Buffs continue trimming budget

Throughout his seven years as the athletic director at Colorado, Rick George has seen a lot of ups and a few downs within the program.

This year has provided unprecedented challenges for George and college athletics in general.

“This is the first time I haven’t enjoyed my job,” George told BuffZone on Friday.

CU continues trying to navigate through the coronavirus pandemic, and that has led to another round of layoffs and furloughs this week.

Since July, CU has gone through about 30 layoffs and furloughs. Most of those are furloughs, but at least a handful of athletic department staffers have been laid off. CU has also had “five or six” open positions that will not be filled.

“We continue to trim our budget,” George said.

That trimming has, unfortunately, led to George making “extremely

difficult” staff decisions.

“I hate it,” he said. “It’s the worst part of my job, by far, but we’ve got to look at the whole.

“It’s difficult because it impacts families and impacts children. … Not playing sports, and particularly football, has a huge financial impact on the department.”

Concerns about the spread of COVID-19 led to the Pac-12 — as well as the Big Ten, Mountain West and MAC — deciding last month to postpone its fall sports season until at least January. However, the conference announced Thursday a partnership with Quidel Corporation that will lead to daily, rapid-results testing. That could allow football and other fall sports to return before January.

At this point, however, football isn’t being played. Even if football does return this year, it’ll likely be with a limited number of fans.

George has previously stated that the financial impact with be “significant” at CU, but the unknowns about the football season have made it difficult for the Buffs to nail down a budget for the 2020-21 fiscal year.

In the past few years, CU’s budget has been around $90 million per year. George said Friday that for 2020-21, “I think we’re probably looking in the $60-70 million range, but I don’t know that for sure. Our budget is going to be significantly lower. I think we all know that.”

George said the budget could change for the better if football returns sooner than January, but would take another major hit if football can’t be played at all in 2020-21. In recent years, football has provided nearly 50 percent of CU’s total athletic department revenue. Last year, CU generated more than $20 million in football ticket sales alone.

Eliminating sports continues to be a last resort for George, who added, “I don’t see that happening at this point. … Fortunately at this point we’ve been able to stay away from that.”