![]() Student-Athlete Mistreatment under Mark Coyle’s Tenure Bizarrely, as he cut the three men’s sports, and used Title IX balancing as a rationale, the Star Tribune confirmed that at the same time he cut an additional 41 female students from existing teams, thus still leaving Minnesota out of Title IX compliance.However, current Title IX non-compliance was the result of actions by Coyle prior to 2020 as each year, despite the increasing percentage of female undergraduates, he repeatedly made cuts to the overall number of female athletes. In addition to the financial rationale for cutting the sports, Coyle has also said the decision was made to meet the Title IX “balance” requirement between male and female athletes.Supporters of the three sports have fundraised enough to cover the sports for the next year along with presenting alternative funding models to become self-sustainable only to be stonewalled by Coyle.These 3 sports are also the most racially, ethnically and internationally diverse among the “non-revenue” men’s teams. Coyle chose to cut 3 of the 4 least expensive sports on a cost per athlete basis.However, it was revealed that his proposed cuts composed less than 1 percent of the entire athletics budget. Coyle said that the decision to cut the sports was to save money during the pandemic.Coyle refused to appear to defend his decision to cut the three sports. Coyle’s September 2020 decision to cut men’s tennis, men’s gymnastics and men’s indoor track was featured on a Decem60 Minutes as a prime example of how some university athletics departments were using the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse to cut sports that they didn’t want to support during normal times.Unnecessary Sport Cutting and Title IX Mismanagement under Mark Coyle No significant staff reductions or furloughs have taken place beyond the salary cuts mandated for all university employees making over $60,000 a year. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Minnesota Athletics now faces a minimum $70 million deficit and is asking for a bailout from the university to plug the entire budgetary hole. ![]() The project cost $166 million and $44 million was still unraised in February 2020. As of February 2020, Coyle’s Athletics Department had still not raised all the money necessary for its “Athletes Village” facility which opened in 2018.Before the pandemic, 10 percent of departmental expenditures went to servicing outstanding departmental debt caused by facilities upgrades.Revenue increased over this same span due to television rights but nearly all new revenues were spent and, as such, the department saved nothing in a “rainy day” fund. In 2019, they had ballooned to $130 million. ![]()
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