"My rule was I wouldn't recruit a kid if he had grass in front of his house.
That's not my world. My world was a cracked sidewalk." —Al McGuire

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

MU hoops more profitable than most FBS football programs - top 100 listed

While I have been as concerned about conference realignment as anyone, it is important to realize that even in a worst case scenario for the Big East, Marquette is not going to suddenly revert to being a wandering independent basketball team.

For those who believe football is all that matters, consider that the $5.5 million profit that the federal government showed for Marquette basketball in 2009-10 was more than MOST of the Division I-FBS FOOTBALL programs in the country. Overall, these official figures indicate Marquette basketball is the 56th most profitable sports program in all of Division I, while Louisville basketball is more profitable than all but 18 football programs. (see top 100 in all sports listed below).

There is every reason to expect we will continue to see more great players follow Wes, Lazar, Jimmy, DJO, Jae and Davante to Marquette to play in an NBA arena where the program is bigger than most football programs. Why go to a school where you are the 70th most important athlete on campus to many people?

The profit numbers give me hope that Rick Pitino keeps Louisville in the Big East as the $14.7 million profit for Louisville basketball currently dwarfs the $2.4 million profit I estimate Louisville football produces – though obviously this could change with a huge payout by the Big 12.

To get an estimate of the overall profit or loss of all 3,500 Division I sports programs, I calculated the impact of Title IX matching scholarships. The 120 most profitable college football programs averaged over $9 million a year in profit, BUT football also necessitates matching scholarships for about four women’s teams, at an average cost of $2.4 million for the biggest 120 programs. Therefore and average of 25.5% of the profit earned by football goes right back into Title IX compliance. I did not calculate every single sport for every single school, but I estimated the 25.5% across-the-board with football programs.

For those who want MU football back, it is worth noting that more than a quarter of FBS football programs lose money even before you consider matching Title IX scholarships, including current and potential Big East members Rutgers, UConn, TCU, SMU, Nova, Temple, Southern Miss and Memphis.

Calculating the Title IX impact for basketball programs is much easier, since a men’s basketball program only necessitates having the same number of women on scholarship for basketball. While most women’s basketball programs do cost some money, Marquette and West Virginia actually turned a profit on the women’s side as well.

Put it all together, and the most profitable football programs clear about $7.1 million when pared with their Title IX programs, while the top 120 combined basketball programs clear about $2.1 million. The only other sport to crack the top 100 was Minnesota hockey as the 80th most profitable program.

The following table shows the 100 most profitable programs, with the profit for the men’s program, then the estimated cost of matching Title IX programs (or in the case of Marquette and West Virginia the extra money the ladies brought in), and then the total figure. Just for fun, I threw in the most profitable program for 21 other sports that also rank in the top 500 overall. And if you are wondering, I learned while my daughter was being recruited to play soccer (thank you Title IX), that Penn does not award scholarships even though they are Division I, thus their profit in many sports:




