How does athletics affect academics at a school? I can tell you that the year after George Mason U made their improbable run to the NCAA men’s basketball Final Four, their applications SKYROCKETED. Have friends there on staff and they said the applicants were by and large quite good, the next freshman class was big. So more students and $ flowed to the school and it showed positively on the academic side. GMU did get at least a short term academic bonus from the athletic side. That said, Mason wasn’t well known at the national level when this happened so their primary benefit in the end was increased visibility. Most of the schools named in this fiasco thus far are pretty well known at this point.
Big question is what will the NCAA do now? Did the Justice Dept do them a big favor by essentially taking “enforcement” out of their hands or is it just more evidence that the NCAA has no teeth? Do they give out their own punishment to the schools, do they need to let the DOJ cases run their course before they step in, what?
I wish I was more knowledgeable about how athletic income flows and impacts the institution as a whole.
From what I have gathered, at the schools with D1 power conference basketball or BCS football programs, the money from men’s basketball and football ends up benefiting and lifting all of the other sports programs at the school (women’s programs and other sports). So the sad thing about this for a school like Louisville is that all of the other sports programs and the students who participate in them are going to be impacted, not just men’s basketball. Women’s basketball, soccer, swimming, you name it, I think they all take a hit in various ways, because they are supported in large part by the income from men’s basketball.
What I am less sure about is the impact on the academic side of the school. My intuition is that it isn’t a direct impact, because the athletic income wasn’t directly going to the university, but stayed in the athletic programs. But as @JustGraduate alluded to there could be somewhat of an indirect impact I imagine. These days athletics are part of the experience and part of what draws each new freshman class to a school, at least in some cases.
“I wish I was more knowledgeable about how athletic income flows and impacts the institution as a whole.”
There’s several tiers of how the money works in D1 sports.
- At most D1 schools, the money sports (football, mens hoops) merely offset some (but not all) of their own operating expenses. The academic side has to kick money to support football and mhoops, and then more money to support the non-revenue sports.
- Next/smaller tier is where the money sports pay for all their own operations. Then the academic side pays for the minor sports.
- Next/smaller tier is where the money sports pay for themselves, and then also pay for the rest of the athletic program. In 2012, only 23 D1-A athletic departments out of 228 actually covered all of their own expenses. That's less than half of the schools in the Power 5 conferences. And recognize that a big chunk of "revenue" for college athletic departments are DONATIONS (not tickets sales and TV fees).
- There's only a handful of schools that have money left over that they send to the academic side of the house. And the size of these payments are relatively small. Texas, ND, Bama and maybe just a couple of others.
While the athletics departments are pretty good at generating revenue, they are GREAT at consuming revenue – gold-plated salaries for coaches and ADs, over the top amenities and facilities. And of course they save a lot of dough by not having to pay the star players in the money sports full market value. Like the federal government, athletic departments exist to spend all the money made available to them.
So why do the schools do it, since there’s basically no money in sports for the academic side?
Branding, marketing and engagement.
The metaphor is that college sports is the front porch of the house. It is a small and functionally unimportant part of the structure. But it is very visible and accessible to many people. It is a way for alumni, communities, current students, potential students and parents to engage with the school.
When it works, it can be huge – ND USC Michigan Bama OSU football, Duke Gtown Gonzaga basketball. All those Olympic gold medal swimmers from Stanford. Frankly, the Ivy League brand (which is just a sports conference after all) is of incredibly value (especially to the non-HYP schools). Even though it isn’t a sport powerhouse, Northwestern gets a lot of benefit from its Big 10 sports. UChicago is doing great today, but it spent decades in relative brand obscurity after dropping its former B10 powerhouse football team. If UChi was still a B10 school, they wouldn’t have to clog up the mailbox of every American HS senior with a good PSAT scores year after year.
But a lot of the time it doesn’t work so well, and it brings big risks to the academic mission.
A different viewpoint on this scandal.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/forget-bribes-the-real-ncaa-crime-is-exploiting-athletes
@northwesty thank you, that was very helpful. Do you happen to know where Louisville and Kentucky stand in those tiers you laid out? I am guessing they are both one of the 23 schools you mentioned in the tier where they are covering all or most of the expenses of the other sports, but I am not certain. If so, if Louisville basketball related revenue takes a hit I can see how at the very least hard decisions have to be made. The other sports programs that were subsidized by basketball have to be cut back, unless the academic side subsidizes. Not sure I want to send my kid to a school where that could happen.
I know the AD at Louisville has been praised as a hero for the way he has built up all the other non revenue sports at the school using the money from basketball and football. The facilities for swimming, soccer, tennis, track and field are amazing now. They are what you see as you come onto the campus. I am afraid that could become a house of Cards now (forgive the terrible pun).
Looks like there is more than one way to bribe an AD.
http://thespun.com/news/louisvilles-ousted-ad-has-a-job-at-adidas
NCAA Brand Communicator…
About a year and a half old with respect to U of Louisville athletic department:
Jurich would have been required to disclose the daughter’s job offer and fill out at least one form in detail at my company…and the daughter’s candidacy would likely not have been approved by the company anyway. Also, U of Louisville is a public entity and a vendor hiring an immediate relative of a person directly involved with the negotiating/approving a contract at a public entity is a substantial conflict of interest. I know an executive whom was fired recently for this very same transgression. Don’t these college Presidents and trustees know when something stinks?
"A different viewpoint on this scandal.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/forget-bribes-the-real-ncaa-crime-is-exploiting-athletes"
I agree this is the root cause and the real scandal.
UL hoops takes in $43 million a year. Sounds like a lot, but it is peanuts compared to what the lowest revenue NBA teams take in – about $150 million.
Despite that smaller revenue base, UL is able to pay Pitino $5 sticks a year, which does not include the $2.5 sticks he gets directly from Addidas. That’s more than most NBA coaches make. How can UL possibly do that? Simple, they pay Pitino with the money that they don’t pay to the UL players.
I can understand the reasons why colleges are hesitant about going full-pro comp for their student-athletes. But I think that any money saved from the players should then go to support the other teams and/or the university. Today, it mostly just goes to overpay sleezy pimps like Pitino.
If the NCAA is going to have the death penalty on its books among the punishments, this is exactly when it should be applied. Repeat offender, blatant disregard for the NCAA rules. The ink was not even dry on the last round of sanctions and this is how L’Ville chose to play.
“Don’t these college Presidents and trustees know when something stinks?”
The former college president and former BOT had their own deeper issues that went beyond athletics. There is a new BOT now and a new interim president. Point being the former college president and board members weren’t the type that would have been cared about these types of conflicts of interest, but rather practiced their own.
Apparently the assistant coaches at UL are far from “underpaid,” even though they make a fraction of what their hugely overpaid boss does:
Today the NY Times takes a look at Brian Bowen, the player at the center of the payola scandal at Louisville. Look I have SOME sympathy for him because he is a kid and the adults around him (including at least one of his parents) have done him a disservice. But his hands aren’t clean either. Now the kid looks like a sucker because it’s likely that many if not all major schools will avoid him. For the greed of $100K, someone just cost this kid at least a year’s worth of NBA top pick salary.
A good local article that goes along with this discussion.