On March 20, Eastern Michigan announced it was cutting four sports: softball, women's tennis, men's swimming and diving, and wrestling. This was just days after five EMU student-athletes wrestled in the 2018 NCAA Championships—the most in school history—with sophomore Sa`Derian Perry placing eighth as the first All-American wrestler on campus since Mike Feeney in 1999.

Additionally, six Eagles placed in the top three at the 2018 MAC championship, including 184-pound champion Kayne MacCallum, the school's first conference champ since John McClure in 2009. This was all while the EMU wrestlers were excelling in the classroom, as five members of the team were named to the Academic All-MAC team, the third most in the conference. 

Eagles head coach David Bolyard was also named MAC Coach of the Year, although this occurred after EMU announced it was dropping the program. 

But the Easter Michigan administrators stated that the decision to cut these sports is not about performance, which would be indefensible, but instead about money. The official announcement made this clear, stating:

The action is being taken as part of the University's overall budget restructuring efforts. The move affects 58 male student- athletes and 25 female student-athletes, and once realized an expense reduction of approximately $2.4 million.

However, scrutiny of Eastern Michigan's athletic department finances, which are reported to the NCAA and submitted to the U.S. Department of Educations for compliance with the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act reveal that these assumptions in cost savings the university is making may be faulty. 

According to the 2017 report submitted by EMU, the wrestling program had total expenses of $895,427 (see an excerpt of the relevant section of the 2017 report below).

That would make EMU's 2016-17 wrestling season (from which the numbers for the 2017 report are derived), the most expensive in the history of any of the full-time MAC schools that have wrestling programs (see the last four years of reported financial expenses in the table below).

A closer look at the 2017 EMU report, however, reveals what caused the supposed jump in expenses. Under the category of "Game Expenses," EMU reported the wrestling program of having $292,662, more than any other program on campus, including football (see an excerpt of the relevant section of the 2017 report below).

If that number looks preposterous, it's because it is. 

Eastern Michigan administers recently admitted the error, stating that the true cost of the wrestling programs game expenses was $12,362. That is an error of $280,300 in misattributed expenses to the wrestling team.

According to an article by mlive.com:

Three expenses contributing to the figure should have been counted as expenses for EMU's football, women's basketball and men's basketball, the university said. Those figures are:

• $131,250 for football "bowl assessments"
• $61,450 for women's basketball game officials
• $87,600 for men's basketball game officials

That would also mean that the most recently reported expenses for the wrestling program should have actually been $615,127, which is much closer to the school's historical expenses. 

University officials said that "the report is not used for any internal purpose, including the recent decision to eliminate sports." The university did not comment on why a report to the NCAA for compliance with the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act would be less accurate than one done for internal purposes, nor how three very large expenses for three much more high-profile sports would end up on the ledger for wrestling. 

The corrected numbers do, however, affect the financial impact that cutting softball, women's tennis, men's swimming and diving, and wrestling would have on the university, according to Eastern Michigan accounting professor Howard Bunsis.

Based on analysis by Bunsis, rather than saving $2.4 million, dropping those four sports would only result in saving $218,973 due mainly to a decrease in tuition-paying student-athletes that the university never properly accounted for. However, included in Bunsis' analysis was the erroneous $280,300 in extra wresting game expenses. Once those costs are removed from the analysis, Eastern Michigan would actually lose $61,327 if it eliminated those four sports!

Bunsis' analysis can be found below. 

Despite sound advice to the contrary, Eastern Michigan administrators have stated they are firmly committed to keeping their football program, which they would be required to do if they want to say in the Mid-American Conference. 

Dropping football, or electing to compete at the FCS level instead of the FBS, would lower the status of Eastern Michigan, at least in the opinion of the administrators. And while we have no intention of denigrating the sport of football or the Eagles football team, we also have to ask if it makes sense for EMU to try and compete with four other FBS state schools in Michigan, including two powerhouse Big Ten programs?

President James Smith and the EMU board of regents apparently think so and are moving forward, full speed ahead, on a recently announced new $35 million athletic facility. 

Participating in the inexorably accelerating college football arms race isn't a crime in and of itself. We merely ask that EMU stakeholders take a hard, sober look at the facts and do more to limit the collateral damage.