Support MGoBlog: buy stuff at Amazon
USA Today ran an article on the the amount of money spent and taken in by big-time college athletics.
It starts off "More than $800 million in student fees and university subsidies are propping up athletic programs at the nation's top sports colleges, including hundreds of millions in the richest conferences, a USA TODAY analysis found."
I found the database linked within the article interesting.
Bad link.
I think I fixed the link.
Sorry about that.
Bad link but good overview. I knew Michigan was in good financial shape athletically.
I like how they complain about student fees contributing to the athletic budgets, and then Michigan's database entry shows student fees as $0.
Our athletic program must be in decent financial shape considering we don't have corporate ads in the stadium. Plus we just spent $225 million to build the boxes.
Unfortunately, these articles (there have been several) tend to insinuate that the "problem" is the rather large salaries being paid to football coaches (head and assistants). But, unless a university intends to disband ALL sports, the revenue from football and basketball is what pays for all sports programs.
"Of the 119 FBS football teams, 68 (57.1 percent) finished the year in the black.
Of the 119 FBS schools playing men's basketball, 67 teams made a profit. One of those same 119 schools made money in women's basketball in 2008.
FBS football teams recorded a median net profit of $1.95 million. Men's basketball at the same schools produced a median profit of $518,000. No other sport at the FBS schools, measured by median values, showed a program in the black."
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/collegesports/2010103078_ncaa21.html
Michigan generates $99mil in revenue and spends $85mil. Ohio State generates $115mil but spends $114mil....sweet Jesus! What are they doing to need almost $30mil more a year to operate athletics than Michigan? It's not like they're in a state with higher cost of living. I know they have some more sports but they are playing with fire. If the contributions well dries up for them they might be in some serious trouble.
My understanding was the Athletic Department, when paying the scholarship for the player, regardless of the home state, paid out of state tuition for the player. Maybe not a big point, but at the end of the day, the U pulls a few more bucks than they normally would have, for the butt in the classroom seat.
