On Eve of NCAA Meeting, College Sports Wrestles With Vexing Questions

On Eve of NCAA Meeting, College Sports Wrestles With Vexing Questions 1

Jeff Gross, Getty Images

Although many colleges have had to cut back their athletics budgets drastically, that was not the case for the two universities whose teams competed in the national-championship game, played this month in the Rose Bowl, the University of Alabama and the University of Texas.

What a difference a year makes.

When leaders of the nation's biggest athletics programs last met as a group, one year ago, the scope of the economy's malaise was still unknown. This week, as officials gather again for the NCAA's annual meeting, in Atlanta, they do so under starkly different circumstances.

Few athletics departments have escaped the recession's chill: Midyear state budget cuts and a slowdown in key revenue streams have combined to create a special kind of pain.

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