Letter to Knight Nation: How We Have Managed our 2021 Fiscal Year Budget and Mitigated the Projected Loss to $5M or Less

When COVID-19 shut down the athletics world in March, we as a department immediately began planning and strategizing how best to handle our budget for FY21. As you know, we have worked hard the past five years to build a top-25 Athletics Department. We have posted a winning record in head-to-head sports for three straight athletic years (2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20), something no other school in the country has accomplished. Our excellence in the classroom also continues, as our streak of departmental 3.0+ GPAs has now reached 25 consecutive semesters.
 
While we're very proud of our competitive success and academic success, we're also proud of the fact that we've been able to grow our budget by more than $20M over the past five years. We were entering FY21 with that budget growth mindset, but unfortunately we had to push pause for one year. We didn't want to lose momentum, but we knew we had to mitigate the damage, make decisions during a time of extreme uncertainty and attack the issue. 
 
Here is a breakdown of our approach:
 
--We worked with every sport and administrative unit to cut 10 percent from their projected FY21 budgets. We also set aside additional revenue we expected to receive. In total, we were able to enter FY21 with a $5.14M buffer in anticipation of reduced revenues.
 
--We immediately established hiring and spending freezes and opted not to immediately fill any open positions. Ultimately, we eliminated plans for hiring 32 full-time positions and 40 additional part-time football gameday positions.
 
--We created and launched the Keep Charging On Fund, a one-year initiative to maintain the UCF Athletics momentum, with a goal of raising $2 million. I'm thrilled to report that our UCFAA staff and coaches donated $1M of their salaries to this fund and Knight Nation has donated an additional $540,000. We still have some work to do to reach our $2M goal, but we're pleased with the current contributions.
 
--We conducted a second round of sport and administrative unit budget cuts that led to an additional $2.8M in savings. This savings coupled with our initial round of budget cuts reflect a 20% reduction compared to the FY20 budget.
 
--We strategically paused construction projects of approximately $4.5M.
 
Based on all the mitigating factors listed above, we have already accounted for $10-11M in FY21 budget loss. However, we are projecting a $12.7M loss in revenue and approximately $2M in increased COVID-19 related expenses for a total loss of approximately $14.7M.  Therefore, we currently face a $4-5M budget shortfall this year.
 
I want to thank our student-athletes for their resolve and positive attitude during this unprecedented time. I also want to thank our staff and coaches for their tireless efforts and hard work to keep us headed in the right direction. And, I want to thank you, Knight Nation, for all your support, not only this year but every year.
 
Let's stay safe, stick together and Keep Charging On!
 
Danny White
UCF Vice President and Director of Athletics