Small athletics budgets makes NCAA Division I play a challenge

ITTA BENA, Mississippi -- When a leak appeared in Mississippi Valley State's gym roof and warped the floor, basketball practice became impossible just as the 2010-11 season was getting under way.

The displaced Delta Devils — who had made the NCAA men's basketball tournament three years before — loaded into vans to practice at a middle school 20 minutes away.

It took four months to find money to repair the floor. Meanwhile, the Devils embarked upon an early-season schedule that included several of the nation's top hoops schools: Indiana, Butler, Kentucky, Marquette. They lost all four of those games (and many others), but it was enough to earn $800,000 in guarantees. And more than enough for a new floor.

"We are the lowest in the totem pole in resources and finances," says Sean Woods, the departing men's basketball coach at the 2,000-student school two hours north of Jackson, Miss. "We can't compare to anyone else in the country."

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