Bulldogs well in the black and other notes

MSU's athletic department brings in more than $13 million in 2018-19

The ongoing novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic might have athletic departments across the country worried about their current finances, but as for the recent past, Mississippi State has done just fine in that area.

USA Today released its annual report of college finances on Thursday and for the 2018-19 academic year, the Bulldogs had a net profit of more than $13 million. According to the report, MSU's revenue was $112,273,809 with expenses totaling $98,832,615. That's a net gain of $13,441,194 for Mississippi State.

Nationally, MSU's revenue was the 30th-highest in the country. It was 11th in the Southeastern Conference of the 13 SEC schools included in the report, ahead of Ole Miss and Missouri. Vanderbilt, as a private institution, was not included in the rankings.

NCAA releases further guidelines

The NCAA issued its next set of return-to-sport guidelines on Thursday as college athletic departments around the country hope for the best in regards to playing sports this fall. Here is the media release, courtesy of the NCAA:

The NCAA Sport Science Institute has released the Resocialization of Collegiate Sport: Developing Standards for Practice and Competition to extend previous guidance and provide updated recommendations about the protection of athletes and prevention of community spread of COVID-19.

The guidelines are designed to inform schools in responding appropriately based on their specific circumstances and in the best interest of returning college athletes’ health and well-being. Many sports require close, personal contact and require specially crafted guidelines. Among the recommendations put forth:

• Daily self-health checks.
• The appropriate use of face coverings and social distancing during training, competition and outside of athletics.
• Testing strategies for all athletics activities, including pre-season, regular season and post-season.
• Testing and results within 72 hours of competition in high contact risk sports.
• Member schools must adhere to public health standards set by their local communities.

“Any recommendation on a pathway toward a safe return to sport will depend on the national trajectory of COVID-19 spread,” said Brian Hainline, NCAA chief medical officer. “The idea of sport resocialization is predicated on a scenario of reduced or flattened infection rates.”

“When we made the extremely difficult decision to cancel last spring’s championships it was because there was simply no way to conduct them safely,” said NCAA President Mark Emmert. “This document lays out the advice of health care professionals as to how to resume college sports if we can achieve an environment where COVID-19 rates are manageable. Today, sadly, the data point in the wrong direction. If there is to be college sports in the fall, we need to get a much better handle on the pandemic.”

The recommendations were developed in collaboration with the NCAA COVID-19 Advisory Panel, American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM) COVID-19 Working Group, Autonomy-5 Medical Advisory Group, National Medical Association, and NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports Prevention and Performance Subcommittee. The guidance also takes into consideration recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It is the latest update to the initial Core Principles of Resocialization of Collegiate Sport recommendations, providing guidelines and practices that schools should consider as they develop their own mitigation plans. The previously released Action Plan Considerations offered recommendations to help schools mitigate risks of COVID-19 spread as staff and student-athletes return.

For more information on the NCAA’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, visit ncaa.org/covid-19.

Legends come together

Former baseball coach Ron Polk's name is about synonymous with Mississippi State for all the success he had leading the program through the years. Current MSU head football coach Mike Leach is already recognized as one of the country's winningest coaches on the gridiron. On Thursday, the Mississippi State football Twitter account posted a picture of the two men together. 

At Leach's introductory press conference back in January, he noted how he had a copy of Polk's book, Baseball Playbook. The posted photo included Leach and Polk holding it.

Legends@Coach_Leach x @CoachRonPolk #HailState🐶 pic.twitter.com/DyZIojrGEw

— Mississippi State Football (@HailStateFB) July 16, 2020