Unverified Voracity Blames It On The Autotune Comment Count

Brian

This is what genius looks like. Prompted by Rich Rodriguez's tete-a-tete with Jamie Foxx, Orson gets parodic and LSUFreek drops this mindblowing gif:

Blame_it_on_the_Henne

It will take some time to load. You should wait. It references this. You should read the original post.

While we're making it rain. Michigan checks in #4 in overall athletic department lucre. The top ten:

Rank School Total Revenue Conference
1st Texas $120,288,370 Big 12
2nd Ohio State $117,953,712 Big Ten
3rd Florida $106,030,895 Southeastern Conference
4th Michigan $99,027,105 Big Ten
5th Wisconsin $93,452,334 Big Ten
6th Penn State $91,570,233 Big Ten
7th Auburn $89,305,326 Southeastern Conference
8th Alabama $88,869,810 Southeastern Conference
9th Tennessee $88,719,798 Southeastern Conference
10th Oklahoma State $88,554,438 Big 12

Texas and Ohio State continue their runaway status as 1-2. Texas's spot at the top of the list is pretty obvious since, IIRC, the Big 12's television revenue is extremely unbalanced and Texas, as the flagship school not located in a tiny state where the only thing to buy is John Deere equipment, is the major beneficiary of the current system.

But I've always been curious where the Ohio State revenue gap comes from. The Big Ten splits all TV and bowl revenue right down the middle, so the only differences can come in stadium gates and sheer sport quantity. (For instance: I'm guessing the Michigan hockey team rakes in most of the difference between Michigan and Penn State by itself.) Ohio State does support a huge number of sports, but I don't think the crew teams or whatever at the tail end of OSU's athletic department bring in a million between them, let alone 18. And Ohio State's stadium is considerably smaller than Michigan Stadium.

OSU's visual cacophony of in-stadium advertising is no doubt part of the gap. The rest of it is probably luxury boxes and primo seating; I'll be interested to see what the numbers look like in two years when Michigan's suite spigot is turned on.

If you're curious as to the per-school average for BCS conferences:

  1. Big Ten: $76.4 million
  2. SEC: $71.1 million
  3. Big 12: $66.5 million
  4. Pac-10: $58.7 million
  5. ACC: $54.1 million
  6. Big East (football schools only): $45.5 million

Someone hide this from Clay Travis*: even when the SEC nuclear bomb contract goes into effect—which adds 60 million-ish per year—the Big Ten teams will still be ahead on total revenue. Not that this will stop the avalanche of OMG SEC FINANCIAL DOMINATION stories.

*(Who has a wikipedia page? WTF?)

Fire this woman immediately. Here's Pat Forde on something called "First Take." As it is on ESPN, it contains no information, but holy hotpants you might want to watch through the Michigan segment, which is right after the ND opener:

I quote this woman now.  I quote her:

"They want to get the 'woof, woof' back at the Dawg Pound, back at the Wolverine house, the Big House."

LADY DOES THIS LOOK LIKE A DOG TO YOU?

wolverine

SERIOUSLY. ARE YOU UNDER THE IMPRESSION THIS IS A DOG?

Hey, guess what sort of values we're talking about. Got it in zero. Good job. Mark Ortmann on the offensive line departures:

"They're leaving for all the wrong reasons," Ortmann said of the Wolverine quitters from the interior line. "They're making false accusations. I got along with Boren, (Grand Haven's Dann) O'Neill and Kurt. But I don't understand where they're coming from.

"The family values at Michigan are there. That's not a question in anyone's mind. So for them to come out and make those accusations is not fair to anyone."

I don't think did O'Neill said anything other than "I'm a better fit at Western," but take that you other guys. Take that.

Etc.: Kirk Ferentz likes the idea of playing 13 games. What about the children, Kirk? Maize 'n' Brew hit up Big Ten Media Days, too. Talkin' with Ortmann and Brown.

Comments

fifthangell

July 29th, 2009 at 10:12 PM ^

When they added the boxes, OSU increased their stadium capacity to 102,329, plus their ticket prices are somewhat higher (or maybe they get a cut from the "Hineygate" beer sales outside the stadium before the games).

"Smith, who took over as athletic director in 2005, said Ohio State would not cut any of its 36 sports, which is the highest number of teams at any school in the nation.
After the $1 increase, a football ticket would cost $63 next fall. Men's basketball tickets will go up to $27 per game for the 2009-10 season. Tickets will go up another dollar starting in the fall of 2010, Smith said."

teldar

July 30th, 2009 at 8:46 AM ^

I was looking at their websites. I knew their ticket prices are somewhat higher. The basketball tickets, BTW, are apparently not all $27. But some of them are. Most I would assume. Their ticket website said $26, $21, and $16.

But exactly. As much as M's tickets are damn expensive for college sports, osu's are crazy.

jvocke

July 29th, 2009 at 10:46 PM ^

...Brian - not sure where you get that the Cowshoe is "considerably smaller than Michigan Stadium"... they're not that far apart.

Also - in addition to OSU tickets costing more, the "PSL's", if you will, at OSU are WAY more than what we pay. Friends of mine with season OSU tickets have to join the Presidents Club... they pay a HEFTY fee each year just for the priviledge. UM is coming up to speed with our "Seat Donation", but the dollar figures are still WAY behind the Jones'. I sit in the end zone and I don't pay $0.01 for my season. People between the 30's at UM pay - what, $500/year? The President's Club is like 4x that, IIRC.

And all of this is not even to speak of the whole luxury boxes / suites. That's just additional gravy on the biscuit.

OSU is ahead of us in cash because the OSU fanbase pays more to have the priviledge of having tickets. Simple as that.

