SALT LAKE CITY — Utah athletics director Mark Harlan acknowledged that approximately $8 million has been trimmed from the department’s operating budget as the world’s coronavirus pandemic continues.
“We have done some considerable operational cutbacks to the organization, real proud of our department heads and also our head coaches for really digging deep and looking at this year with different lenses based on what we’re all up against,” Harlan said. “That drill took out about $8 million of our budget. Our budget does contemplate six home (football) games with limited fans. So even with those cuts we wanted to get that in there. We know things can maybe have to go deeper based on the upcoming situation with football and other sports. But as we go into this, we made those kind of cuts.
“I will say, without getting too specific, it’s fair to say our top earners in the department have agreed to take salary cuts and I’m very appreciative of the individuals that have done that,” Harlan said. “That’s specific to Larry (Krystkowiak), Kyle (Whittingham) and myself. I can confirm that we had done that.”
The Pac-12 announced later in the day that football, soccer and women’s volleyball would schedule conference-only games this fall. All mandatory athletic activities are being delayed until health and safety indicators provide sufficient positive data.
Harlan emphasized that Utah’s budget cuts won’t get in the way of the academic success of student-athletes or competitive success.
“We are one team, we are one athletic department and we need to all work to get through this together,” Harlan said. According to a USA Today report on NCAA coaches, Whittingham’s annual compensation of $4,002,917 ranks 27th in football. Krystkowiak’s $3,762,876 salary is 14th overall in men’s basketball.