RnkCollegeSport Men's profit Est. Title IX Impact Est. Real Profit
1TexasFootball $68,782,770 $(17,539,606) $51,243,164
2GeorgiaFootball $52,488,741 $(13,384,629) $39,104,112
3Penn StateFootball $50,407,978 $(12,854,034) $37,553,944
4MichiganFootball $44,835,985 $(11,433,176) $33,402,809
5FloridaFootball $44,197,604 $(11,270,389) $32,927,215
6LSUFootball $43,226,243 $(11,022,692) $32,203,551
7AlabamaFootball $40,725,197 $(10,384,925) $30,340,272
8TennesseeFootball $39,208,537 $(9,998,177) $29,210,360
9AuburnFootball $38,217,492 $(9,745,460) $28,472,032
10OklahomaFootball $38,103,560 $(9,716,408) $28,387,152
11South CarolinaFootball $35,457,715 $(9,041,717) $26,415,998
12Notre DameFootball $34,642,429 $(8,833,819) $25,808,610
13NebraskaFootball $32,062,280 $(8,175,881) $23,886,399
14Ohio StateFootball $31,941,460 $(8,145,072) $23,796,388
15IowaFootball $27,352,540 $(6,974,898) $20,377,642
16Michigan StateFootball $26,964,777 $(6,876,018) $20,088,759
17ArkansasFootball $26,478,860 $(6,752,109) $19,726,751
18Texas A & MFootball $25,294,079 $(6,449,990) $18,844,089
19LouisvilleBasketball $16,706,817 $(1,978,928) $14,727,889
20KentuckyFootball $17,971,203 $(4,582,657) $13,388,546
21DukeBasketball $14,242,969 $(1,039,915) $13,203,054
22Oklahoma StateFootball $17,292,309 $(4,409,539) $12,882,770
23WisconsinFootball $16,585,311 $(4,229,254) $12,356,057
24MississippiFootball $16,474,738 $(4,201,058) $12,273,680
25ArizonaBasketball $13,363,103 $(1,430,867) $11,932,236
26UNCBasketball $13,824,688 $(2,153,268) $11,671,420
27West VirginiaFootball $15,102,123 $(3,851,041) $11,251,082
28MinnesotaFootball $14,848,773 $(3,786,437) $11,062,336
29Virginia TechFootball $14,828,223 $(3,781,197) $11,047,026
30WashingtonFootball $14,664,667 $(3,739,490) $10,925,177
31ClemsonFootball $14,650,130 $(3,735,783) $10,914,347
32IllinoisFootball $14,193,299 $(3,619,291) $10,574,008
33ColoradoFootball $13,646,041 $(3,479,740) $10,166,301
34Indiana StateBasketball $10,264,973 $(329,148) $9,935,825
35Ohio StateBasketball $11,532,517 $(1,921,800) $9,610,717
36MissouriFootball $11,594,938 $(2,956,709) $8,638,229
37Arizona StateFootball $11,576,019 $(2,951,885) $8,624,134
38NC StateFootball $11,529,798 $(2,940,098) $8,589,700
39Texas TechFootball $11,493,005 $(2,930,716) $8,562,289
40WisconsinBasketball $10,049,768 $(1,508,851) $8,540,917
41OregonFootball $11,380,204 $(2,901,952) $8,478,252
42ArizonaFootball $10,675,291 $(2,722,199) $7,953,092
43IllinoisBasketball $9,355,746 $(1,456,291) $7,899,455
44SyracuseBasketball $10,160,444 $(2,563,459) $7,596,985
45West VirginiaBasketball $6,811,627 $608,109 $7,419,736
46Georgia TechFootball $9,311,353 $(2,374,395) $6,936,958
47IndianaFootball $8,943,424 $(2,280,573) $6,662,851
48IndianaBasketball $8,824,839 $(2,248,350) $6,576,489
49MinnesotaBasketball $7,970,650 $(1,563,403) $6,407,247
50VanderbiltFootball $8,335,884 $(2,125,650) $6,210,234
51USCFootball $8,196,472 $(2,090,100) $6,106,372
52TennesseeBasketball $6,736,628 $(792,533) $5,944,095
53Michigan StateBasketball $7,752,191 $(1,990,120) $5,762,071
54Boise StateFootball $7,652,199 $(1,951,311) $5,700,888
55NC StateBasketball $7,201,304 $(1,592,588) $5,608,716
56MarquetteBasketball $5,548,653 $27,661 $5,576,314
57UNCFootball $7,269,531 $(1,853,730) $5,415,801
58Oregon StateFootball $7,054,605 $(1,798,924) $5,255,681
59UCLAFootball $7,007,436 $(1,786,896) $5,220,540
60PittsburghBasketball $6,998,187 $(1,783,992) $5,214,195
