It is lunchtime somewhere. So, welcome back to the lunch hour read of the Meat & Three. Every weekday I dive into a big picture topic and three things to get you through a quarantine spring.

Today’s column gets serious. Follow the money and right now there isn’t a lot in college sports. What does that mean for athletic departments moving forward? Also, the recruiting ripple effect had some movement on Tuesday night. Our MJ stream of the week continues with a one of the most historic shots in NBA lore and, of course, the Stan Johnson photo of the day. 

THE MEAT: FOLLOW THE MONEY 

Colleges and universities are used to cracking open the textbook. That’s what they do. But now, these institutions and their athletic departments are opening up the ledger and looking deeper into their finances. 

With the worldwide pandemic crippling every line of business, college sports is coming to grips with the harsh realities of what’s on the horizon. 

The University of Cincinnati announced this week that the school will discontinue the men’s soccer program. The reason? 

Athletic director John Cunningham explained and the Cincinnati Enquirer wrote: 

“The financial uncertainty caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic played a role in ending the program, Cunningham said, but it wasn't the only reason. He recently reviewed the long-term budget implications of the athletics department and the decision to cut the men's soccer program was determined late last week. 

Cunningham said the school will not discontinue any other sports programs. 

"The coronavirus kind of allowed me to take a step back and look at the entire picture of our athletics department and what we could manage in terms of the number of student-athletes that we support," Cunningham told The Enquirer in a phone interview Tuesday. "When I did that, it became clear to me that this was a difficult move, but the right move."

You hate to see it but this is a serious issue I've been talking to coaches about for two straight weeks. Athletic departments have some serious decisions to make moving forward, particularly for the non-revenue sports, because of a lack of funds that trickles down from the NCAA’s dispersal of funds from the lucrative TV contract of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. 

If you're at a NCAA school in a non-revenue sport, the sad reality that all of those sports could potentially be facing a similar fate to what we saw with Cincinnati's men's soccer program. Hopefully, it's a short-term thing.

Just follow the money. (Click that link. It’s a great visual as to where the money goes from the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament.) 

From the NCAA: “Division I revenue distribution for 2020 previously was budgeted at approximately $600 million, with the first distribution scheduled for April.” 

However, the budget was adjusted due to the cancellation of the winter and spring NCAA championships. That means the dispersal is now only $225 million. So, who gets impacted by this? The revenue sports won’t as much as their department counterparts because of, well, revenue. 

But with nearly $400 million taken out of the budgets of Division I schools, the revenue sports will be impacted in some way shape or form. 

The money is also shared with Division II and Division III schools. While the money is only allocated to those schools to help fund the budget for their championships only, the loss of money hurts but not as much as the school's overall crushing economic blow of not having students on campus. 

“We are worried about entire schools in our league, not just athletic departments,” one Division III head coach told me. “Schools are could be closing their doors altogether.” 

The coach is absolutely right. Some schools are living like a good majority of Americans - paycheck to paycheck. Some smaller schools need athletics to keep enrollment going. Revenue from tuition, books, day-to-day operations of students being on campus and other revenue verticals are simply cut off during this shutdown. 

Places of higher learning could be out of business come fall 2020. That’s the real issue for small school sports. There won’t be a school for an athlete to return to. 

For schools fortunate enough to have healthy endowments or good cash reserves - at any level - there will be concessions made without a doubt. 

Overnight trips could be cut. Recruiting budgets could shrink. Bonuses, buyouts and other contractual issues could be reworked or done differently moving forward. 

The ripple effect, particularly for the Division II and Division III levels, could be significant for roster management. Take, for example, Division III schools don't allow coaches to have on-campus try-outs. They are only permitted to have something like an elite camp. Schools are looking at holding those in the fall, mostly because of the lack of recruiting opportunities in the spring and summer. 

So, with already limited budgets, coaches may be asking themselves serious financial questions - am I willing to come out of pocket to make that in-season recruiting trip to an open gym, a camp or a high school game? 

But let’s go a step further. What if there aren’t any on-campus classes in the fall and postponing until January 2021? Boston University has announced they are already planning on such an instance. If classes are moved to an online sense and games won’t be played, players not on scholarship could explore cheaper online options for a semester instead of enrolling at the school where they compete as an athlete. 

“I’m not an economist,” said another Division III head coach. “But I may be one this fall because I’m not sure if I’ll be coaching my team. There’s so much to learn and understand. We tell our guys to control what they can control all the time. Now here we are, as a staff, trying to figure out what we control. It’s a strange place to be in.” 

THE NOTE

Recruiting has an amazing way of working sometimes. Decisions come in waves. Sometimes a domino effect is the reason. Other times, it’s a coincidence. 

On Tuesday night, one-time Georgia Southern commit Caleb Byrd popped for UNC Charlotte. The Newton (GA) guard was a nice pick-up for Mark Byington and staff at Southern. The Eagles used scoring guards like him quite well during their tenure in Statesboro. But when Byington took the James Madison job, Byrd decided to open things up. 

And let me tell you - there wasn’t a player from Georgia who demanded more phone calls from college coaches to my cell than Byrd. He was a popular player and the inquiries were active. Byrd picked Charlotte in the end. 

On the same night, Byington and staff picked up an important commitment from Justin Amadi of Dorman (SC). The super athletic forward was one of the best big men available in the South’s 2020 class. Justin Byerly wrote more on the pledge in his Carolina Corner. 

THE STREAM 

The documentary we've all been waiting for is almost here. The Last Dance, a 10-part docuseries, focuses on the 1997-1998 Chicago Bulls. Each episode will be an hour-long and aired on ESPN. 

The series will begin April 19 and run through May 17. 

To ramp up for what should be a terrific run of Michael Jordan and his Bulls teams, we will focus on five of MJ’s most memorable games. Yesterday we shared “The Flu Game” against the Utah Jazz in 1997 of the NBA Finals. 

Today we dive into “The Shot” in 1989 against the Cleveland Cavaliers. The bucket over Craig Ehlo is legendary but let’s give it some context. This was the first round of the Eastern Conference Playoffs. Cleveland won the regular series 6-0 and this game was a slugfest. His memorable shot was the final bucket of a flurry of six lead changes in the final minute. Jordan scored 44 points in this game. 

THE STAN JOHNSON PHOTO OF THE DAY 

I asked our guy Stan Johnson to send me some of his favorite shots from the 2019 season on our HoopSeen platform. We begin his gallery today in the Meat & Three.