Senate majority leader Raggio worried about athletic scholarship spending

Monday, April 11, 2005 | 8:58 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, wants more control over the state money going to provide athletic scholarships at UNLV and UNR.

"These are worthwhile programs," Raggio said. "Everybody wants athletics to be a success."

But he told officials of the University and Community College System of Nevada Friday, "This is a blank check."

His statement came at a legislative budget committee in the examination of the spending by UCCSN.

Gov. Kenny Guinn has set aside $6.1 million in the college system budget for two years to make up the loss of revenue when college athletes don't have to pay registration fees and out-of-state tuition.

Raggio, during a meeting of a legislative committee on the budget of UCCSN, said, "This could be a runaway situation."

UNLV and UNR would each receive about $3 million during the next two years. And the Community College of Southern Nevada is ticketed for $233,000 to take care athletic scholarships for its baseball and softball teams.

Referring to CCSN, Raggio said, "They are in jeopardy" of getting the money for the fee waivers for its players.

Cary Groth, athletic director at UNR, told Raggio that the NCAA puts a limit on scholarships at UNLV and UNR.

For instance there are 85 grants-in-aid allowed for football; 13 for men's basketball; 15 for women's basketball and 12 for volleyball.

In addition, Western Nevada Community College in Carson City is asking for money for scholarships for the baseball and soccer teams to start play at the end of this year. It wants $81,290 for scholarships next fiscal year and $82,000 the following year.

These scholarship, said Sen. Bob Coffin, D-Las Vegas, are a good idea. And all the colleges should have sports programs. It instills pride in the community, he said.

Coffin noted that Ryan Moore of UNLV shot a 71 in the opening round of the Masters Tournament that put him ahead of Tiger Woods. Moore finished tied for 13th in the tournament.

The university system, in a report to the legislative budget committee, said there is "a long-standing and well-understood agreement with the Legislature dating back to the 1970s that state funds would not be used to support athletics at community colleges."

The community colleges pay for their athletic programs through private and non-state funds. The fee waiver or scholarship program is viewed as a recruitment and retention tool to provide talented athletes an opportunity to attend college.

The university said, "Strictly speaking, there is no state funds going to athletics, but it is going to students to support their education."

Raggio said the legislative budget committee may set aside a lump sum over which it has control to fund fee waivers, rather than computing it in the general budget based on per pupil costs in the system.

In 2003, the Legislature did not specifically set aside any money for athletic scholarships. But the schools took the money from the per pupil allocation to finance the program.