HBCU athletics has been on an impressive run, with multiple institutions adding new programs and making history in the progress.
Schools like Morgan State added acrobatics and tumbling and men’s wrestling, Fisk added women’s gymnastics, Tennessee State added men’s ice hockey, Delaware State added women’s wrestling and many others launched sports HBCUs aren’t traditionally recognized for.
The biggest challenge facing these programs is funding, as they are expensive sports to launch and maintain.
While the aforementioned programs have been fortunate to receive the necessary funding and support, including Tennessee State which is going through financial difficulties yet is still all in on Daunte Abercrombie’s mission to launch and build the first HBCU ice program program in history, some aren’t as fortunate.
One of those schools is Talladega College in Alabama.
In 2023, the school added gymnastics, becoming the second HBCU, behind Fisk, to field a women’s gymnastics program.
A year later, it was shut down.
It was a hard decision said Interim President Walter Kimbrough, but the only one that made financial sense.
“So when you add those things and you have to add athletic and academic scholarships, it didn’t make a lot of sense,” Kimbrough said in an interview with AL.com.
For a small school like Talladega, non-revenue generating sports are challenging to maintain, and gymnastics, despite being launched with the help of Brown Girls Do Gymnastics and HBCU Gymnastics Alliance and the support of former college president Gregory J. Vincent had an estimated price tag of $500,000 associated with it but lacked a corresponding revenue figure.
Unfortunately, gymnastics wasn’t the only victim of Talladega’s cash crunch as men’s volleyball, acrobatics and tumbling, men’s and women’s golf and men’s and women’s indoor track programs were all axed as well.
The financial crisis appeared to be poor financial planning, as salaries increased while enrollment declined 24% over the past three years.
While some savings were made after employment contracts were cut, more hard decisions had to be made, and that’s when Kimbrough had to take aim at the other sports programs which, in hindsight, should never have been launched due to the financial constraints the school faced.
“The decision to establish these programs was made in the spirit of fostering a diverse and inclusive athletic environment,” said school administrators in a release. “However, early on, such studies would have revealed that these programs were not sustainable under present institutional conditions.”
As of 2022, Talladega College, a private institution in rural Alabama had an enrollment of a little over 800 students. The student body consists of mostly low-income students and 70% receive Pell Grants.
This is another reason why Kimbrough, who wrote an op-ed about his decisions, acted so swiftly and surgically.
While other institutions operate at a deficit, including a few DI programs, Talladega can’t.
It’s an NAIA school, not an NCAA college, and the conference doesn’t support sports gymnastics. The school also lacks a practice facility for the team, so they have to travel to both practice and compete against DIII programs. And when you don’t bring in revenue against those expenses, it’s not a sustainable position to be in.
Volleyball was supposed to move up to NCAA DII, but that fell through. Yet even that would have cost money due to fees that would have had to be paid to the NCAA.
And don’t forget, for each scholarship athlete added, that’s money the athletic department has to pay back to the college.
What about raising fees?
“For Talladega to save the programs ended, instead of an annual $720 athletic fee, we would need to charge students about $1,800 a year,” wrote Kimbrough.”As a president of a small school with a large percentage first generation and low-income students, and sensitive to the national outcry about the increasing cost of college, I can’t imagine charging our students more money to continue sports that don’t generate revenue simply to say we offer those sports.”
What about outside support?
With a small school in a small part of Alabama, that’s difficult. There are no pro sports teams to partner with like Tennessee St. did with the Nashville Predators.
You can’t raise ticket or parking prices, otherwise you will lose fans.
What about sponsorship?
That’s just as challenging as Talladega isn’t a major program and doesn’t have far-reaching media distribution.
The school also doesn’t have football. While that’s a major expense, it can also be a major revenue stream that can help fund other sports programs. Just look at how Texas football keeps the entire department in the black.
HBCU football also makes money through pay-to-play games, where they are paid large sums of money to travel to FBS schools and get beat up. In 2022, UCLA paid Alabama State $590,000. A year later, the Bruins paid North Carolina Central $700,000 to compete in “money games.”
That’s revenue Talladega could desperately use.
This isn’t unique to the college. Three years ago, we highlighted the financial challenges faced by Arkansas Pine Bluff Athletics (UAPB), which, despite securing a few hefty donations, still operated at a $3 million deficit.
As we wrote at the time:
“The athletic department was projected to make $5.67 million but its operating budget is $7.25 million. This means they operate at a loss of roughly $1.58 million. Add this to the roughly $1.14 million they account for in the school’s educational and general budget, and you have the roughly $3 million deficit.”
Fortunately for UAPB, they have a strong alumni network and a good fundraising arm, so they’ve been able to close the gap through private donations. In addition, their enrollment is more than twice the size of Talladega’s, so they could rely on the school to fund the department.
Unfortunately for Talladega, they don’t currently have those resources, so Kimbrough had no choice but to cut expenses to ensure the college’s survival.
So while college athletics have become big business, many departments and programs will not have the same chance at survival, and with the current administration in place, things might get worse for many institutions.
Hopefully, schools like Talladega will survive and find new ways to achieve financial success through sports.
