Accountability Matters

Back on March 31, I was going through a bit of stretch where I questioned the purpose of this blog when it came to my coverage of university sports. It was a bit of soul-searching on my part in that I had mired in a situation where I called for people to be accountable, but that was turned against me because apparently I was asking too much of those from whom I demanded said accountability. The man to the left is Dr. Chris Howard who has all sorts of accountability problems today that have been exposed by an intrepid report, but we need to answer a simple question before getting to Dr. Howard's inexplicable actions.

Setting The Stage

In that March 31 piece, I asked a simple question: "what do I stand for". I worked through that question as best I could in order to re-affirm my stance in giving exceptional university athletes a small stage upon where they can be honoured, but I noted this paragraph as a reason for writing the blog:

"It's about keeping those who are paid to curate this game honest, and to hold them accountable when they've failed in that duty."

Today's article is all about accountability, and I'm glad someone in Pittsburgh is holding Robert Morris University accountable regarding all aspects of their heartless decision to cut the hockey programs without a single shred of evidence that it was necessary for some long-term vision the university has.

Where Credit Is Due

Before we get into this, I do want to give a shout-out to Jarrod Prugar and Dejan Kovacevic of DK Pittsburgh Sports for digging into the RMU story, and their efforts to get real answers on what went down. If you're not following them on social media, make it happen because they're writing really smart articles that ask tough questions on this RMU debacle.

If you missed the first part of this, Robert Morris University inexplicably cut their hockey programs last Wednesday without warning via this statement they published to their website and sent out as a press release. To say it caught everyone by surprise would be the understatement of the year considering all the success that RMU has had over the past decade in building their men's and women's hockey programs.

If that seems hard to fathom, you're not alone. Staff, students, fans, parents, alumni, sponsors, and media were all blindsided by the news that RMU had decided that cutting the programs was the best way moving forward for the university despite the national recognition the school was receiving from their hockey programs. Something didn't add up.

As I pulled apart the statement on Friday last week, it was clear that this decision was simply based on the university not wanting to upgrade and/or maintain the arena in which the hockey teams played based on the very words the university wrote in the statement itself. Needless to say, the words I chose to describe the decision - "cowardly", "short-sighted", "debacle" - only became more reinforced today thanks to the efforts put in by Prugar and Kovacevic in seeking real answers for what appears to be an extremely stupid decision on the surface.

The New Discoveries

In his article published today, Jarrod Prugar writes,

"The decision was made, per our sources, entirely by Morgan O'Brien, the board's chairman, and Chris Howard, the school president. Those two made the call unilaterally. No prior information was disseminated, and no consensus of any kind was achieved at the time or, for that matter, since. When the information was shared, it occurred over a 10-minute Zoom call in which Howard took no questions from any of participants in the session."

In other words, the statement that RMU put out regarding this entire ordeal was filled with lies and non-truths when it came to how this decision was made and who made it, and any "frequently asked questions" were questions that were neither frequent nor asked.

Further to this, Mr. Prugar sat through a press conference held by Dr. Howard that not only shed more light on the rather villainous way this whole scenario came about, but actually generated more questions than it answered. He writes,

"[S]chool president Chris Howard on Tuesday afternoon confirmed the exclusive reporting of DK Pittsburgh Sports earlier in the day that there was, in fact, no vote conducted by the Board of Trustees.

He claimed, instead, that the Trustees achieved a 'consensus' after the decision had already been made, and he declined to define what 'consensus' meant in this context. Or how many members were canvassed."

What the hell does that even mean, you ask? Well, Howard tried to explain what consensus meant in this situation, and it's almost like he has no clue what the definition of the word is. Again, Prugar quotes Howard in writing,

"It's one of those sort of, for lack of a better word, is a bit of a straw poll that you start off with, and you give everybody an opportunity to speak up. Then, you reflect on that it's pretty obvious for those of us that have been in board rooms when I just want to make this clear... how painfully difficult people said that, yes, we think this is the right way to go forward. But nonetheless, we do think this is the way to go forward."

