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University Athletic Departments Revenue & Spending

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Buckskin86

Buckskin86

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http://www.orlandosentinel.com/spor...3004may30,1,6852639.story?coll=tf-main-sports

For almost every year in recent memory, the Southeastern Conference has gathered for its annual spring meetings and had its commissioner proclaim the league, in subtle language, the king of cash.

Not this year. This week in Destin, SEC Commissioner Mike Slive can give another strong state-of-the-SEC speech, pointing to more than $103 million in disbursements to his conference members last year. It was the second year in a row the league has paid out at least $100 million to its members.

But informational returns filed by conferences to the Internal Revenue Service -- collected by the Orlando Sentinel through Freedom of Information Act requests -- show the Big Ten and the Atlantic Coast Conference as the country's athletic cash cows for 2002-03, the latest year for which financial data is available.

Bolstered by sending two teams to the BCS for the 2002 season (Ohio State and Iowa), the Big Ten paid out more than $109 million to its 11 conference members, the largest total payout of the country's 11 Division I-A conferences. None of the Big Ten's members received less than $9.9 million, and Wisconsin was the league leader at $10.04 million.

Over the same period, the ACC paid out $97.6 million to its members, just behind the total of the Big Ten and SEC. But individual ACC members reeled in more than almost every other school in the country. That group of individual winners was headed by Florida State ($11.4 million) and Wake Forest ($11.3 million), highest of any schools documented by conferences and the Sentinel.

"In all these cases, the money isn't the conference's money. It's the schools' money," Western Athletic Conference Assistant Commissioner Steve Macy said. "We're just a pass-through point."

Almost without exception, conferences generate revenue for member schools by selling rights for home football and basketball games to a national TV network and to a regional network or syndicator; through bowl-game agreements; and through sponsorships.

In turn, schools rack up money for themselves and fellow league members by qualifying in and advancing through the NCAA men's basketball tournament. They also do so by qualifying as an at-large pick in the BCS.

Any money from the NCAA for scholarships, grants and gender equity is sent to conference offices, which then sets aside the cash for each school's pot. Some conferences have equal revenue-sharing plans. Others, such as the Big East, determine shares based on schools' postseason participation and TV appearances.

The Big Ten's overall revenue, some of which is held is reserve and not shared by members, jumped 11.8 percent over the previous year -- a $12.4 million hike from $104.5 million, records show. Although the league does not break down its revenue sources specifically in IRS filings, nearly $4 million of the increase came from having a second team in the BCS.

TV rights fees and BCS payouts increased dramatically, and those outpaced traditional revenue sources -- namely the NCAA Tournament. It's that scenario that has permitted the six BCS leagues to stretch out the gap between themselves and the non-BCS conferences.

Between them, the six large conferences pulled in more than $280 million in TV rights fees revenues in 2002-03, filings show. For their schools, that's an average of $4.5 million each.

"Without getting too philosophical, television is an important part of what we do," Slive said. "Television helps our schools pay for things like scholarships and allows us to get national exposure for our schools and our student-athletes."

Among the other BCS conferences, the Big 12 paid out $77.3 million, the Pac-10 $69.2 million and the Big East $61.6 million.

Also gleaned from the IRS filings:

Conference USA paid out more than $19.6 million back to its schools, the most of the five conferences that aren't full partners in the BCS. Next came the Mountain West, which paid out $10.5 million to its members.

But neither C-USA nor the Mountain West detailed exact disbursements in their IRS filings. The Mountain West has an equal-partner revenue sharing plan, Commissioner Craig Thompson said. C-USA, though, had to account for a variety of members -- 11 all-sports members, four non-football schools (Charlotte, DePaul, Marquette and Saint Louis) and one football-only school (Army).

Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany was the highest-paid of the 11 league leaders, earning $567,002 in salary and retirement benefits. Next came ACC Commissioner John Swofford ($538,369).

