| FTBL Question for those in the know (interesting trivia)

[Swamptick]

I am listening to Terico and VanPelt on ESPN. They had Miles Brandt (sp?) on their show. For those who might not know he is the President of the NCAA.

When asked about major college institutions possibly paying student athletes a small stipend he responded that it was a non issue. Primarily because "only 6 schools operate in the black" across the entire country in terms of their athletic departments.

Does anyone know which schools they are and if that information is accurate. It sounds a little "pr" to me.

 

[TerryP]

That statement is BS. There are at least 6 in the SEC that turn a profit. UF, UT, UGA, UA, AU, LSU, Ark....

In fact, there isn't an SEC school that losses money with their Ath. Dept.'s. The lowest ones still show a $500K profit.

 

[Guest]

Please Hawaii for the last three years has been in the black. If they can do it with a same market. You know everyone can.

here is a quote from the L.A. Business Journal "USC football turned a $10.8 million profit on revenues of $26.2 million during the 2003-04 school year, according to the USC Office of the General Counsel. All other USC athletic programs combined generated $20 million in revenues in the same period. "

They have money. SEC schools have money. ACC schools (and duke) have money. Schools dont have sports to lose money.

 

[Guest]

You would think that one of ESPN's writers would "kick Miles in the junk" with a quick little article proving that he a sorry piece of work, or at least that he did not tell the truth.

This sounds like an investigative piece to me...NCAA and its money grubbing cover up.

 

[bamascott2]

I think most college programs do operate in the red or, at best, break even. While the bowl payout sounds huge for a mid-major or BCS bowl, some schools end up paying extra to go to a bowl. (Another reason to support a CFB playoff.)

Here's something from John Lombardi a few years ago that clarifies how athletics fit in the overall college budget. He is the current LSU prez and former UF prez during the Spurrier years.


The issue of how much the sports program costs requires an accounting of revenue and expenses, a deceptively simple thing in theory. In the college sports world, it is often possible to get reasonably accurate data on income (because it is in the interest of the institution to demonstrate high levels of sports revenue). It is usually impossible, though, to get reasonably accurate approximations of the expenses (because it is rarely in the interest of the institution to report high expenses accurately).

Institutions subsidize college sports programs by charging a wide range of athletics expenses to the general operating budget of the university, whether for debt, grounds, security, legal work, administrative staff, fringe benefits, insurance, or many other expenses large and small. When the campus subtracts the partial expenses from the full income, they can report a profitable or at least modestly in deficit program. This looks much better to the observing public than what a true accounting of costs might provide. Convenience accounting would be the right term for these practices.

...institutions in the bottom 75 percent of the Division I-A football revenue system or, worse, institutions with Division I-AA football programs, the deficit (calculated correctly and unpublished) can reach into the range of $8 million or $10 million. At $8 million, the endowment required to sustain such a deficit reaches about $178 million. This is well outside the athletic fund raising capacity of almost every academic institution in this group, especially for those in the public sector. The $8 million deficit every year has to come from the students, general revenue, and other sources that could just as easily buy books for the library, scholarships for the students, or faculty for the classroom.

http://insidehighered.com/views/2005/11/11/lombardi


Lombardi is not just some egghead academician crying wolf...he is a huge supporter of collegiate athletics. Spurrier loved working with him...I think Spurrier would not have left UF for the pros if Lombardi had not been run off by the petty politics of the Florida Board of Regents.

This past year, I think it ended up costing UF about $50,000 to go to a bowl game that was two hours from campus after expenses.