It has been a tough spring for the state of South Carolina on the court and in the field. Their men’s and women’s basketball teams combined two wins during the regular season. Women had to give up due to COVID-19. And last Saturday, the football team lost its debut 31-7 to Alabama A&M.
But there is a much bigger problem in Orangeburg than some losses, although the two are probably related to some extent.
A drastically reduced budget over the past decade has put SC State behind its MEAC peers, and now the sports department needs help. She is applying for $ 1 million from the South Carolina State Board of Trustees for women’s sports, staff and scholarships.
Stacy Danley, Director of Athletics at SC State, says the Division I school has more than 50 scholarships without being fully funded. She asked for $ 239k for that.
Then there are the coaching vacancies. Danley asked for $ 485k to cover this.
“We don’t have full-time coaches for many of our nonprofit sporting and administrative positions, specifically in business administration,” she said through the Times and Democrat. “We have no one there and we are losing some of the basic revenue-generating positions, be it marketing, sales, things of that nature, as well as a team operation of basic revenue-generating activities.”
And last but certainly not least, there is Title IX. The law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in education has several areas of non-compliance. US $ 276,000 will be needed for this, says the AD.
The Times and Democrat article also mentions the fact that while MEAC’s average budget has increased from $ 10.4 million to 12.5 million since 2013, SC State’s budget has dropped from $ 12.7 million to $ 7, 9 million. This is a decline of almost 40%.