After Arizona athletic director Dave Heeke forecasted a $7.5 million pandemic-related deficit last spring through the end of 2019-20, coach and staff salary reductions mitigated about half of it.
That isn't going to cut it this time. Not even close.
The Pac-12’s decision to postpone all sports competition until at least January meant the fiscal bus-driver of college sports, football, will be heading off a cliff in 2020-21. Even if the sport manages some sort of spring season, the money likely won’t be the same.
At Arizona, football brought in $43.3 million — or about 42% of the athletic department’s annual revenue — in the 2018-19 fiscal year, according to the latest available U.