The House of Blue

Stories that accompanied the database...

Texas poured as much money into its athletics programs a year ago as eight of the nine schools in the more modestly resourced Sun Belt Conference did, combined, underscoring a growing issue in the NCAA's top football-playing bowl subdivision: Is it time to separate the haves from the have-nots?

Many interesting story lines in these numbers. Really interesting stuff.

Kyle Tucker was honing in on one interesting angle, the degree to which many universities subsidize their athletics departments on the backs of their students via exorbitant fees earmarked for athletics. I'm glad that UK doesn't do that.

Eric Crawford noticed that UofL's donations were about twice as much as UK's. UK gets considerably more via its media package with IMG. UK and UofL both spent significantly more on basketball recruiting than football recruiting, even though football signing classes are about 5x larger than basketball signing classes.

Also, the revenue numbers for the schools with the top end football programs are absolutely staggering.

I've known that for a while and think it is crazy.

You could see something happening in the future where you have Cal's suggested "super-conferences" made up of the schools that can bring in the highest dollar to operate, with other schools competing in lower divisions of their own. It will be like the old I-AA, but will feature many more schools that are currently considered "majors." I don't think it's a matter of if, but when.

Jurich has done an amazing job tapping into the Louisville business community to prop up UofL's AD. Luxury boxes and club seats are sold to big wigs and corporations. Plus, naming rights and a sweet heart deal at YUM! center are funding UofL AD. The Cincy Bengals have a similar deal with the city and most taxpayers are livid. UL will be on the end of that rage in a few years. In short, your average Joe UL fan isn't funding UL sports.

I also found it interesting that funds from the students, general university fund and taxpayers are subsidizing UL's AD at an 11.5% clip or roughly $10 million a year. If Jurich doesn't get that cash from the student fees, UL general fund and taxpayers he's running in the red. I'd like to see some political pressure put on UL to use the funds for academics and not supplementing a capable AD.

On the other hand, UK AD gets next to no financial support from student fees, university funding or taxpayers. Only 1% or 800k of the total budget. All the while UK AD donates $1 million to the general scholarship fund and gives the University a cut of the merchandise sales. You think we could afford a new baseball complex/upgrade FB facilities with 10 million in state funding and student fees every year?

The playing field needs to be leveled.

Don't think that will be the case with the new TV deal they are negotiating and about to sign, it will be even among all 10 (for now) schools. The B12 used to reward schools like Texas & Oklahoma who made most of the national TV appearances.

UT cashes in on their Longhorn Network that they I think dont share with the rest of the conference - but that apparently is not nearly as sucessful as they & ESPN thought. That is the tier 3 media rights issue, everyone in the B12 is free to do their own deal, not the case with the ACC, which is one of the main reasons FSU is allegedly exploring a move.

That will be a sad day. College sports has become more and more like business and more like professional sports. Our local basketball team makes more off season roster moves than the Boston Celtics, and probably pays its coach more.

Not saying anyone is doing anything wrong or illegal . . . but nothing says I have to like it or keep buying tickets or even watching it either.

It's rather amazing to me the number of schools that have subsidies in the 15-30 million range that I'm sure get nothing out of athletics other than a fat bill. Education priorities are a bit screwy in this day of mass media and greed.

What gives with the discrepancy in the contributions and endowment lines? Is this all from UL milking the season ticket holders with the new facilities? I wonder what the numbers looked like before the YUM center and since it is owned by an entity called the Louisville Arena Authority. I don't understand the actual owners or principles of LAA. But if UL doesn't have ownership of YUM then why is there such a difference in the asset line? is PJ Stadium worth 75 mill more than Commonwealth?

Depreciation. Did you read what Crawford wrote? Cws is old. Papa john's is new. You depreciate capital assets over time. That shows on the balance sheet.

Sure money is a factor, but again, it's supposed to be college, not a mini-professional league. What would be the difference between college football and the NFL if the superconferences were to happen and the NCAA were retired? It'd be a major blow to college athletics, IMO. The only draw college football would have over the NFL at that point would be college allegiance. One of the neat things about college football is the cutural differences between conferences and the history between those schools. But, we're already doing away with a lot of those things with the last round of realignment, so why not continue to do so I guess...

I don't think it's wise to seperate the schools based on money. I get that they already do that in a way with FCS and FBS. But if money was the be all for everything, Texas would not have gone 5-7 and 8-5, Florida would not have gone 8-5 and 7-6. Tennessee wouldn't be wandering in the wilderness. Major upsets happen every year. Look at college basketball and the tournament for example. Take our own sweet 16 where you have schools from Eastern Kentucky competing against Lexington and Louisville. Hoosier Hysteria used to be like that, but then they seperated the tournament based on classes (say money for NCAA) and now no one cares.

I've posted on here several times that I'm anti-expansion as I don't think it benefits UK in any way. Not one way other than we get a couple more million from TV. So maybe I'm biased but I would lose most interest in UK sports with superconferences because it would lose a lot of the draws it currently has.

C'mon, depreciation is more than just an accounting gimmic. Physical items degrade and devalue over time, they don't appreciate. that concrete in the place ain't getting any younger or stronger.