by By ANDY BAGGOT abaggot@madison.com 608-252-6175 , Wisconsin State Journal

"I don't go to any function - I don't care if it's national, Big Ten (Conference), local - and everyone's talking about the same thing," Alvarez said. "How you going to deal with the economy? How you going to deal with all this stuff? What are your answers?"

UW is in better shape than the majority of NCAA Division I athletic departments. It finished the 2008-09 school year with a nominal budget surplus. It has approximately $30 million in reserve. UW had revenues of just more than $82 million, which puts it among the most profitable college sports programs in the country.

Thanks to national titles by women's hockey and women's lightweight rowing, UW extended its streak of having at least one national team champion to six years.

UW was the only school to have six sports rank among the top 15 in per-game attendance in 2008-09: men's and women's hockey were first; volleyball was third; men's basketball was sixth; football and women's basketball were 15th.

Just as notable is the fact UW student-athletes set a record for cumulative grade-point average at just over 3.0.

Meanwhile, UW athletics continues to move forward on two major capital projects: a competition arena for men's and women's hockey and an academic performance center.

But ominous clouds have appeared on the horizon.

The 2009-10 operating budget of $83.326 million was built around cutbacks - salary holds and 5 percent reductions in support department budgets - as well as the elimination of traditional products like media guides to save money.

For the second straight year, the cost of season tickets for the three major revenue sports - football, men's basketball and men's hockey - stayed the same.

Football, which generated $17 million in ticket revenue last season, has seen its victory total decline during the Bielema Era (12 in 2006, 9 in '07, 7 in '08) and there are concerns that trend won't be reversed in 2009.

Meanwhile, due to a $6 billion deficit in the state budget, the roughly 330 employees of the UW Athletic Department must take eight furlough days in each of the next two years.

Earlier this week, Alvarez, the former Badgers football coach, addressed questions about the just completed 2008-09 school year and looked ahead to his fourth full year as UW athletic director. An edited transcript is presented here: WSJ: Do you think you've survived the worst?

Alvarez: "I don't know. I'm worried about next year. Some people that made (financial) commitments stuck with it (in 2008-09). You have another year like this and, again, everything we do is on discretionary money. People may not have options.

"If the economy stays at it is for another year, it'll be more difficult next year."

WSJ: A couple of years ago, you were asked about the pressures of being a football coach versus those of being AD. You said there was no comparison; that being a coach was much tougher. Has that dynamic change at all given the challenges of the last year?

Alvarez: "No. You have concerns as an athletic director, but I can't say I stay up at night stressed. My phone rings at 10 o'clock or 10:30 I'm not near as rattled as I used to be. You don't get graded every Saturday or during recruiting or whatever. There's nothing like the stress of coaching. Until you've been there, you don't understand."

WSJ: Where has the economy been felt the most? Is it simply gift funds?

Alvarez: "No, gift funds have been good."

WSJ: Where has the impact been felt most then. Morale?

Alvarez: "I think morale's going to be an issue with the furloughs. There's a lot of questions out there. We really have some issues with that. People take furloughs and we still have to get the job done. We have an issue with overtime now. It may end up costing us more money."

WSJ: Do you think you'll have to cut staff?

Alvarez: "I hope not. ... I'm trying not to do that. We'll absorb whatever we can. As long as this economy is like this, we'll absorb things and give people more duties."

WSJ: You had a 96 percent renewal rate for general public season football tickets. Under the circumstances, were you surprised?

Alvarez: "I was pleased."

WSJ: I know you were pleased. But were you surprised?

Alvarez: "I thought we would be low 90s. I thought maybe 92, maybe 93. I was hoping it would be somewhere in that area."

WSJ: What was the trigger mechanism? Loyalty? What?

Alvarez: "I think once you've paid (into the Badger Fund) and located your seat and worked your way in, you don't want to start from scratch.

"Yeah, we lost some tough ballgames last year. Yet, when's the last time we ever took the field that you didn't think we had a chance to win? People forget about that. There's a lot of great programs with much more tradition than we have that have had down swings. We're not immune to that. And that's a seven-win season.