Let me be very clear here: not one word in his winding and pointless explanation had anything to do with consensus at all. Let's break this down point-by-point to prove that Dr. Howard literally avoided any accountability with the verbal diarrhea he spewed above.

• "It's one of those sort of, for lack of a better word, is a bit of a straw poll": a straw poll is an unofficial vote, and he just admitted that there was no vote ever held regarding the dissolution of the hockey programs, so this is a bald-faced lie. Who did he canvass in this poll if he didn't talk to the Board of Trustees?
• "... you give everybody an opportunity to speak up": we know this is a lie too since no one got to voice their opinions on this decision outside of two men who decided this for everything. Not one person - Trustee, player, staff member, or athletics director - was given that opportunity, so he's simply doubling-down on his own massive lie.
• "... you reflect on that it's pretty obvious for those of us that have been in board rooms when I just want to make this clear... how painfully difficult people said that, yes, we think this is the right way to go forward: again, he already admitted out loud that this never happened, so this is yet another bald-faced lie as he continues to pile the lies up like he bought them at a clearance sale.
• "... we do think this is the way to go forward: the only way this is a true statement is if he's referencing himself and Morgan O'Brien solely as "we". If he's referencing anyone else, this too is a whopper of a lie considering he admitted that no vote or consultation was done with anyone else.

Home Ownership 101

With Howard sporting an oh-fer-four on that explanation, he turned his attention to the costs of running the program and the arena at RMU Island Sports Center. Prugar writes,

"Howard cited lack of ticket sales, facility upgrades and the expenses accrued by the programs as the reasons behind the decision. He called the program Robert Morris' most expensive, estimating an annual cost of $1 million. He added that the program would've needed 'approximately $5 to $13 million for facility upgrades,' as well as '$10 million to $25 million to cover long-term operating costs and facility upgrades.'"

Before we blow up this lie built on other lies, I'm going to focus on the infrastructure costs that Dr. Howard cited.

The thing about owning any building - house, arena, shed, a hallowed post-secondary institution - is that maintenance is always required, and those repairs cost money. That's a pretty simple concept, but it seems that RMU believes that investing that money into the arena maintenance at RMU Island Sports Center isn't necessary. It seems that Dr. Howard has very little experience with owning anything if he believes there will never be maintenance costs needed for anything.

If we're talking about renovations and upgrades, it should surprise no one that the cost to renovate or upgrade anything on a home, building, or arena is going to require a signficant investment of money. Again, I don't know what kind of experience Dr. Howard has when it comes to simple budgeting or economics, but this isn't some new development since COVID-19 began.

The thing that I don't understand is that the university stated in its original announcement that they had been raising money for their "RMU 100: Ready to Rise campaign", and that they had already surpassed their goal of $100 million by $8 million. If the goal to complete whatever projects and initiatives at RMU was $100 million, that $8 million could technically be used to complete the needed "$5 to $13 million for facility upgrades" quite nicely.

If the upgrades were completed, perhaps more people will come to watch the RMU Colonials compete, thereby upping ticket sales and generating some additional revenue. No fans ever enjoy going to a decrepit arena to watch hockey. They want clean, new facilities with updated amenities when watching their favorite teams, so asking fans to shell out money in a tiny, cold arena with zero amenities to enjoy. Investing in the arena would have been a good idea if they wanted to drive revenue streams, but that's no longer an option.

Where the other "$10 million to $25 million to cover long-term operating costs and facility upgrades" comes from in terms of the math is anyone's guess, but those upgrades could entice more people to the arena which could generate some income to help cover those costs. We already know that RMU Island Sports Center will continue to be open to the public with the arena offering public skating for a nominal fee. The arena also hosts a pile of clubs and teams which includes the RMU ISC Figure Skating Academy, Divisions 1, 3 and 4 club hockey teams, and local high school teams, so it seems that RMU simply wants to collect fees from the public rather than trying to support 55 students who are paying RMU money to attend school.