Go Blue!

Token_sparty

July 29th, 2009 at 11:35 PM ^

Remember the Ocho, from Dodgeball? "If it's almost a sport, it's on the Ocho"? This nimrod would be perfect for it. I'd call her a halfwit, but I'm not sure she even has that much to work with. They should've cut to Forde as she was talking just to see him squirm.

Video made my day.

CPS

July 30th, 2009 at 1:10 AM ^

Damn straight! 2009 babby! We're brinin' it back to the Dawg Pound that Yoist dug! The Wolverine House that Chrysler built! The Big House that Bow remodeled with some great window treatments! And Rick is goin' to blow it up!

Go Big Blue! Woof Woof!

/asshole

wildbackdunesman

July 30th, 2009 at 8:47 AM ^

If we wanted to move up the rankings in athletic revenue a controversial idea is to sell limited advertising inside the stadium done tastefully. The three schools above us already do, but with less taste.

Michigan is the only school that I know of that does not have advertising inside the stadium. Notre Dame claims to not have advertising, but they actually have had very subtle advertisements in their stadium for NBC Sports and I believe that I once saw Adidas inside the stadium as well.

Texas: http://www.gmacdaddy.com/pictures/godzillatron/godzillatron-Thumbnails/…

Ohio State: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1149/1354570620_c62695d386.jpg?v=0

Florida: http://www.gatortailgating.com/files/imagepicker/m/Mike/thumbs/IMG00056…

Notre Dame: http://tgiab.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/scoreboard.jpg

pz

July 30th, 2009 at 10:21 AM ^

I open the site, (which has to have been fifty times since this post) - I am a little freaked out by the gif, but then just can't help smiling / laughing a bit.

I really hope this thing stays around // is there any way MGoBlog can start commissioning some work from Freek a la Senor Swindle? I would love some more Michigan-focused work from the freek...

Craig

July 30th, 2009 at 10:52 AM ^

My theory is that merchandise sales are much higher at OSU. First off there are slightly more people in Ohio (US census bureau puts Michigan at around 10million and Ohio at about 11.5million. On top of that, there is only one college worth watching in Ohio: OSU. Here we have to split our "hometown team" status with MSU. On top of that, what professional sports teams are there in Ohio worth watching?

Lastly, and this just from an unscientific survey, OSU fans buy more OSU stuff than UM fans buy UM stuff. While visiting a friend in Ohio (a student at OSU) I noticed that EVERYTHING he owned had OSU plastered all over it. (I also noticed a catalog he had where you could buy anything OSU. From Christmas decorations to sweater vests, they had it all.)

Again, this is not definitive evidence and there are many UM fans with just as much UM stuff as this guy with his OSU stuff, but I would really like to see the sales figures for merchandise for the two schools. As mentioned above, OSU handles its own licensing agreements, which might have a lot to do with them raking in the cash.

BG

July 30th, 2009 at 11:00 AM ^

OSU is the only school of significance in that state (Miami, Bowling Green, etc. students/alums probably mostly consider themselves OSU fans), so its merchandise revenue is likely higher. Its marketing revenue is also bound to be higher - they do advertising in Ohio Stadium, plus they've sold naming rights to Value City Arena (horrendously funny name). Because of the higher population, and the higher percentage of fans-per-capita in the state because we have MSU to contend with, OSU can probably charge a higher rate for marketing sales that are comparable, plus they do the in-stadium marketing, and that's all probably worth at least a few million dollars per year.

As others have said, higher attendance at basketball games, the presence of luxury boxes at football games, and slightly higher football ticket prices probably add to that gap, too, and make up most of it...

msoccer10

July 30th, 2009 at 12:14 PM ^

From http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_the_colleges_rank_in_terms_of_total_me…

"In 2006, the University of Texas, University of Michigan and University of Notre Dame, respectively, ranked one through three in merchandise sales. The top 75 highest-selling universities for 2006 can be found by clicking the link to the right."

This was the same for 2008.

The only thing I am surprised about is that Texas is ahead of us. Next time you visit, Chicago, New York or anywhere outside of Ohio or Michigan, count how many OSU things you see. Then do it for Michigan. UM may sell less Michigan stuff in Michigan than OSU does OSU stuff in Ohio, but I think we sell more merchandise in total. However, as someone pointed out earlier, we license our apparel, so I don't know how our merchandise sales apply to Brian's post and total athletic revenue. Also, I should mention that OSU isn't listed in the top 75 on this list as this list only counts those schools which license their merchandise. I still think we are number 1 or two in apparel sales.

stubob

July 30th, 2009 at 12:03 PM ^

that "last season was the worst in Michigan history," without adding "going by number of losses in a season, disregarding that they now play 12 games, not a fewer number as in previous seasons, or going by number of wins or winning percentage, which would be a logical measure of success."

03 Blue 07

July 30th, 2009 at 12:16 PM ^

EDIT: this is in response to MSoccer10's statement about how nationwide, you see more Michigan apparel on people than OSU apparel. Me: reply/posting mechanics fail; this should be shown as a reply to his post.

I am in full agreement here. Throw in Los Angeles, places in Texas, Florida, etc, too. Nationwide, you see more of our apparel on people, I feel like. Granted, this is my wholly unscientific, subjective opinion, and I am a UM alum, so take that for what it's worth.

Also, doesn't OSU's athletic department also have a decent amount of debt? As in, their debt-to-revenue ratio isn't as good as ours because they took on debt to finance many of their recent construction projects? Or is this just an unfounded rumor I heard. Anyone with info about this out there, I'd love to hear it, as I am too lazy to look it up myself.