After the football team went to a bowl game in 2009 and the men's basketball team went to the NCAA Tournament the following March, Ohio University looked for a way to cover future postseason expenses without taking a surprise hit to its budget.
The solution was the Post Season Opportunity Fund, which the university started within the past year. The university set aside $120,000 of General Fee money for Athletics to use if any teams had postseason appearances.
The money for the fund came from a 3.5 percent increase - $1,095,000 - to the general fee this year, according to figures provided by John Day, associate provost for academic budget.
We had a couple of years where we were going to a bowl game
and it seemed to be something that we wanted to keep doing Day said. So financially if we wanted it to keep happening we realized that we should budget for it so we wouldn't be surprised that we needed the money.
About 11 percent of the general fee increase made up this fund, Day said, accounting for shifts in the general fee as well as salary increases for faculty and staff members when calculating the number.
Becky Watts, chief of staff to OU President Roderick McDavis, said the number was calculated based on expenses from past bowl games for the football team. Athletics used $96,645.76 of the fund to pay for the R+L Carrier New Orleans Bowl, according to university documents.
When those additional dollars came in
it went all to raises and benefits and other things
Day said. This was simply built in as yet another potential increase that was needed to be funded into the general fee.
The fund was not accounted for in the Athletics budget, because the university wanted to maintain control of the fund. If no teams went to the postseason, Athletics would not have received any of the $120,000.
The one thing to realize is that the fund is not in a planning unit
Day said. And the money did not go to ... (Intercollegiate Athletics) because the university did not want them to use the money if they did not go to a bowl game.
The Bobcats lost the bowl game to Troy, 48-21 in December.
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Olivia Arbogast
