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Money matters NCAA tourney is really haves vs. have-notsPosted: Friday March 15, 2002 1:50 PMUpdated: Friday March 15, 2002 1:50 PM
Next time Bud Selig whines about baseball’s small market/large market woes he might want to check out college sports. Everyone loves March Madness, right? Hey, this is the ultimate showcase of David vs. Goliath, and you hear nary a whimper from the sporting public or the folks running the show. It’s a kick, for most, seeing Kent State take out higher-seeded Oklahoma State. Or 13th-seeded North Carolina-Wilmington sending home Southern Cal. But set aside anything you’ve heard about RPI ratings, Sagarin rankings and strength-of-schedule math. Let’s just study the most recent federal 990 tax forms filed by the major conferences -- available under open records law -- to uncover the incredible financial disparity between the haves and have-nots. Not to mention, of course, the flow of enough millions to bankroll a small country.
In their 2000 filings, alone, the six BCS conferences reported total annual revenues of almost $450 million. That’s essentially income from the NCAA basketball tournament, bowls and television, and doesn’t include the millions schools collect from gate receipts, sponsorships and other revenue streams. Here’s the kicker: The six largest non-BCS conferences generated less than $41 million, or one-tenth of what the big boys of collegiate amateur sports had to play with. “It has become a natural line of demarcation,’’ acknowledges Rick Chryst, commissioner of the Mid-American Athletic Conference. “You look at the BCS conferences, those are decades of investment in athletics that reinforce the branding of those leagues. Collectively, the branding of those six conferences is probably the highest investment in spending, in terms of facilities, personnel and programs.’’ Simply put, they’re burying the competition. Consider:
Don’t get the wrong idea. You can’t begrudge conferences for tapping revenue streams and amassing healthy fortunes. But money influences the college game. It affects everything from recruiting to travel to the ability to hire and retain top coaches. It plays on facilities, scheduling and TV exposure. “There definitely is a relationship between the amount of money a school spends and the level of success,’’ says Karl Benson, commissioner of the WAC. “When you are competing for coaches it is market driven, and those that can afford the higher profile coach are going to get him or her. With recruiting, if somebody is spending three times as much as somebody else you should see the difference. Or you better.’’ Benson believes money affords the major conferences an advantage in terms of depth. Within the WAC, for instance, he says two or three football programs and three our four in basketball typically are good enough to compete nationally -- about half of what major conferences produce. The economic impact also is felt in scheduling, where the large conference schools can pretty much dictate to lesser schools. The Butlers and Wyomings of the world can get games with the elite programs, if they’re willing to play on the road. So those with big bank accounts line up mid-majors to play at their friendly confines and don’t risk a road loss. “More than anything, whether you look at the NCAA tournament selection or regular season football scheduling, that is the biggest impact on competitiveness,’’ Chryst says. “It’s not even a matter of saying, ‘Well, you’ve got to come back to our place for a home-and-home.’ They ain’t playing them.’’ Parked in the middle of ACC country, UNC-Charlotte coach Bobby Lutz says the biggest advantage enjoyed by the marquee conferences is TV exposure, which translates to a huge recruiting bump. “Not only the Dukes, Marylands and North Carolinas, but even the teams in the middle or bottom of their league get a lot of exposure,’’ he says. Sun Belt commissioner Wright Waters contends TV can also help teams get in the NCAA tourney, along with influencing how a team is seeded. “That is where those guys have done a great job,’’ Waters says. “So, in some cases their money has generated money.’’ That’s just business, right? And despite all the student-athlete gibberish, big-time college sports are driven by money.
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Mike Fish is a senior writer for CNNSI.com. Comments? To e-mail Fish, click here. |
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Click on the conferences for full financial reports.
