Loss of credibility
UHart’s Woodward’s attempt to switch from DI to DIII after NCAA Tourney bad timing
When the president of an institution of high learning — a position of leadership and responsibility — loses credibility, it is time to resign or be fired.
Greg Woodward, the president of the University of Hartford, has lost credibility.
When Dennis House of WTNH broke the story earlier in the month of a secret plan to downgrade UHart athletics from Division I to Division III, the first reaction was one of great surprise. The men’s basketball team had just advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history. The story of the Hawks, led by coach John Gallagher, was one of joy and promise for UHart and its alumni.
Whenever a school makes it to March Madness for the first time, the good tidings are shared by sports fans all over. And with the hyper-optimistic Gallagher spreading the gospel of “The Neighborhood,” folks were especially taken. Yet at the moment of UHart’s greatest joy and program potential came word of the confidential study by CarrSports Consulting that the school losses $13 million a year on sports, that D-I and D-II models are not realistic or sustainable options and the school should explore membership options in Division III that will align with the university’s mission.
The timing almost seemed like a joke. It wasn’t. Certainly not nearly as funny as one tweet that read that former UConn athletic director Jeff Hathaway, managing partner of CarrSports, has now led two schools into questionable athletic decisions.
“How many of our players go pro, one or two a year,” Woodward told House after WTNH has exposed the study. “That’s not our goal. We will do the right thing for this university and all of our 7,000 students.”
A day after the report, the university recognized in a statement that the university had conversations at the board level regarding the academic/campus experience of all students and that leadership will review the CarrSports report.
The statement stressed, “It is completely false a decision has been made.”
The tide of greatest fear, sources within the school supportive of D-I said, was temporarily abated that there would be at least an honest debate, an honest fight.
That was demolished Wednesday when Mike DiMauro of The Day of New London reported on a screenshot of recent e-mail messages between Woodward and Warren Goldstein, chair of the school’s
history and philosophy departments. Full disclosure: Hearst Connecticut Media also had received the screenshot Tuesday night but with no explanation. DiMauro reported Goldstein was teaching a history class via Zoom on one screen and e-mailing with Woodward with the other. A source at the school Wednesday confirmed Goldstein shared the wrong screen and some in the class took a screenshot of the conversation.
Woodward to Goldstein: “Use your voice. Write an editorial. Get Senate and other far groups to pass resolutions or write letters to the (Hartford) Courant in support of the move.”
Goldstein to Woodward: “I thank you for this wonderful response, Greg. I don’t know how much organizing I can do, but I will definitely write something, hopefully for the Courant.”
Woodward to Goldstein: “Warren, it’s best if you just speak to the Mission of the University and the disconnect that has grown over the years between D1 sports and the university mission. Be a faculty member with smart opinions on a more equitable experience for all your students, wellness, health, etc. It will be a part of the puzzle that needs to be said, and you can let me, and the spin doctors do the numbers. Thanks! GW.”
Now, I’m not Woodward nor Bernstein, but I would submit Woodward to Goldstein is the smoking gun to what DiMauro called a railroad job. I would call it a disgusting breach of due diligence, honest debate and good will. There is absolute proof now Woodward is working against athletics. How many other professors and members of the Board of Regents is Woodward manipulating behind the scenes to justify his decision?
During his time as president, sources at the school said, Woodward has replaced people on the Board of Regents sympathetic with athletics with those who are ambivalent at best and anti-athletics at worst. There already could be a stacked deck.
UHart athletes and former UHart athletes, such as Atlanta Braves pitcher Sean Newcombe, have spoken out in support of keeping Division I. May not matter.
As far as spin doctors go, there are few men in NCAA sports who can make figures sing and dance like Jeff Hathaway. This study has the scent of a group commissioned by a school to show the school can’t afford Division I anymore. Usually you get what you pay for.
Unlike former President Walter Harrison, who supported athletics and was a mainstay in the NCAA hierarchy, sources said Woodward rarely attends games unless he’s called on for official duties such as recognizing academic achievement.
In the past few weeks, Gallagher said he heard from Gov. Lamont, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy and Hartford mayor Luke Bronin. State House Speaker Matt Ritter wrote a letter to him.
I covered UHart’s America East championship victory over UMass Lowell and watched as Gallagher climbed the stairs and approached the VIP section. Gallagher hugged Moses Flowers, Hartford’s injured star player. Woodward came over and shook Gallagher’s hand to congratulate him.
School sources have said in recent days that Woodward said to Gallagher, “Now, we’re 1 and 35.”
Gallagher would not confirm this.
“Everyone thinks you make tournament you hit the jackpot,” Woodward told WTNH the first night of this debacle. “We didn’t get a cent from the tournament. Congratulations to our great kids but we are losing money doing this. I don’t think what the world understands is that everyone who plays Division I sports loses money, except for about 22 schools. There are about 350 schools in Division I, only 23 make money. The rest of us lose.”
Point 1: anyone remotely following college sports know the vast amount of schools don’t turn a profit.
Point 2: Those great congratulations to the great kids? Woodward, according to sources, never went into the locker room to address the basketball team.
When you dig into the financials, the report that UHart is losing $13 million a year isn’t nearly as simple as it appears. Some see it as purposely misleading.
The study showed $6.189 million in athletic aid, $15.364 million in total expenses, $2.3 million revenue, including $500,000 in student fees, for a projected loss of $13.06 million in 2022. (A $13.057 million actual loss in 2020). Beyond any arguments over inflated number, there is something to understand.
There is $6.189 million in athletic scholarships and there is “combo-aid” of just short of a $1 million. Combo-aid combines a partial athletic and academic scholarships and gives scholarships a higher cost against the budget. That $7 million isn’t actual dollars. It’s is discounted tuition. The real figure it cost to run athletics is closer to $6 million-$6.5 million a deficit.
In the move to Division III, the study showed there would be $1.1 million in revenue, including $500,000 in student fees. The $4.88 million in expenses would mean a loss of $3.78 million per year — $10 million less than staying D-I
Under athletic aid is zero, because D-III doesn’t give athletic scholarships. You know how much academic and merit scholarships are given to athletes at D-III? There are ways to cover half or nearly all of the bill.
When it’s all added up, one knowledgeable source said, the difference between Division I and III at Hartford in actual dollars might be $1 million-$2 million.
Last week, former president Walt Harrison told the Courant that it was a terrible recommendation to go D-III, that the study was wrong-headed, could severely damage the university and a sledgehammer is being called for when a scalpel will work.
On Wednesday, Harrison declined comment on the Woodward-Goldstein exchange. “I can look at the athletic department and their budgets, understanding how difficult it is throughout the university right now because of COVID,” Harrison said. “I believe you can find ways to economize within the current budget to reduce (the losses) and still compete in Division I.
“The basketball team this year and baseball team in 2018, we showed we can win titles. More importantly, all sports aren’t about winning. We can teach our studentathletes of both genders in all sports the value of competing at the highest level to better prepare you for life after sports.”
How do Hartford coaches recruit now? Any opposing coach with half a brain is going to say, “Why you going there? Word is they’re going D-3.” Why would sponsors and advertisers and donors juiced after the Hawks’ March triumph get involved now?
How deflating it was to have triumph turn to this deceit. How disheartening it would be allow the situation to slowly dissolve. How wrong would it be for a leader of a university to continue without credibility.