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Friday, October 28, 2011

The Real Money In College Football


Every wondered how much money goes into college football?  Apparently, Paula Lavigne, an analysist for ESPN has a website devoted to exactly how much money is going through the hands of college football teams:
The information comes from detailed financial disclosure forms that athletic departments submit annually to the NCAA. These are for the fiscal year ending in 2008. ESPN requested the forms from all 120 Division I colleges in the Football Bowl Subdivision under state and federal public records laws. Private colleges and others not subject to those laws declined to release their forms. In those cases, ESPN filled in some of the blanks using financial information that public and private schools are required to provide to the U.S. Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Education. The only exception is Navy, for which no information was found.
1.    Here are some interesting finds.  First, my Alma Mater BYU: (Click to make bigger).  ~$37 million in/~33 million out.


2.  Or our in state rival Utah: ~$27 million in/ ~$28 million out (Losing money Utah!)



Compared to the two teams ranked #1 and 2, stating with LSU: ~$85 million in/ ~$81 million out.


And finally ending with Alabama: ~$124 million in/ ~$123 million out!


And there you have it.  Some schools are both bringing in and spending > $120,000,000!  Now, I don't care in the sense that I think it is wrong.  But I will say I am amazed that college sports bring in this kind of money to individual teams!  But on the other hand, I bet college football has an audience on par with many professional sporting programs.  And I wouldn't be shocked to hear a professional sports team brings in over $120 million.

And just for fun on a Friday, I leave you this and let you decide how easy it is to find the correct answer:


7 comments:

  1. That version of the Liar is fantastic!  Did you make it up or did you see it somewhere?

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  2. I just came across it on the internet.  It is pretty good!

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  3. I should point out that the $ figures here represent all athletic income and expenses, so that includes basketball, baseball, tennis, golf, swimming, archery and badminton, not just football. I looked up UNC and I *know* that our football team doesn't bring in $66 million, we aren't that good.

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  4. You are correct.  It is for all of college sports.  I botched that one.

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  5. Dang, that's a lot of money. Yeah, I'd say a lot of them have money figures that rival pro sports. To be fair, having lived in the West my whole life, and now living in the East, I think people in the East take sports more seriously. Here in Michigan, high school basketball, baseball, and football are a REALLY big deal. Lots of money, lost of endorsements, lots of pro and college scouts, and tons of pressure. I never saw that in Utah when I played sports (even at the high school level).

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  6. WHAT IS THE ANSWER TO THE BLACKBOARD QUESTION AT THE END?? I've been staring at it for like 20 minutes and I can't figure it out! lol

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