That seems considerably wrong, no?

The Numbers Game

When Dr. Howard stated that hockey was "Robert Morris' most expensive, estimating an annual cost of $1 million," this lie was one that I don't think he assumed anyone would verify. We know hockey is an expensive game to play, so I assume he was trying to sell the myth to those that were listening.

Again, Jarrod Prugar was all over this claim, and he posted the financial information on his Twitter account earlier today.

You're free to click that image to read those numbers closer, but I want to point out that the two columns are broken into male and female sports with male sports on the left and female sports on the right. I should note that these figures do not include scholarship costs for the school, but we're talking about "the most expensive" sport. I ask that you pay close attention to three numbers on this sheet: "Operating Expenses Per Participant", "By Team", and "Operating Expenses".

We'll focus on the Operating Expenses numbers first because they blow a massive hole in Dr. Howard's story. As per this sheet that Mr. Prugar pulled from public Equity in Athletics Data Analysis website, hockey cost RMU $382,996 for the 2019-20 season which saw the men's team cost $208,103 while the women's team cost $174,893. That seems far less than $1 million, but perhaps there is some $617,000 in scholarship money not accounted for that went to the 55 students who played hockey. It's possible.

However, I need to draw your attention to the $623,180 that basketball cost RMU with the men's basketball team costing $384,495 (more than both hockey teams combined!) while the the women's basketball team cost the school $238,685 (more than the 29-member men's hockey team!). If basketball has already rung up a bill of $623,000, does that mean that their scholarship monies for the 28 players playing basketball totalled less than $377,000?

Perhaps more accurately, did hockey players earn an average scholarship of $11,218.18 while basketball players earned an average scholarship of $13,464.29 assuming that $1 million was the break point for the university? Even if the 28 players were offered the same scholarship monies as the hockey players were, that would push the total cost for basketball to $937,289.04 for the season. Yes, it's less than $1 million, but we're really splitting hairs here.

According to College Factual's numbers, athletic scholarships at Robert Morris University average around "$18,125 per athlete", and they break it down further by gender, citing that men receive scholarships at an average amount of $19,326 while women receive average scholarships around $16,957. In other words, RMU spends almost $1 million on scholarships for its hockey teams alone assuming that every player received a full scholarship to attend the school. If RMU wants to attract talent, they do need to offer scholarships to entice students to go there, so this is one of those necessary costs that ensures that the RMU Colonials are competitive in Division-I hockey. And they were.

If we factor in that average scholarship amount of $18,125 for each athlete, the two hockey programs cost RMU a total of $1,379,871 while the two basketball programs cost RMU a total of $1,130,680 - a difference of $249,191! Again, are we really splitting hairs over a quarter of a million dollars between two athletic programs that have both competed at national championships?

The Final Tally

It's hard to find any truth in anything that Robert Morris University President Dr. Chris Howard has stated today, let alone providing any solid reason or justification for the decision to cut the hockey programs. The fact that Dr. Howard seemingly made this decision on his own without discussing it with the Board of Trustees or any of the stakeholders seems to indicate that he's more interested in improving the university's bottom line rather than improving campus life and the careers of 55 students and a number of staff members.

Today was nothing more than a man doubling-down on lies with more lies in an effort to rationalize the decision made, and, if I make speak candidly, Dr. Howard comes off looking like an utter fool. What's worse is that Dr. Howard's actions have permanently stained the reputation of Robert Morris University, and that stain won't wash off any time soon.

For a man whose resumé includes serving his country as a now-retired Air Force Reserve lieutenant colonel who earned a Bronze Star for service in Afghanistan, being named a Rhodes Scholar, and working for companies like General Electric and Bristol-Myers Squibb, we can add one additional title to his credentials that he's earned over the last week.

That title? "Disgraced liar".

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!