While more than half the possible annual savings from the elimination last week of four sports comes from scholarship dollars, the aid allotted to three of the cut teams is among the lowest amounts offered for all Ohio sports.
Should all underclassmen student-athletes currently receiving aid on the cut teams transfer next year, the athletics department would realize 67.4 percent, or $461,954, of the $685,000 it stands to save from the eliminations.
The NCAA categorizes lacrosse, men's swimming and diving and men's track and field as equivalency sports, meaning the NCAA limit represents the total amount of aid allowed, which can be divided in any way among team members. With headcount sports, any amount of aid expended to an athlete counts as one full scholarship toward the maximum allowed for that sport by the NCAA.
Scholarships for the four sports cut by the athletics department last week only made up 8.6 percent of the athletics aid expended to Ohio's 20 teams this year.
Headcount sports at Ohio ' football, men's and women's basketball and volleyball ' account for 51.5 percent, or $2,752,699, of the $5,342,850 aid expended by the athletic department this year.
According to data obtained from the athletic department, only the equivalent of 1.29 full scholarships, or $33,222, was offered at Ohio for men's swimming and diving this past year. That number is well short of the NCAA's limit of 9.9 full scholarships and, by far, the smallest amount of aid received by all Ohio teams.
Men's indoor and outdoor track and field, combined with cross country in NCAA aid regulations, received 7.55 full scholarships, or $138,000, also less than the 12.6 limit permissible by the NCAA. The expenditure for men's track and field is the fourth-lowest amount of scholarship funding at Ohio, above only men's swimming and diving and both golf teams.
Along with those teams, scholarship funding for soccer, women's basketball, women's golf and women's swimming and diving falls at least one full scholarship below the NCAA limit.
For a complete breakdown of Ohio sports scholarship expenditures, check out today's front page.
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Katie Carrera