"So our people know every time they come (to Camp Randall Stadium) they feel like we can win. They see competitive games. It's still fun to come to. It's still happening."

WSJ: On a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the best, how confident are you that the football program is headed in the right direction?

Alvarez: "I think that's an unfair question. You never know in football. That's why you had so much stress as a football coach. The Rose Bowl years I'd go in there thinking we're pretty good, but there's just too many things that can happen, too many unknowns.

"I feel good about Bret. I feel good about how (Bielema and his assistant coaches) recruit. I watch practice. I see what they're doing. I think they're doing things the right way."

WSJ: So you're seeing the signs you want to see?

Alvarez: "It's easy to sit back and say, 'They won 12, they won nine, they won seven. That's not the direction we want to go, but sometimes that happens.

"It all remains to be seen. You have new people coming in. Let's see how the recruiting goes. I watch all the recruits. I see the tape on those kids. I'd take 'em, too. I feel we're on track."

WSJ: Obviously, football is a major revenue component to the athletic department budget. How big of a year is this when you factor in declining wins and the economy? Is this one of the biggest years ever for Wisconsin athletics?

Alvarez: "I wouldn't say that. I know we'll be competitive. We'll see what happens, but I wouldn't go that far. I think you guys (in the media) will try to paint that picture all along. I don't necessarily agree."

WSJ: Five years from now, what are the chances the Big Ten will have expanded to 12 teams?

Alvarez: "I don't think there's a guy in the Big Ten - including the commissioner (Jim Delany) - that doesn't want expansion. But it has to be the right school, a school that has the same philosophy as the rest of the Big Ten. It has to be the right fit. And they have to want to come.

"I don't know. The chances? You'd like to say 50-50. I'd like to say 90-10. But I can't. We talked about it at our last (Big Ten) meeting. There's nothing out there. There's nothing to talk about."

WSJ: Five years from now, what are the chances of another sport being added?

Alvarez: "Not much. The reason I say, you've got 23 sports and you'd like to allow them to compete at a high level. You don't know what the economy is. You see people cutting sports now; we went through it here. I don't want to have to go through that.

"It's not one sport (that would have to be added). It would probably be two and maybe three. Adding one and it would probably have to be a women's sport.

"Right now, I don't think it's the time to be thinking about (adding sports)."

WSJ: Your thoughts on the WCHA men's league adding Bemidji State and Nebraska-Omha for the 2010-11 season?

Alvarez: "I think it made sense because I think hockey has to regionalize. ... Those two schools made sense."

WSJ: The vote was 9-0 with one abstention due to issues about the expansion process. Did Wisconsin abstain?

Alvarez: "No."

WSJ: Do you use Twitter? Do you tweet?

Alvarez: "No." (laughs).

WSJ: Bret does. Would you allow him to tweet from the sidelines during a game?

Alvarez: "Yeah. If he thinks that'll help him in recruiting and it doesn't affect how he's going to coach. I don't know how you'd do it, though."

WSJ: Can you believe it's been 10 years since Ron Dayne won the Heisman and the high of winning another Big Ten title and Rose Bowl?

Alvarez: "That was a pretty good run and I don't know if we ever really enjoyed it like you'd want to enjoy it. That's the sad thing about going through a year like that."

WSJ: You didn't enjoy it?

Alvarez: "You enjoy winning, but you're worried about winning the next game. You're worried about whatever - recruiting, whatever - and you never sit back.

"Ten years later, you sit back and say, 'Wow, that was a hell of a ride.' You're so busy and you're so consumed with what's going on, you really don't kick back and enjoy it.

"I never really enjoyed it like I should. I look back on it now. ... (wife) Cindy and I sat up until 12:30 a couple weeks ago watching one of the Rose Bowl games (on the Big Ten Network)."

WSJ: What's going through your mind at a moment like that?

Alvarez: "I know what's going to happen next and I can't wait to see it."

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