The Missouri football team delivered a second straight SEC East title in 2014, and happy MU fans opened their checkbooks. They donated more than $685,000 to the athletic department in December 2014.

A year later, the era of good feelings was over.

The football team suffered a tumultuous losing season that included a player boycott in support of the Concerned Student 1950 protest group. The day after Coach Gary Pinkel sided with his players � who threatened to sit out practices and games, including an upcoming matchup against BYU � University of Missouri System President Tim Wolfe resigned, per the group�s demands.

After the controversial boycott, donations plummeted. The athletic department recorded only $191,000 in cash donations in December.

That difference of $494,000, a 68.7 percent decline, was partially made up when January receipts increased $264,000 compared to January 2015. But for the three complete months since the players announced their boycott on Nov. 7, cash contributions to the athletic department were down 24.3 percent compared to last year.

�There�s a direct correlation between the success of your teams and the amount of money that you have capacity to raise,� MU Athletic Director Mack Rhoades said. �Also, in addition to that, the football team did not have a terrific season, did not go to a bowl game. And you factor that in with what happened on campus, people are upset with the university and the athletics department. The combination of the two is why I feel that donations are down, particularly in the month of December.�

There are anomalies in the figures � including more than $80,000 donated in memory of former coach and radio commentator John Kadlec in December 2014 � that exaggerated the difference in totals when comparing the last two years, Rhoades said. Donations in honor of Kadlec totaled $147,325 during the three months after his death Oct. 29, 2014.

The decline in donations is being felt by the academic side of university fundraising, as well. New pledges and donations overall fell $6 million in December, usually one of the biggest months because donors are planning their tax deductions.

A large portion of cash donations to the athletic department pays for scholarships through the Tiger Scholarship Fund. Much of that revenue comes in between January and May as fans renew their tickets for the coming football season. Donation revenue accounted for 21 percent of the athletic department budget in the fiscal year that ended June 30.

The campus advancement office tracks fundraising with a different accounting system than the athletic department uses. It keeps figures on cash received, pledges and gifts-in-kind, while the athletic department considers only cash received.

Using the campus advancement office�s numbers, it was a good year through November � athletic fundraising was up 23 percent. Steep declines of 59.8 percent in December and 48.5 percent in January, however, have put the department slightly behind last year�s pace.

�December is usually a good month for us, so that gives you a sense of it,� Vice Chancellor Tom Hiles said. �We got hit.�

By the campus advancement office�s math, the athletic department raised $1.3 million less from November through January than it did the previous year. Overall, the athletic department raised $8.4 million for this fiscal year through January, compared to $8.5 million at the same point last year. Rhoades said he expects the athletic department to equal the $17.2 million that was raised last year.

Donors are returning, he said, including a fan who gave $65,000 in December 2014 and who was expected to repeat the gift. Rhoades said the donor was upset with the team�s protest but did not withdraw the pledge and now is expected to give the money by the end of the month.

Rhoades said that while some fans are speaking with closed checkbooks, it�s not necessarily the people who write the biggest checks.

�In terms of major gifts, the individual meetings I�ve had and some of the staff have had with those donors, I think that�s remained really, really positive,� Rhoades said. �But the grass-roots, non-major gifts, annual fund, there absolutely has not been as much activity.�

A good test of the mood of Missouri fans will come this spring, when Rhoades starts shopping his plan for a major new football facility.

In 2012, MU unveiled an athletic facility master plan that was kick-started with a $30 million donation. The first major piece of that plan was the Memorial Stadium east-side expansion that was completed before the 2014 football season. At Pinkel�s request, the order of the projects in the master plan was rearranged that fall. Pinkel wanted to fast-track a new football-only complex attached to the south end zone of the stadium. The structure would centralize the football team�s facilities, as opposed to the current situation in which the football offices and training facilities are across Providence Road in the Mizzou Athletic Training Complex.

Athletic Director Mike Alden told reporters in December 2014 the end zone project would take nine to 12 months to design and 24 to 30 months to build, so it could be completed in 2018. A month later, Alden resigned. Eleven months later, Pinkel resigned.

The project is still at the forefront of MU�s plans, but the design timeline is already outdated. Rhoades said he is considering four options and starting to determine the cost of each. Among the design factors to consider are whether it will be a football-only facility or a more comprehensive structure that could be a venue for sports such as wrestling, volleyball and gymnastics when the Hearnes Center is leveled.

Rhoades said he hopes to narrow the options from four to one or two within the next few weeks.

�This football facility is a priority,� Rhoades said. �We�re hoping early spring we have drawings and a vision to show people, and then we�ll have a better idea. As we get out and show that to donors and hopefully get people excited and interested in investing in it, I think that�s when we�ll really know if we can keep our timeline or if it�s going to take a little longer to raise the necessary funds.