Suggestions and Guidelines for Athletics and physical education

1. Athletics and physical education, as conducted in educational institutions, should contribute to the development of students. Educational funds should support such programs. Education funds come from many sources, both public and private.

Where sincerity, honesty, and ethical considerations hold sway and where the programs are designed and conducted to achieve educational goals, they have tremendous opportunities to contribute to the growth and maturation of students intellectually, physically, socially, and spiritually.

2. Those who furnish money for any enterprise have the right to know how it is spent. Directors of physical education and or athletics should not try to withhold from the students, faculty, or the media the details of budget allocations for their activities. By the same token, taxpayers have the right to know how governmental moneys are expended.

3. Funds for athletics should be budgeted and accounted for in essentially the same manner as moneys for other educational programs of the institution.

4. Financial mismanagement has caused many administrators to be severely censored or even dismissed. Meticulous care in the management of funds is an effective way to enhance the confidence others have in a director. Sound business practices in all aspects of financial management should be the rule.

5. Discretionary funds made available to and in the control of the director of physical education and athletics will lend flexibility to the operation and can enhance the public relations efforts of the departmental staff members.

6. An annual report of all activities of the physical education and athletic department together with a financial statement will do much to interpret the program to superiors and to others who are interested or involved. Such a report should be concise, descriptive, and objective.

7. The relationship between the objectives of the instructional program and the budget should be reflected in the control system.

8. The formulation and administration of a budget is a cooperative effort. All staff members should accept this concept and be prepared to assist in any way possible.

9. All financial aid to athletes, except that which comes from the student’s family, should be administered under the same regulations and the same procedures that apply to all other students.

10. All scholarship awards to students should be accompanied by a statement in writing setting down the conditions of the award. The institution and the student should be held accountable for adhering to those conditions.

11. Forthrightness and honesty in budget proposals is the most effective in the long run. “Padding” will soon be detected by an alert controller and may result in exaggerated “cutting.”

12. The amount of “outside” or non-institutional funding of athletics is usually positively correlated with the amount of control the donors expect to have. The greater the portion of outside funding, the greater the pressure for control by people and groups outside the institution.

13. When “cost analysis” is used as a basis for the allocation of funds, care must be taken to analyse all factors. Cost per student or cost per credit can never be exactly the same for all subjects.

Chemistry costs more than English; biology is more expensive than history; physical education and athletics are more expensive than some other subjects. If an educational program is worth offering at all, it is worth what a good one costs.

14. Budget proposals should be based in part on an inventory of equipment. Both the quality and the quantity on hand should be taken into account.

15. Estimates of budget needs should not be based on the number of students currently enrolled but on the best possible projection of the student enrolment for the next year.

16. The budget should be neither too rigid nor too flexible. The future can never be predicted accurately therefore the need for some flexibility. A budget with no restricting features is, obviously, worthless therefore a detailed “spelling out” of items and costs is called for.

17. The financial operations and implications about all aspects of recruitment and financial aid to student- athletes are complex and far reaching.

Those who coach and/or administer interscholastic or intercollegiate athletics should become thoroughly familiar with the rules and regulations of the National Federation of State High School Associations, the NCAA Manual, and the regulations of NA1A, the AAU, and the Olympic Games.

Coaches and athletic directors should be able to give sound and dependable advice to high school and college athletes about their future careers, particularly if a career in athletics is involved.

18. When an administrator feels that a request for a capital items is definitely worth while and supported by sound rationale and the request is denied, every effort should be made to appeal the verdict and/or to repeat the request at subsequent budget presentations. A good motto in such situations is “persist, persist, and persist!”

19. When a large and expensive item is needed a set of roll-away bleachers, for example an administrator should not be content with merely submitting a written request. This should be supported by personal conferences with key personnel who make decisions about financial matters.