Tim Benz: Robert Morris hockey teams need clarity from administration, not an NCAA extension
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For the Robert Morris University hockey teams, this was a weekend where no news wasn’t necessarily good news.
Robert Morris had previously put a fundraising deadline of July 31 as the end date for the men’s and women’s hockey programs to generate enough funds to keep their programs alive.
This after the school decided to cut both teams from the athletic department in an unforeseen move back on May 26.
A coalition of players then sought legal counsel from renowned sports attorney Jeffrey Kessler. The prospect of a lawsuit from him — and a second from Ohio attorney Kevin Spellacy — motivated the school to reconsider. On July 14, university brass gave the teams time to show traction toward a fundraising goal of $7 million over five years as way to keep the sport alive on the Moon Township campus.
The 17-day window was in place because the NCAA allegedly needed to know by that date if the school planned to sponsor hockey. A university spokesman told TribLIVE on Saturday, “We have been in communication with the NCAA, which has provided guidance that it would be permissible to reinstate the program after the July 31 deadline.”
Great.
On one hand, that leaves more time for the team to raise money, which, at least from a public standpoint, is now being done in conjunction with the university. The hockey teams’ fundraising arm — the recently created Pittsburgh College Hockey Foundation — was doing most of the heavy lifting in that regard from the outset of fund drive.
Since that July 14 press release, the university has maintained that the teams didn’t need to gather all $7 million in two weeks. According to athletic director Chris King, they simply need to show “a clear path to long-term sustainability.”
Less ominous than $7 million in two weeks, to be sure, but a floating, nebulous threshold to say the least. And now, thanks to a rare example of NCAA leniency and compassion, it appears there is a nebulous, floating deadline as well.
That doesn’t appear to be a coincidence on the administration’s part. University President Dr. Chris Howard and the school’s board have already tried to cut hockey once. In their preferred world, the teams and this situation would just go away quietly.
Only the threat of action from a lawyer — who is the legal equivalent of Michael Jordan in a slam dunk contest against a bunch of Smurfs — is preventing that from occurring.
It appears the university is trying to stall the hockey teams to a point of no return. The longer the “window of fundraising” is kept open, the longer uncertainty exists; the greater amount of players transfer away and fewer are willing to transfer to RMU; and the longer coaches have to wait to begin recruiting again. That’s not to mention the increased pressure from opposing schools — and conferences — that want to know whether Robert Morris will actually have a team.
A few extra days or weeks may aid fundraising efforts, but not as much as they will hamper the teams’ abilities to be competitive for 2021-22.
Howard and the board are acutely aware of that. They are also acutely aware that if the PCHF chooses to channel some of the funds raised toward paying lawyers for legal action, that’s even less money in the coffers to keep the teams on the ice.
Both sides are being tight-lipped about how much money has been raised. The PCHF website merely says in excess of $500,000, a numbers it hasn’t updated in weeks. One source who has pledged money to the cause claims to be aware of roughly $1.5 million in donations. Based on an average of $7 million over five years, that’s enough to keep the teams afloat for this year.
Depending on the accounting, of course. If the university says that pledge amount is to be spread over five years, then it is just a drop in the bucket.
The problem is, according to that same source, some potential lucrative donations are sitting on the vine because there’s no assurance teams will actually exist in 2021, let alone four years from now.
In the end, here’s where all of this stands. From a university point of view, Howard and the board can keep running this four-corners-offense approach of stalling out the teams to the point that rosters and coaching staffs don’t even exist anymore, in hopes that there won’t be enough of a squad left to care.
Or they can reinstate the teams for at least 2021-22 and let the groups fundraise as actual living, breathing entities for one more year. Thus, avoiding a lawsuit in the process, a lawsuit based on what we know thus far might be tough for RMU to fight. And that’s before any additional details of how the university handled its decision-making process to eliminate hockey come out.
From the perspective of the teams and the PCHF, they have to decide how much longer they are willing to wait before eliminating their fundraising partnership with the university, assume a more adversarial posture and potentially sap whatever financial strides they have made by sinking good money into ugly legal action.
In hockey terms, both sides need to figure out if they want to keep skating or drop the gloves. And we are well into the third period of play.