He didn't identify the amount Fresno State pays, or how big a cut the university will seek. The 2008-09 budget lists "conference assessments" at $403,000, but it's not clear whether this expenditure is tied to WAC dues.

The athletic department projected revenues of $25.4 million and expenditures of $25.3 million this school year. The deep recession is hurting revenues; university officials are cutting costs. Still, a university official told the board, athletics is looking at a budget deficit of about $250,000.

And that's assuming the successful implementation of a recently mandated 7% cut in operating expenses for each sport this year, even the fall and winter sports.

Operating expenses include travel, equipment and recruiting. They don't include scholarships and salaries.

Take football, for example. According to the 2008-09 budget, football was to have $1.31 million in operating expenses such as team travel ($757,608), equipment ($190,000) and recruiting ($130,000).

A 7% cut in $1.31 million is more than $91,000. Hard to see where coach Pat Hill is going to find that kind of savings from operational expenses concentrated in the fiscal year's first seven or eight months.

No one at the Athletic Corp. board meeting discussed how the coaches were going to implement these cuts.

However, during the public comment period, former associate athletic director Diane Milutinovich reminded the directors that Title IX, while recognizing the necessity of budget cuts in tough economic times, requires men's and women's sports to share the pain equitably.