RMU’s Chris King delves into financial, logistical impact of conference moves
Thursday’s “Breakfast With Benz” podcast features Robert Morris athletic director Chris King. We talk at length about RMU’s move to the Horizon League from the NEC for basketball in 2020 and to the Big South from the NEC for football in 2021.
Like many institutions these days, RMU is dealing with some weighty financial problems.
Particularly in athletics.
But King insists, between NEC buyouts, travel budgets and scholarship needs, this decision will be “budget neutral” for the university.
As he points out, with RMU joining the Horizon League, they are likely to go to geographic divisions in all sports, except basketball. So the savings for those sports versus the basketball travel will be beneficial and potentially a way to reallocate savings elsewhere into the budget.
Especially since the frequent basketball trips to the Midwest in the Horizon League are negligible in difference from the many trips to New England, New York and Maryland in the NEC.
From a Big South perspective, King pointed to hotels in the big Northeast cities being more expensive than what they will see near campuses in smaller towns down south.
“We looked at the financial projections for the next couple of years,” King told me. “The exposure you receive. The brand of the conferences. Those are all in consideration for our operating dollars and our restricted accounts for our future revenue generation. And there’s additional NCAA revenue in 2021 and 2022 that’ll elevate to about a half million dollars in ‘25 and ‘26.
“You are looking at a short period of time when you look at those entrance and exit fees. Those are funds that you utilize to elevate your programs in those two conferences. It becomes a budget-neutral thing over a period of time, and you elevate your teams in a better position — competitive wise.”
King also insists the potential of having multiple postseason bids for football out of the Big South as a factor for that sport.
King and I talk about how the covid-19 pandemic influenced all of these moves as well and how men’s basketball will elevate as it steps up in class.
Plus we investigate changing travel, scholarship balance for football, the 2020 football schedule and upcoming big football guarantee games against the likes of West Virginia.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
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