Sports sponsorship: The University of New Hampshire has reorganized its athletics department and instituted a fund-raising plan to address what the school calls “an immediate and significant budget deficit.” Director of Athletics Marty Scarano said the reorganization saves the athletics department about $500,000, but that “we need to begin to raise another $500,000 in individual gifts and corporate sponsorships starting tomorrow. Private and corporate support is critical to the future of UNH athletics.” Scarano projected that the school’s athletics department could have a $5 million accumulated deficit within four years if it did not immediately restructure. Immediate changes include increases in student athletics fees and the elimination or change in status of four varsity sports: men’s and women’s tennis, men’s swimming and diving, and women’s rowing, effective in September 2006. Each of those sports has the option to become a club sport, though the reclassification does not carry any scholarship support. In addition, the roster size of the men’s skiing team will be reduced from 27 to 12. If fund-raising goals are not met, Scarano warned he could announce more cuts in three years. “If I could convert student-athlete enthusiasm, commitment and success to dollars, I would not be standing here today,” he said. “We would be one of the wealthiest athletics departments in the country ... The future of Division I sports in the U.S. depends on private support. Our students and the general fund are carrying the operational burden of athletics, and we need individual and corporate donors to step up.”

Milestones: University of Texas at Austin women’s basketball coach Jody Conradt moved into the No. 2 position on the all-time wins list, men or women, when her Longhorns beat Oklahoma State University January 28. The 60-46 win gave Conradt 880 victories, one ahead of retired men’s coach Dean Smith of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Conradt’s 36-year record stood at 880-285 after the win. She trails only Pat Summitt at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, on the all-time wins list ... University of Georgia women’s basketball coach Andy Landers won his 650th game February 2 in a 91-57 victory over the University of Kentucky. Landers is the eighth women’s coach to reach the milestone and only the second to do it at one school (Tennessee’s Summitt is the other) ... Fairfield University women’s basketball head coach Dianne Nolan became the 28th coach to win 500 career games when her team defeated Rider University, 68-53, January 29. The five-time Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference coach of the year began her career in 1974 with St. Francis University (New York) before joining Fairfield for the 1979-80 season. She has led the Stags to four NCAA tournaments, including the school’s first berth in 2000-01. Fairfield celebrated Nolan’s milestone by giving away 1,500 tickets to the February 11 home game against Canisius College.  Five hundred were made available to the campus community, 500 more to students, and 500 to alumni, season ticket holders and other groups.

Miscellaneous: The North Carolina State University Student-Athlete Advisory Committee unanimously voted to donate its $15,000 from the NCAA Student-Athlete Opportunity Fund to the University of Southern Mississippi’s share of the fund to assist student-athletes affected by Hurricane Katrina. “The generosity of the North Carolina State student-athletes is overwhelming,” said Southern Mississippi Athletics Director Richard Giannini. “I give a lot of credit to them for seeing students from another school in need and unanimously voting to give money that is in place to benefit them.” Giannini also thanked North Carolina State Associate Athletics Director for Compliance Jon Fagg. “He recognized that our own funds would be quickly depleted helping our student-athletes, and with his support, this generous gift was made,” Giannini said. “We hated that Southern Miss and its student-athletes had to go through Hurricane Katrina and everything associated with it,” Fagg said. “We are excited that our student-athletes voted unanimously to take it upon themselves to reach out and help in the manner in which they did. There wasn’t a question about it; they were thrilled to do it. We played Southern Miss on the football field last fall and decided they would be the ones that would benefit from the gift. We are just hoping that this will catch on among more schools.” When Hurricane Katrina hit Hattiesburg, the Gulf Coast and New Orleans last fall, the Southern Mississippi campuses on the Gulf Coast and in Hattiesburg sustained more than $300 million in damage, and more than half of the school’s student-athlete population was from the declared disaster areas. “The most wonderful part about this is that our athletes decided to do it on their own,” said North Carolina State Director of Athletics Lee Fowler. “Nobody asked them to do that. Credit it all to the student athletes. It is money they get through the NCAA and they decided to give it to Southern Miss. What better feeling can you have than given something to someone who is in a tough situation? Our student-athletes did that.”