In case you haven't heard, the Maryland Athletics department is over 83 Million dollars in debt according to a Washington Post article by Steve Yanda

EIGHTY THREE MILLION DOLLARS

Writes Yanda

At the same time, the athletic department over the past decade made several improvements to facilities used by revenue and non-revenue generating sports. Two of those projects — a new basketball arena and major renovations to the football stadium — largely contribute to the department’s debt, which currently exceeds $83 million.

Holy cow!

In the article Kevin Anderson is noted as saying that in the last few years Maryand has lost 2,000 to 3,000 donors. I'm guessing most are in the less than $1,000 club but that adds up. 

And before anybody goes blaming everything on the renovations keep in mind that the 24 non-revenue sports cost the school in excess of 10 million a year. Yanda cites financial reports stating that from 2005 to 2010 non-revenue sports lost the school $64 million dollars.

For most of us, figures like that just become monopoly money. But for a program on the rise, this is a serious issue.