61NorthwesternFootball $6,945,643 $(1,771,139) $5,174,504
62DaytonBasketball $6,024,000 $(905,274) $5,118,726
63ArkansasBasketball $8,591,645 $(3,557,929) $5,033,716
64MiamiFootball $6,728,367 $(1,715,734) $5,012,633
65Central FloridaFootball $6,653,435 $(1,696,626) $4,956,809
66Iowa StateFootball $6,580,398 $(1,678,001) $4,902,397
67Kansas StateFootball $6,396,572 $(1,631,126) $4,765,446
68PurdueFootball $6,272,332 $(1,599,445) $4,672,887
69WashingtonBasketball $6,017,679 $(1,459,305) $4,558,374
70UNLVBasketball $5,589,104 $(1,177,299) $4,411,805
71UCLABasketball $6,024,975 $(1,650,042) $4,374,933
72California-BerkeleyFootball $5,869,660 $(1,496,763) $4,372,897
73MarylandBasketball $5,536,767 $(1,297,597) $4,239,170
74XavierBasketball $6,376,553 $(2,174,003) $4,202,550
75Brigham YoungFootball $5,439,315 $(1,387,025) $4,052,290
76Mississippi StateBasketball $3,941,748 $- $3,941,748
77TexasBasketball $6,566,315 $(2,762,688) $3,803,627
78PittsburghFootball $5,043,612 $(1,286,121) $3,757,491
79UtahFootball $4,763,360 $(1,214,657) $3,548,703
80MinnesotaIce Hockey $4,272,482 $(837,485) $3,434,997
81Mississippi StateFootball $4,589,709 $(1,170,376) $3,419,333
82NorthwesternBasketball $5,845,397 $(2,426,884) $3,418,513
83South FloridaFootball $4,359,168 $(1,111,588) $3,247,580
84Wake ForestBasketball $4,841,385 $(1,668,656) $3,172,729
85KentuckyBasketball $5,009,809 $(1,979,128) $3,030,681
86StanfordFootball $4,044,674 $(1,031,392) $3,013,282
87Virginia TechBasketball $4,404,952 $(1,401,752) $3,003,200
88Georgia TechBasketball $5,213,420 $(2,293,515) $2,919,905
89SyracuseFootball $3,834,314 $(977,750) $2,856,564
90Washington StateFootball $3,554,031 $(906,278) $2,647,753
91GeorgetownBasketball $2,565,088 $- $2,565,088
92LouisvilleFootball $3,294,638 $(840,133) $2,454,505
93South CarolinaBasketball $5,115,933 $(2,801,869) $2,314,064
94VirginiaFootball $3,054,095 $(778,794) $2,275,301
95VanderbiltBasketball $2,188,985 $- $2,188,985
96MissouriBasketball $4,124,762 $(2,006,208) $2,118,554
97KansasBasketball $5,033,796 $(2,998,724) $2,035,072
98AlabamaBasketball $4,300,697 $(2,279,857) $2,020,840
99WyomingFootball $2,702,970 $(689,257) $2,013,713
100Florida StateFootball $2,580,037 $(657,909) $1,922,128
104TexasBaseball $1,884,950 $- $1,884,950
125UNC GreensboroTrack $521,948 $513,798 $1,035,746
144San Diego StateRowing $- $752,084 $752,084
150PennsylvaniaLacrosse $434,062 $224,300 $658,362
159Eastern WashingtonTennis $218,819 $281,147 $499,966
167East CarolinaVolleyball $- $457,875 $457,875
169UABSoftball $- $433,466 $433,466
172Southern Soccer $- $387,479 $387,479
183UNC GreensboroGolf $176,904 $168,809 $345,713
197VermontField Hockey $- $293,897 $293,897
215San Diego StateWater Polo $- $248,041 $248,041
241NC GreensboroWrestling $182,202 $- $182,202
247South Dakota StateEquestrian $- $165,000 $165,000
306PennsylvaniaSquash $38,201 $38,015 $76,216
313Bowling Green StateGymnastics $- $65,487 $65,487
325TroyRodeo $27,214 $29,154 $56,368
334New OrleansSwimming $9,728 $43,720 $53,448
337The Texas at El PasoRifle $- $51,201 $51,201
351HamptonSailing $13,150 $28,994 $42,144
382PennsylvaniaFencing $19,132 $10,657 $29,789
478VermontSkiing $51,555 $(40,593) $10,962

1 comment:

George Brell said...

Just an FYI, none of the Ivies (inc. Penn) officially give out scholarships. With that said, I saw some creative financial aid packages, but none of them can condition admission or need-based aid on participation in sports.