RENO, Nev. — Due to state budget cuts, the University of Nevada will reduce its funding for scholarships and operational costs for the Wolf Pack skiing team this year and will not fund the program after 2009-10, Director of Athletics Cary Groth announced Tuesday.

Nevada will continue to fund tuition waivers for skiing student-athletes and personnel costs for the coaching staff for the 2009-10 season, but operational costs will be covered by donors or other sources of funding.

“We are all facing challenging economic times, and we have tried to make cuts that will have a minimal impact on the student-athlete experience. We didn’t want to cut student-athletes’ opportunities in sports, but we have had very tough choices to make and will not be able to fund the program after the 2009-10 season,” Groth said.

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Due to a 20% decrease in fundraising, the University of Central Florida is forced to make budget cuts within the schools athletic department. Here is a report filed by Iliana Limón of the Orlando Sentinel.

The UCF Athletics Association’s fundraising has dropped 20 percent from last year, prompting the school to make significant budget cuts.

UCF also is anticipating a 4 percent decline in total football revenue, which includes money generated by season and single-game ticket sales. UCF collected $5.9 million in football revenue during the 2008 season and is bracing to lose $236,000 of that revenue during the 2009 campaign.

Last year, football revenue accounted for about one-third of UCF’s total athletics revenue.

UCF is one of many schools throughout the country forced to re-evaluate all athletics expenses during the current economic downturn. The athletics staff will present a much leaner 2009-10 athletics budget to the UCFAA board of directors next week for its approval.

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