Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Headlines: BC Athletics Ranks 32nd In 2007-2008 Revenues

Brian: Curious as to how BC Athletics revenues compared to other F.B.S. athletic programs in 2007-2008? The Orlando Sentinel's College Gridiron 365 blog has your answer:

RankSchoolTotal RevenueConference
1stTexas$120,288,370 Big 12
2ndOhio State$117,953,712 Big Ten
3rdFlorida$106,030,895 SEC
4thMichigan$99,027,105 Big Ten
5thWisconsin$93,452,334 Big Ten
6thPenn State$91,570,233 Big Ten
7thAuburn$89,305,326SEC
8thAlabama$88,869,810 SEC
9thTennessee$88,719,798 SEC
10thOklahoma State$88,554,438 Big 12
11thKansas$86,009,257 Big 12
12thLouisiana State$84,183,362 SEC
13thGeorgia$84,020,180 SEC
14thNotre Dame$83,352,439 Independent
15thIowa$81,148,310 Big Ten
16thMichigan State$77,738,746 Big Ten
17thOklahoma$77,098,009 Big 12
18thStanford$76,661,466 Pac-10
19thUSC$76,409,919 Pac-10
20thNebraska$75,492,884 Big 12
21stTexas A&M$74,781,640 Big 12
22ndKentucky$71,186,184 SEC
23rdDuke$67,820,335 ACC
24thSouth Carolina$66,545,953 SEC
25thUCLA$66,088,264 Pac-10
26thVirginia$65,400,485 ACC
27thArkansas$64,197,470 SEC
28thCalifornia$63,884,710 Pac-10
29thMinnesota$63,782,454 Big Ten
30thPurdue$62,093,614 Big Ten
31stNorth Carolina$61,263,269 ACC
32ndBoston College$61,203,340 ACC


Towards the end of the post, I found this quote interesting:
"As the figures indicate, the athletic departments with the highest revenue typically are from schools that fill 80,000- to 100,000-seat football stadiums on autumn Saturdays and come from conferences that receive an automatic Bowl Championship Series bid."
While the is statement about the 80,000 to 100,000-seat football stadiums is largely true - the four athletic programs with 100,000+ capacity football stadiums ranked 4th (Michigan), 6th (Penn State), 2nd (Ohio State) and 9th (Tennessee), respectively - it certainly seems strange to see BC hovering around the top 25% of this list.

Indeed, of the top 32 earners, only Duke's Wallace Wade Stadium - with a capacity of 33,941 - is smaller than BC's Alumni Stadium (although something tells me Duke is able to make up for its football stadium's capacity shortfall with the financial success of their men's basketball program). The average stadium capacity for the 31 programs that made more money than BC is 78,821.

Here is how the twelve ACC athletics departments stacked up to one another in the rankings:

RankSchoolTotal RevenueConference
23rdDuke$67,820,335 ACC
26thVirginia$65,400,485 ACC
31stNorth Carolina$61,263,269 ACC
32ndBoston College$61,203,340 ACC
34thClemson$59,126,212 ACC
37thVirginia Tech$56,029,172 ACC
41stMaryland$54,171,741 ACC
49thGeorgia Tech$47,126,247 ACC
51stMiami (Fla.)$46,849,990 ACC
53rdFlorida State$45,414,953 ACC
55thNorth Carolina State$44,553,795 ACC
60thWake Forest$39,961,624 ACC

If the numbers for programs like Miami (Fla.) or Florida State seem low, this is likely because of the small number of varsity sports sponsored by these schools (Miami sponsors 15, the lowest number in the ACC, and Florida State sponsors 17, the second lowest). However, the number of sponsored varsity sports doesn't tell the whole story either. Take a look at Virginia at 2nd in the ACC with $65 million in revenues compared to NC State at 11th in the ACC with $44 million in revenues. Both programs sponsor 25 varsity sports. If you look at revenue per varsity sport sponsored, though, these numbers tell a very different story.

Still, in the ACC, only Duke, Virginia and UNC took in more athletics revenue than Boston College did last year. So for those BC haters out there that say that the move from the Big East to the ACC was a financial failure, don't bust balls. (The first Big East program on the list is Connecticut at No. 39).

If you take one thing away from this list though, it does accurately shows you just how uneven the financial playing field is in college athletics. For example, note the 6 SEC programs in the top 13. Clearly, there will be a separation between the "haves" (the BCS conferences and Notre Dame) and the "have-nots," but it's almost scary to see how wide the divide is in college athletics.

Here's how the conferences stack up to one another:

ConferenceAvg. RevenueHighestLowest
Big Ten$76,419,044Ohio State (2)Northwestern (59)
SEC$71,149,219Florida (3)Mississippi St. (75)
Big XII$66,480,752Texas (1)Iowa St. (63)
Pac-10$58,767,200Stanford (18)Washington St. (62)
ACC$54,076,764Duke (23)Wake Forest (60)
Big East$45,553,455Connecticut (39)Cincinnati (67)
Mountain West$30,755,578TCU (57)Colorado St. (88)
C-USA$25,706,808Memphis (68)Southern Miss (111)
WAC$20,452,529Hawaii (70)La. Tech (115)
MAC$19,997,769Temple (79)Ball State (107)
Sun Belt$13,807,386FIU (95)La.-Monroe (118)

2 comments:

Winfield Featherston said...

A lot of people are looking at this from a football perspective but we all have to remember that this is for the entire athletic program. Granted 80,000 seated stadiums helps but I don't think it is the one causal factor. Oohh here comes a linear regression model! haha

Raj said...

shame on clemson :P