Miami (Ohio) to furlough over 100 athletic department staff members
Miami (Ohio) is the latest school to be hit by COVID related budget cuts.
The university's board of trustees voted to furlough 115 athletic department staff members while still keeping university president Greg Crawford's $520,047 salary in tact.
The furloughs will be spread out over the course of nine months and started last Thursday. Staff will experience furloughs in a staggered schedule format. The five highest paid coaches in the program took a 10% pay cut already and plan to furlough for almost 3 weeks.
The school has faced and believes that it continue to face budget shortfalls. Although Miami's conference, the MAC has agreed to play football later this fall, the school still projects it will see an over $5 million budget deficit. The MAC will begin playing football on November 4th, the details Miami's first game is unknown as schedules and COVID protocols have not been released yet.
It is puzzling to figure out how an athletic department will be able to prepare for a late fall football season while facing major staff furloughs. The is no doubt that preparing for a season with just over a month's notice is a remarkable challenge for an athletic department and football team as it is, let alone the additional challenges that COVID and COVID protocols bring combined with limited or "staggered" staff.
Miami is not the only school to face these unique challenges brought to us by 2020, but nevertheless, this is never fun news for anyone involved.
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