Consequences, schmonsequences, long as I'm rich:
Here's a top 10 list for football revenue (figures in millions):That's for the year 2007-2008, according to Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal. A handful of reactions:
1. Texas: $72.95
2. Georgia: $67.05
3. Florida: $66.1
4. Ohio State: $65.16
5. Notre Dame: $59.77
6. Auburn: $59.67
7. Michigan: $57.46
8. Alabama: $57.37
9. Penn State: $53.76
10. LSU: $52.68
In overall sports revenues, Auburn ranked seventh nationally, having brought in $89.31 million. Texas, again, was first, earning $120.28 million.
1. Remember that thing I said earlier today about the SEC making too much money to play road games? Well, when the conference's probably sixth-ranked team in terms of prestige, national reputation, etc. makes more money than Michigan and comes only a few nickels short of a team with its own TV contract, it's not a wonder said conference isn't all that enthusiastic collectively about giving up some of that hard-earned ca$h in the name of "courage" or, alternatively, "fairness."
2. Wow, 2 million and change shy of the school who we all know, of course, has the smaller, weaker, more fickle fan base, huh? Guess Daniel Moore should have sold a few more paintings.
3. Every single team in that top 10 is either from the SEC, the Midwest, or Texas.
4. On the one hand, you have to hand it to Auburn's administration that revenues and expenses have been balanced this well. On the other, why is it that even with this kind of windfall, two of our three revenue sports have lagged near the bottom of the league and made little-to-no national impact for nearly this entire decade? Better than having subpar men's hoops and baseball teams and not having a giant pile of money, I guess.
5. Gene Chizik is going to get a fat raise if he wins football games.
6. Happy as I am about this sort of news, I'll be even happier if I get to read a story sometime soon about how the athletic department funneled a chunk of these revenues back to the university, as I recall Florida fans got to not too long ago. (If someone wants to leave a link to such a story in the comments, feel free.)
8 comments:
The two reasons Auburn pulls in more money than Bama Sabans first year:
Bama had a neutral field game in Jacksonville, generates less moola
Bama went to Shreveport Auburn went to Atlanta
The 2008 - 2009 will have Bama head and shoulders ahead of Auburn, who did not receive any bowl pay out and Bama went to a BCS game.
The generosity of Alabama fans is legendary. At the 2007 Spring game, the one with the largest Spring Day game crowd in history and free admission, a 'Hurricane Katrina' donation effort yielded less than 23 cents per person.
Amazing, isn't it? With nothing more than concessions and T-shirts to spend money on, Bama fans couldn't even pony up a quarter a piece.
But they could pay for these:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-08-13-katrina-luxury-condos_N.htm
What else can one say other than "Bama fans"?
Sullivan013
So, central Pennsylvania (State College, to be precise) counts as the midwest or Texas nowadays?
As you sometimes say, picking the tiniest of nits.
Still, interesting article.
Wasn't that fundraiser for the victims of the tornado that hit Enterprise on March 1st of that year, Sullivan? Still doesn't reflect well on the people who went to the game...
Im sorry we had a fund raiser at our spring game, how horrible of us to even think of that.
Anon., I'll just say your reading comprehension skills do "we" proud.
doophy, yeah, I'm lumping Penn St. in with their Big 10 brethren. No good way to get PSU and ND under the same umbrella ... even thought they kind of are.
WW, I've no doubt that's true, but if you think I'm letting that kind of chance at a dig slide by, well, I wouldn't be a very interesting blogger.
I agree with doofy. I hate to pick a nit, but Penn State is not in the mid-west.
Wallacewade - The SEC is a revenue sharing conference, i.e. the fact that bama went to the BCS last year and Auburn stayed at home won't have that much of an impact.
I know individual schools retain some of the cash they get from their bowl payout, but the bulk of it is put into a big pool and distributed equally among the 12 member institutions (along with the Television money, and revenue generated from the SECCG). The pot is going to be even bigger next year, due to the new TV contracts with ESPN and CBS. All the SEC members should have an extra ~$15 million/year to play around with.
http://www.secsports.com/local/compliance/bylaw_31.pdf
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