The University of Tulsa may be dealing with budget cuts, but some at the university are doing everything they can in hopes that student-athletes won’t see a reduction in services.
According to TU Sports Extra, TU athletic director Derrick Gragg, Hurricane football coach Philip Montgomery and men’s basketball coach Frank Haith have all accepted pay cuts in an effort to ease recent budget woes.
"Basically, the budget reductions to me are a microcosm of what’s going on, not just at TU but across the country at a lot of different places,” Gragg said. “We’re like a lot of other athletic departments — we’ve been asked to tighten our belt. We approached it with a combination of things. We did have some budget reductions. We did have some head-coaching salary reductions. My salary has been reduced the past three years. That’s the way we’ve dealt with some of that. You don’t want to negatively impact the student-athletes in any way.”
Gragg agreed to a $1.3 million in annual compensation back in 2014. Gragg did not specify the exact amount that salaries would be cut.
As TU struggles to adjust its operations, Gragg said it has restructured its ticket operation, and the school’s relationship with Adidas and its media deal with Learfield has been “enhanced.”
TU schedules high-profile road games against Power Five opponents that bring in revenue for the school. At Michigan State in 2019, TU will get $1.2 million. At Oklahoma State in 2021, TU will get $650,000. At Ohio State in 2021, TU will get $1.1 million. At Ole Miss in 2022, TU will get $1.45 million.
