphasized, "the larger conversation as we move forward and as we implement some or all of these strategies needs to be about what fundraising in addition to these strategies can be accomplished to bring our overall operational budget in line with or somewhere closer to the average of the conference competitors that we have, so that we can get better performance out of our athletic programs." Some of those strategies Maj. Gen. Wins presented include increasing football, basketball, and annual ticket revenues, increasing guaranteed game revenues, and prioritizing and managing team operating costs. Another is corporate sales and advertising strategy for which VMI is currently in the process of hiring a new employee to manage. None of these include staff cuts to the athletic department workforce. Another option Maj. Gen Wins told the BOV he is considering but is holding off on is an athletic fee increase to cadets attending VMI. Currently each cadet currently pays a $3,950 athletic fee, up from $3,834 in the 2022 – 2023 academic year according to the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV). This remains the highest among Virginia colleges and universities.