Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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www.BLUEANDGOLD.com MAY 2020 7 UNDER THE DOME private schools want to saddle their balance sheets with additional scholar- ship expenses? Will they be able to? The uncertainty around it was expressed by many even before the ruling. "There are so many questions with what this will look like," Notre Dame softball coach Deanna Gumpf said. "I want this entire team to get an ex- tra year because they all lost one, but is that realistic? There is so much to work through." The unease of adding more schol- arships is heightened with the coro- navirus still threatening to diminish or wipe out future revenues, chief among them football money that often funds other sports' entire ex- penses. A disruption of football rev- enue would send another tidal wave through budgets across the country. The cancelation of the NCAA Tour- nament due to the virus already caused a 63 percent decline in reve- nue distribution. Initially projected at $600 million, the NCAA will instead distribute $225 million to its 353 Divi- sion I basketball members. "There has to be some kind of recorrection of some of the financial commitments and some of the finan- cial input into the industry," North- western athletics director Jim Phil- lips, whose son Luke runs for Notre Dame's track team, said in a Chicago radio interview. "To what level, that's what we're trying to determine." Notre Dame men's basketball head coach Mike Brey has one solution. He believes the typical structure of his non-conference schedule — eight guarantee games against mid- and low-major teams — is likely to change. Notre Dame usually pays the opponent $90,000, equaling a $720,000 commitment per season. Those could be replaced by home- and-home series with better teams, which do not require a check. "Do we start to play more home- and-home series and not buy as many games?" Brey said. "And these home-and-homes, are they bus rides if they are road games? "Those are all things that we have been talking about. I'm conscious of this and [athletics director Jack Swarbrick] has said to all the coaches in every department that this is greatly going to affect our budget." Fortunately, Notre Dame will feel a lesser impact than smaller institutions that do not have football. A Forbes study found that Notre Dame ranked fourth nationally in football-driven profit from 2016-18, at $76 million. Still, the financial impacts of the NCAA's decision and the corona- virus will leave no one unscathed. Wisconsin is reportedly anticipating up to $100 million in losses because of the pandemic. That figure is more than 3 percent of its annual budget. Winter sport athletes, while deprived of a postseason in some cases, had completed their regular seasons or en- tire season. The idea of giving seniors another year was a longshot. Most coaches understood that it was not pos- sible and illogical, Brey among them. "Selfishly, can we get Johnny Mooney back for another year — of course, I'd sign up for that," Brey said. "But I just don't think that's right and I think most coaches feel the same way." DECISIONS TO MAKE Notre Dame's baseball team had eight players who were in their final year of eligibility before the NCAA gave them another one. They need to decide if they want to come back. Notre Dame's coaching staff and ad- ministration have to decide if they can afford to give them the same fi- nancial aid package as before. None of the eight is a full-time starter. One of them, Eric Gilgenbach, is a fifth-year graduate student who has an MBA. "He's definitely able to go get a good job," said Myers, a junior with his own MLB Draft decision to make. "I'd definitely love to have him for one more year and I know the rest of the team would." Myers said he does not know of any concrete or final decisions his senior teammates have made, but he understands the factors at hand on the players' and coaches' sides. "A lot of guys have had interviews and could definitely enter the work- force next year if that's what they wanted to do," Myers said. "Guys like Ethan Copeland, [Anthony] Holubecki, [Andrew] Belcik. I think Danny Jung is set on playing another year from what I remember him saying. A lot of guys are going to have to make that tough deci- sion to see if they want to come back or if they just want to get their lives started outside of baseball." ✦ NOTRE DAME SPRING ATHLETES ELIGIBLE FOR EXTRA YEAR Baseball (8) Graduate Student: OF Eric Gilgenbach Seniors: RHP Andrew Belcik, LHP Cameron Brown, INF Ethan Copeland, RHP Anthony Hol- ubecki, OF/1B Daniel Jung, RHP Zack Martin and RHP Jack Sheehan Men's Golf (3) Seniors: John Felitto, Davis Lamb and Hunter Ostrom Women's Golf (1) Senior: Mia Ayer Men's Lacrosse (17) Graduate Students: D/M Patrick Aslanian and LSM/D Charlie Trense Seniors: D Matthew Blommer, A Stephen Chase, M Bryan Costabile, D Michael Farnish, M Peter Gayhardt, M Kyle Hyland, D Jacob Kanak, D Jack Kielty, M Keaton Komatz, FO Charles Leon- ard, M Tommy McNamara, M Auden Menke, LSM Eric Restic, A Brian Willetts and G John Zullo Women's Lacrosse (12) Graduate Students: A Samantha Lynch and D Makenna Pearsall Seniors: D Sydney Anderson, M Savannah Buchanan, M Maddie Carr, M Kelly Donnelly, M/A Cassie Ford, A Jessi Masinko, M Erin Mc- Bride, D Kathleen Roe, M Haley Schultz and G Grace Steffens Rowing (13) Graduate Student: Ashley Young Seniors: Mara Bhalla, Cailey Brogan, Mad- eline Coady, Ellie Daum, Caroline Hills, Tala Mansouri, Julia Randall, Audrey Regan, Anja Renkes, Laura Schoonmaker, Allegra Sodi and Emily Stinebaugh Softball (4) Seniors: OF Alexis Bazos, INF Kate Marino, INF Chelsea Purcell and INF Ellie Richards Men's Tennis (4) Seniors: Guillermo Cabrera, Matt Gamble, Johnathan Small and Conor Somers Women's Tennis (2) Seniors: Zoe Spence and Bess Waldram Men's Track & Field (11) Graduate Students: Edward Cheatham (sprints) and Tony Williams (distance) Seniors: Clayton Goldman (middle distance), Tyler Keslin (distance), Logan Kusky (throws), Dustin Macuiba (distance), Peter Monahan (distance), Patrick O'Mara (sprints), Kevin Sal- vano (distance), Ryan Schweizer (distance) and Shae Watkins (throws) Women's Track & Field (10) Graduate Students: Rachel DaDamino (dis- tance), Kelly Hart (distance) and Anna Rohrer (distance) Seniors: Erin Archibeck (distance), Liz Hannon (middle distance), Madysen Hunter (sprints/ hurdles), Abbey Kapitan (throws), Madison Ronzone (distance), Naya Sharp (hurdles/ jumps/sprints) and Summer Thorpe (hurdles)