LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Western Kentucky football players will begin returning to campus June 8, according to Athletic Director Todd Stewart, who said he expects the Hilltoppers' football season to begin as planned Sept. 5 against UT Chattanooga in Bowling Green.
Stewart also said the school had no plans to eliminate any of its 16 athletic programs but that it was likely that the "vast majority" of the 89 employees in the WKU athletic department will have their salaries reduced.
WKU was already operating a "lean" athletic department, Stewart said. The school’s goal was maintain a quality experience for its student athletes without any layoffs in the department, he added.
Stewart, football coach Tyson Helton and men’s basketball coach Rick Stansbury had already agreed to 10% pay cuts, saving the athletic department $172,000. The WKU athletic budget is around $30 million.
Stewart said 65 football players will return in small groups, starting June 8. Remaining football players and athletes playing other sports will follow, starting July 6. The plan is based on government and health guidelines and subject to revision as more information is learned about the novel corona virus pandemic.
"We’ll put protocols in place to protect the vulnerable," Stewart said while addressing the media during a video conference.
WKU's plan is for fall classes to begin Aug. 24.
Stewart said that he believed football season will begin as scheduled with at least some fans allowed in stadiums. WKU is scheduled to play at Louisville Sept. 26 and at Indiana Sept. 12.
"I do feel like we will play football and that we will have fans in the stadium," he said.
Although Stewart was bullish on the likelihood of at least limited fan attendance, he said that playing "under any scenario (including no fans) would be better than not playing."
WKU is already at the minimum for Division I eligibility with only 16 varsity men's and women's sports, so eliminating programs or changing them to club sport status is not an option as a cost-saving measure. Thus Stewart said the salary cuts would be necessary for athletic department employees.
Stewart also said that like other programs in Conference USA, WKU would attempt to reducing costs with strategic scheduling in non-conference games against teams from the Sun Belt and Mid-American Conferences.
Stewart said he has approached Cincinnati, Memphis, Tennessee and Murray State with men's basketball scheduling proposals but none of those four schools were interested.
He said that he wondered if WKU's home basketball victories over Wisconsin (in the 2019 season) and Arkansas (last season) made Power Five programs unwilling to play WKU.
WKU will play one non-conference basketball game that will require a flight - a guarantee trip to Wichita State. The Hilltoppers' other non-league road games will be bus trips to Louisville, Austin Peay and Tennessee Tech. WKU has one game to fill on its 2020-21 schedule.
Copyright 2020 WDRB Media. All rights reserved.
