When determining their schedules, coaches have more to worry about than which competitor fits their team best. They also have to work within their budget, which can lead to hard decisions and sometimes fewer long-distance trips.
Travel costs are the third largest part of the athletic department's budget, behind student grant-in-aid and salaries and benefits, Ken Brown, deputy athletics director, said.
While the University of Texas probably isn't worried about the cost of flying to Nebraska this year, the Ball State University athletic department is constantly thinking about travel costs, Brown said.
"It's a problem, but it's like anything else, you try to offset it with revenue and looking at the schedule," he said.
The costs are high, and they gradually increase every year. During the 2005-2006 seasons, Ball State spent $1,125,291 on team travel, according to information in the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act report.
Football led all 17 sports, spending $337,170 on travel, which included a more than normal three chartered flights to the University of Iowa, Boston College University and Auburn University. The swimming programs spent the lowest amount, with the men's team spending $16,692 and the women's team spending $16,816.
Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Tom Collins said travel expenses like gas and hotels costs are something the department cannot control, but the department can think carefully about how it spends the money.
"It's just a planning process," he said.
Each coach receives a budgeted amount to spend on operating expenses like team travel, and they can decide how to divide that money, Brown said.
Each team is locked into its conference schedule, but often the teams have to evaluate non-conference schedules and ask how far away it is economical to go, Brown said.
"Our coaches do a really good job of trying to look at that and keeping the costs down as much as possible," he said.
Co-coach of the men's and women's swimming and diving teams Bob Thomas said travel expenses are low for swimming because competition is within easy reach and long-distance trips are uncommon.
On the other hand, coach of the men's tennis team Bill Richards said it's difficult to schedule trips within his travel budget.
"You have to be a magician," he said.
Playing in the Mid-American Conference helps Ball State's bottom line because it can bus to every school but one, the University at Buffalo.
Brown said it scares him to think about the Mountain West Conference and Western Athletic Conference because of all the flights needed to compete.
Howard Hammer, chairman of the University Senate athletics committee and associate professor of business law, said the MAC is very cost effective because it's so condensed.
"The problem with travel is distance and number of people traveling," Hammer said. "So conference affiliation is critical."
While coaches get a set budget from the university, this amount is often not enough to cover expenses, so the coaches supplement this with money they generate from sport camps or money they raise through Cardinal Varsity Club, Brown said.
Collins said coaches constantly work to get donors for their sports and find ways to use that money wisely.
In the end, an extra donation could be the difference in a team scheduling travel on the West Coast instead of the Midwest.
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