The Coronavirus pandemic is putting athletic departments in a tough bind the last few months.

With no revenue from TV or games being played coming in, it’s forced every athletic department to find ways to save money with some even cutting sports to try and cut spending.

South Carolina isn’t immune from the belt-tightening, but Ray Tanner said Friday it’s a cost-cutting option but it’s not something high on his list of ways to reduce spending.

“There’s no question we’re in a period we have to reduce costs. Dropping sports, is that a consideration? It has to be on your list,” Tanner said. “Is it high on my list? No. is it something I want to do? No. It’s not an immediate priority.”

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Other schools like ECU, Bowling Green and Furman have all announced their intention to cut sports with Furman announcing this week the Paladins would cut baseball to save some money.

South Carolina’s already implemented some cost-cutting measures, most notably Tanner, Will Muschamp, Frank Martin and Dawn Staley taking a voluntary 10 percent pay cut starting in the new fiscal year, which begins in July.

One of the biggest determiners of if any other drastic measures need to be taken will be what football season looks like.

Even if a fraction fans are allowed in the stadiums, it would take some financial pressure off the athletic department with some attendance revenue coming in on game days.

If fans aren’t allowed, it could lead to further cuts, which will get evaluated closer to football season once the dust settles there.

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“We will move through this process; we’re still quite a ways away from September 5 and what a football season might look like,” Tanner said. “It’s no secret football is a financial engine in your department. That weighs heavily from a financial standpoint. There’s still some time in front of us to make determinations and understand the financial pressures are going to be.”

Tanner understands things in this kind of pandemic things change constantly and it’s hard to know what things will look like in three days let alone three months when the Gamecocks are scheduled to kick off on Sept. 5 against Coastal Carolina.

Even though he doesn’t want to, he understands more financial stress on the department because of the Coronavirus might cause more drastic cuts to happen.

“I hope we’re not in a position where cutting sports is part of our financial process,” Tanner said. “If it turns out to be that way, it’ll be necessary. I hope we can keep our sports intact.”

Tanner was asked specifically during his teleconference with reporters about the men’s soccer program given it’s not a SEC sport (it’s in Conference USA) and the only coach in program history, Mark Berson, is set to retire after this season.

Tanner went to bat for the program, touting the success of the program.

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“We’ve had men’s soccer for a long time. There’s been some success and we have young people that play the sport and are passionate about it,” he said. “Coach Mark Berson has been here for a long time. It’s more emotional than it is fact looking that it’s not an SEC sport. It’s important to what we do at this university and it’s been here for a long time.”