By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

What's worse, that there apparently is another budget deficit in the University of Hawai'i athletic department, or that nobody seems to know how to corral the situation?

With seven weeks left in the fiscal year, Manoa Chancellor Peter Englert said Tuesday, "I think we're looking at a deficit for the athletics department at this point in time."

He didn't look pleased about it, either.

Not that it should be a lightning bolt surprise. For weeks now, rumors have been circulating that more red ink is on the way. The only question has been: How much?

So far, UH officials — the ones who have dared speak, anyway — have maintained they don't have a ballpark figure on the tab. You'd like to think they just don't want to fess up yet. Because it would be really scary if they didn't have a grasp of how much of a shortfall they're looking at.

The expectation of another budget deficit on the heels of two previous fiscal years in the red is damning enough. It raises questions about what kind of spending is being practiced there, and how the checkbook is being handled.

It was one thing to have to go into the piggy bank for 2001-'02, for which the crippling aftermath of Sept. 11 was blamed for a $1.4 million shortfall. The books were balanced on that one by all but emptying the reserve fund, a so-called "rainy day account" built up through previous athletic department surpluses for just such emergencies.

But last fiscal year there was another $1.4 million deficit, this time necessitating a $1 million "loan" from the chancellor's office that is supposed to be paid off over three years.

Now, according to the chancellor, the athletic department is staring at another deficit for the fiscal year that concludes June 30. One that may also necessitate a "loan."

At some point, there is going to have to be a reckoning, and when there is, what shape will it leave the athletes and coaches in?

What should concern UH and its fans — apart from the athletic department borrowing money from the academic side of campus, where there are surely more pressing uses for a million bucks — is that the deficits have come despite good years in the sports that have traditionally paid the freight.

Football has gone 9-3, 10-4 and 9-5. Men's basketball has had an NCAA and two National Invitation Tournament appearances. And Rainbow Wahine volleyball has had three NCAA final four showings in four years.

If UH is running deficits under those conditions, you shudder to think what might happen when one or more of them experience a down year?

Let's hope the athletic department gets its act together so we never have to find out.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.