Zone Left

August 18th, 2014 at 10:40 PM ^

Actually, I think it's the opposite of professionalization. I'm hoping the coming court decisions press MAC teams to deemphasize sports. EMU, Akron, Kent St, etc have no business playing big-time college football. Instead, they could regionalize, play each other, and shrink their athletic budgets to a sustainable level.

I don't like big-time sports programs that are heavily subsidized by student bodies and taxpayers. Spending enormous amounts of public money on a program that a tiny percentage of students will ever have an opportunity to use isn't a good use of funds--at least in my book.

Joined: 07/03/2008

MGoPoints: 16428

cajunhawk

August 19th, 2014 at 3:33 AM ^

A vast majority of colleges in FBS rely on student fees and government money to stay in the black? Right? You do understand that the self sustaining programs are 10-12 at most? Your statement is the asinine reason college football is heading down a lonesome road with no way back. Kill the little guys and it's just Goliath's throwing haymakers at each other. Over and over and over again.

Joined: 05/10/2010

MGoPoints: 58

Voltron is Handsome

August 18th, 2014 at 10:22 PM ^

This won't surprise me one bit if they lose it. I think their stadium is too large. Plus, not many teams want to travel that far to play a game, so their program's traveling expenses have to be way higher than literally every other program.

Joined: 05/12/2014

MGoPoints: 3908

Gulogulo37

August 18th, 2014 at 10:26 PM ^

Fuck Dodd. He's blaming autonomy but mentions they're 2.1 million in the hole right now, which has nothing to do with autonomy since that hasn't even begun. He doesn't blame rising coaches' salaries of course. I don't know all the reasons for their budget deficit, but obviously they have some unique problems being in the middle of the Pacific.

Joined: 03/16/2010

MGoPoints: 28312

LSAClassOf2000

August 18th, 2014 at 10:30 PM ^

As you might note here thanks to USA Today (more details within regarding revenue and expenses), Hawaii's finances were a bit unstable long before Big 5 autonomy was even a thing:

YEAR TOTAL REVENUES TOTAL EXPENSES PROFIT / DEFICIT
2013 $37,017,100 $40,357,387 ($3,340,287)
2012 $37,879,740 $40,319,775 ($2,440,035)
2011 $36,801,458 $36,344,952 $456,506
2010 $36,239,991 $34,946,092 $1,293,899
2009 $33,355,712 $35,717,190 ($2,361,478)
2008 $37,427,263 $35,133,798 $2,293,465
2007 $30,384,508 $30,236,183 $148,325
2006 $29,172,055 $28,348,930 $823,125
2005 $19,878,946 $22,036,611 ($2,157,665)

 

Joined: 01/07/2011

MGoPoints: 130612

Spunky

August 18th, 2014 at 10:37 PM ^

The article I read (Link) said, "[T]hey've operated in the red for 11 of the past 13 seasons... reported in July only 15,500 season tickets had been sold, and that the Warriors have not sold less than 18,000 since the 1970s." It's a bit sad to witness college football changing and less interest in attending games.  

Joined: 09/12/2012

MGoPoints: 2393

Muttley

August 19th, 2014 at 12:07 PM ^

down the left sideline on a scramble.

What made me go "Holy Cow" about the play was that Henson was sitting in the pocket with a defender (DE?) coming at him full speed from the right.  Henson noticed him about two steps away and yet was able to accelerate from standing still quickly enough to avoid the sack.  (Maybe the legend grows in my mind over time.)

Joined: 07/07/2009

MGoPoints: -73245

UMgradMSUdad

August 18th, 2014 at 10:56 PM ^

The Stevie "Wonder Blunder" fiasco didn't help their finances either.  The Athletic Department was scammed out of $200,000 by people claiming to be agents for Stevie Wonder.  Then the university spent another $1.2 million on PR, outside legal advice, and a settlement with the outgoing AD under whose watch the whole fiasco took place.

http://www.hawaiireporter.com/new-details-in-stevie-wonder-blunder-concert-fiasco-released-after-university-forced-to-make-report-public/123

Joined: 07/02/2011

MGoPoints: 13185

M-Dog

August 18th, 2014 at 11:21 PM ^

It's sad and perhaps unfair, but not every city can support an NFL team, and not every university can support a D1 football team.

Hawaii is in such a unique situation that they either need the rich autonomous teams to throw them a bone and support the existence of their program, or they need to give it up.

 

Joined: 07/06/2008

MGoPoints: 257458

AlaskanYeti

August 19th, 2014 at 12:31 AM ^

makes sense to me. If I lived in Hawaii I wouldn't spend my daytime Saturday hours paying to watch sub par college football. Its basically paradise. I'd be out surfing, mountain biking or scuba diving on some coral reef.

Joined: 11/27/2012

MGoPoints: 7022

Evil Empire

August 19th, 2014 at 12:26 PM ^

who only taught at UM in the fall.  He spent the winter semester in Hawaii.  I asked him why he just didn't get a gig at UH-Manoa.  He said he didn't want to spend any of his time in Hawaii indoors when he and all of his would-be students would be staring longingly out the window.

Joined: 07/29/2008

MGoPoints: 9077