With COVID-19 testing to cost at least $1M, how is Georgia Southern paying for it?
Medical expenses are figured into every college athletic department's annual budget, with the figures expected to vary from year to year.
It's hard to predict how many student-athletes will need health care from medications to surgeries to physical therapy and more.
"The traditional costs are obviously a variable but you're always going to have them," Georgia Southern Athletic Director Jared Benko said. "It's planned for, but every year it fluctuates. It's not like budgeting team meals or travel. The medical piece is really a shot at the dartboard."
Because of COVID-19, that dartboard has grown exponentially, and it's a moving target.
Separate from other medical-related expenses, the cost for COVID-19 testing for Georgia Southern student-athletes, coaches, medical and other staff is expected to exceed $1 million for the 2020-21 fiscal year, Benko said last week. Georgia Southern, as a member of the Sun Belt, follows the conference guidelines on coronavirus testing.
"It'll be north of a million," he said, "but how much more than a million is to be determined … with baseball and softball going from three tests to two tests per week per the Sun Belt. That's going to add some cost savings."
Any bit of savings would help in paying for something that previously didn't exist in athletic department budgets.
According to documents provided to the Savannah Morning News after a request through the Georgia Open Records Act, Georgia Southern spent $764,207 on COVID-19 testing based on invoices from Aug. 12, 2020 to Jan. 10, 2021.
The university stated of the 9,392 tests through that January date, 199 were positive, or 2.1%.
Georgia Southern contracted with Macon Occupational Medicine LLC to conduct the tests and report results at a cost of $100 per molecular, antigen or serology antibody test, according to documents provided by the university.
The contract began Aug. 10, 2020 with a date of completion "until further notice." The maximum amount is $1.2 million in the contract provided. The Macon company is to come to the Statesboro campus up to two times a week and administer the testing of up to 400 individuals per week.
Benko described the "surveillance testing" of asymptomatic individuals as well as those who show symptoms through different tests that are varying in price from $100 to $71. Less expensive tests also could figure into the budgeting for coronavirus testing.
Hit from both sides
Having a testing program is one challenge, paying for it is another — compounded by the negative impact coronavirus-related protocols have on revenue streams.
Football is the biggest revenue (and most expensive) sport at GS, an "economic driver" like at other FBS programs, Benko said. This past season, when many programs canceled games because of positive tests, contact tracing and reduced rosters, the Eagles were able to play 13 games, a total matched only by national champion Alabama. GS had seven home contests, but Paulson Stadium was limited to 25% capacity, 6,250 of 25,000 seats.
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"When you have reduced capacity, it's going to impact not only the game but also the bottom line," Benko said. "We're no different from other teams in the country in that it impacted our ticket sales."
One of the scheduled road games would have been lucrative. The Eagles were guaranteed $1.4 million to visit Ole Miss on Nov. 21, but the game was rescheduled for 2024 when Southeastern Conference teams decided to play only conference opponents in regular-season games in 2020.
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With revenue down and expenses up, Georgia Southern has followed a strategy began when Benko assumed the helm of the athletic department last spring, which timed imperfectly with the nationwide shutdown of college athletics.
"Right out of the gate, we've been on, in essence, an essentials-only spending freeze," he said. "We really try to control expenditures — need vs. want — really cut our expenses down, which we have."
Expenses have been reduced in team travel, for example, as the spring sports were sidelined and others have adjusted schedules. The cost of recruiting prospective student-athletes has been pared by the NCAA's ban on in-person recruiting and scouting by coaches, who like those in other professions are spending more time on telephone and video calls during the pandemic.
As for the most drastic cost-cutting measure — eliminating any of Georgia Southern's 17 varsity sports — Benko said that's not being discussed.
"At this point, the conversations of dropping the number of scholarship teams that we sponsor, which is 17, have not taken place," he said. "Our conversations right now are to try to continue to be good stewards of every dollar that's been allocated to us. Our focus is to continue to raise dollars philanthropically through our Erk Russell Fund as well. That's where our focus is."
The CARES Act
In addition to donations from alumni, fans and others supporters into the annual Erk Russell Fund for athletics, the department got a direct infusion of funding from the federal government. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act provided more than $280,000, Benko said, that was approved to fund COVID-19 testing on campus. That money was applied on the front end before Georgia Southern knew the amount of testing and how much it would cost, which is still open-ended.
Benko said a combination of cutting expenses, increasing donations and receiving federal stimulus money will address COVID-related expenses.
"The three of those together, we're going to try to make sure we can cover as many deficits, or as much as we can, before dipping into reserves," Benko said, noting the Athletic Foundation's financial assistance. "You always want to exhaust all options and turn over every stone.
"That would be a potential place we'd look as a backstop."
The financial situation is fluid for the current school year. In the coming months, the athletic department will be determining a budget for the next fiscal year, July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022.
"We're obviously in a different spot than we were last April," Benko said. "We know more now that we did back then relative to understanding the scope of COVID-19."
Benko said he doesn't have "a crystal ball" to predict COVID-19's cost to Georgia Southern athletics for the next year or two. Like the more traditional medical expenses, they will plan for testing knowing that the bottom line will fluctuate.
Nathan Dominitz is the Sports Content Editor of the Savannah Morning News and savannahnow.com. Contact him at ndominitz@gannett.com. Twitter: @NathanDominitz
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