The SEC's football championship game brings in the most money among the three conferences that stage such a game. The conference credited its 2002 game with netting $13.5 million after expenses, two years' of filings show.
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Financial ledger tells all: OSU No. 1
Friday, August 18, 2006
Barnet D . Wolf
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
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It was only a matter of time before one of the nation’s big universities passed the $100 million mark in annual revenue for its intercollegiate sports program.
The Ohio State University athletics department pulled in $101.5 million in proceeds during the 2005-2006 fiscal year that ended June 30, according to documents requested by The Dispatch.
Propelled by strong results from Buckeye football, the overall sports program also chalked up a $2.9 million surplus last season after expenses and other payments.
Despite several off-the-field financial hits related to NCAA penalties and a lawsuit by fired basketball coach Jim O’Brien, the fiscal results were significantly better than 2004-05, when the department lost $920,000 on $88.8 million in revenue.
Passing the $100 million mark "is a fairly significant benchmark for intercollegiate athletics," said Dennis Howard, a professor in the University of Oregon’s Warsaw Sports Marketing Center. It points to the continued growth of college sports programs at a time when some universities are facing a financial crunch.
OSU might be the first to reach $100 million in revenue, but Howard said "there are others that are close behind," including the University of Texas, which trailed OSU in revenue by only $50,000 during the 2004-2005 season.
Fiscal results for the Longhorns’ most-recent season won’t be completed until the end of this month, but an official of the Austin school said its revenue should total about $94 million.
OSU Athletics Director Gene Smith said reaching $100 million in revenue is "a great milestone" for the program, and he projected future annual revenue growth of 5 percent to 6 percent. The sports program receives no university funding and contributes millions to the Ohio State general fund.
The growth of college sports budgets worries some observers, including the Knight Commission, which was formed in 1989 to look at ways to reform college sports.
"The concern is that there are some schools, and Ohio State may be one of them, that can continue to raise more money for their sports programs without any problem, and that will create an uneven playing field," said Welch Suggs, a spokesman for the commission, which is comprised mainly of university presidents and administrators.
But Smith said the growth of OSU’s athletics budget is a "sign of the times" regarding college sports’ role in society.
He pointed out that OSU’s 36 sports provided scholarships for about 900 athletes, more than any other institution.
The athletics department transferred $11.3 million to the university last season to cover the cost of those scholarships and contributed another $3 million to the general fund.
At the same time, OSU’s fundraising efforts get a boost from the sports program. For instance, people who donate at least $2,500 to the university or any of its schools have the opportunity to purchase two season football tickets.
Nearly the entire $2.9 million surplus was placed into an account that will help fund construction of a women’s softball stadium, a women’s crew boathouse and an indoor tennis facility.
The major reason for Ohio State’s stronger financial performance last season was because it had seven home football games in 2005 compared with six in 2004. Ticket prices also rose $1, to $58 each.
The football program brought in $35.9 million and had a surplus of $27.3 million. That revenue does not include $5.3 million from the football team’s appearance in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl and its share of Big Ten schools’ bowl revenue.
The bowl money is included in the $101.5 million.
Ohio Stadium club-seat and suite fees, scoreboard sponsorship and ticket surcharges accounted for $14.7 million.
Football and men’s basketball, which had an $8.9 million surplus on $11.7 million in revenue, were the only sports at OSU that made money. That profit helped pay for other sports.
Although revenue from the men’s basketball program was at a near-record level, it would have been higher if not for a $67,000 reduction in the school’s NCAA Tournament receipts. That cut went to cover this year’s portion of money Ohio State is required to return to the NCAA as a penalty for rules violations during the O’Brien years.
The athletics department also is on the hook for a $2.25 million payment to O’Brien. That’s what the Ohio Court of Claims ruled the university owes the former coach for breaching his contract. An appeal is possible.
The O’Brien case and the NCAA investigation have resulted in more than $1 million in legal fees over the past year.
At the same time that overall revenue for the sports program grew 14.3 percent last season, expenses grew 9.8 percent.
The biggest spending increase was in operating costs, which jumped 12.4 percent because of the extra home football game and a spike in utility and energy costs.
Athletics department salaries and benefits rose 5.8 percent, to $29.7 million.
The athletics department’s annual debt service for new and renovated facilities rose to $20 million last year with the additional payments of $1.6 million for the McCorkle Aquatics Center and $513,000 for the Scarlet Golf Course renovation.
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I have no idea how revenue patterns work, but I'd wonder if this year's earnings could be even greater. OSU football has the potential to be more successful this year, and the basketball program is about to explode. Now if rugby would hold up their end of the bargain :p
 
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Holy hell that girl is skinny, do you think that's supposed to represent the "slim" profits that all sports are making or what (with Hawk being large profits and Foster being in the middle)? That's on the verge of gross.
 
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This is an excellent way to support my argument to NOT pay the college athletes. If Ohio State, an ass-whomping college athletics program, compared to Akron or Ohio University, can only make $3 million, what are Akron's or Ohio's numbers going to be? If they're already in the red, would they be expected to also pay their college athletes? Where would that money come from? If colleges are allowed to pay their athletes, I think many would drop out of Div I-A to Div I-AA or maybe even to Div II.
 
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