Tense FAMU trustees meeting amid athletics budget deficit, football coach search

FAMU Athletics' budget shortfall and a stalled head football coach search has caused restlessness among stakeholders, according to discussion at a special meeting of Florida A&M University’s Board of Trustees Tuesday afternoon.

Several comments during the virtual meeting led to a unanimous vote for the athletics department to create a one-page overview of an action plan by Monday that will address the department’s budget gap before moving on to conversations about a multi-year coaching contract.

More from FAMU trustees meeting: FAMU football coach search continues as board approves motions for search firm and committee

FAMU Trustee Kelvin Lawson, who chairs the Board of Trustees' Special Committee on Athletics, took the first step of drawing the board’s attention to the financial status of FAMU Athletics.

“We're currently in a situation where we're rolling with a budget deficit — an unbalanced budget,” Lawson told trustees on the Zoom call, where President Larry Robinson along with Vice President/Director of Athletics Tiffani-Dawn Sykes and other FAMU administrators were seen attending the virtual meeting from the university's Lee Hall conference room.

“We’ve had this knowledge for quite some time,” Lawson added.

The Athletics Department has an $817,000 budgetary shortfall in its 2023-24 operating budget, according to updates from Sykes during a December Board of Trustees meeting. During that meeting, trustees urged Sykes to continue to identify ways of generating revenue because of the budget deficit.

Unease and discontent from FAMU alumni, football players and supporters about the ongoing issues comes after a perceived lack of transparency about the Athletic Department’s budget and the head football coach search process. Sykes was reportedly recommending Division II HBCU Fort Valley State Head Football Coach Shawn Gibbs to step into the position following former FAMU Football Head Coach Willie Simmons’s resignation Jan. 1.

Related news: FAMU National Alumni Association votes 'no confidence' as football coach search hits bumps

More: 'Not a good fit': FAMU Boosters ask AD to suspend football coaching search amid concerns

Simmons has joined Duke University as its football team’s running backs coach after leading the FAMU Rattlers to victory in the Southwestern Athletic Conference and HBCU Celebration Bowl.

While Sykes’s recommendation is no longer on the table — Gibbs recently renewed his agreement with FVSU — she says a head football coach is expected to be named before National Signing Day on Feb. 7.

A search firm will assist Sykes during the process, along with a search committee made up of representatives of the university’s major constituent groups — a recommendation that a majority of board members voted in favor of during Tuesday's meeting.

“This process needs to be highly inclusive, given the magnitude of the position and the importance of this role to our continued athletic success,” Lawson said.

At the same time, Trustee Otis Cliatt reminded the board that bringing on a search firm means spending more money during the department's budget shortfall.

“Demanding a search firm is going to cost additional money, and we need to understand that,” Cliatt said. “Instead, the AD (Sykes) and the stakeholders discussing this and then funneling it up to the president is a different avenue that could be within our budget.”

Board of Trustees Chair Kristin Harper asked if the search process could be accomplished without establishing a search committee, but Vice Chair Deveron Gibbons thinks having a group of university stakeholders involved in the process is the best option.

“If the process had been clean and untainted in the very beginning, we would not be asking for these things,” Gibbons said.

As the search for FAMU’s next head football coach continues, trustees will be waiting for the overview of an athletics action plan about the budget, which is set to be presented to them Monday ahead of their upcoming full board meeting Feb. 5.

Contact Tarah Jean at tjean@tallahassee.com or follow her on X: @tarahjean_.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Athletics budget deficit, football coach search roils FAMU trustees