NCAA Re-alignment

nehneh said:

thanks for the updates BB

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Schools sometimes lose money in the short term on their trips to the bowl games if expense allowances - roughly $2 million per school - provided by their conferences are not enough to cover costs associated with playing in one of the five games. Some costs such as team lodging and mandatory ticket purchases are controlled by the bowls.

The Republic obtained records from the NCAA that disclosed aggregate spending figures for the past three years of all public and private schools that played in BCS bowls. The records did not reveal individual universities' expenses but averaged those expenses and the allowances that the universities received from their conferences.

Those averages, calculated by the NCAA, showed that in all three years, average expenses exceeded average allowances, meaning schools often lost money.

The Republic separately obtained records from individual public universities that played in BCS bowls for the past six years to determine, on an individual basis, how many schools lost money. Records dating beyond six years were incomplete. The Republic's analysis showed that 41 percent of public universities playing in BCS games reported losses. The figure would have jumped to 50 percent had conferences not absorbed some of their universities' bowl expenses in addition to their predetermined allotment.

- Bowls spend heavily on gifts to schools' top athletic officials to maintain their support. The Orange Bowl and Fiesta Bowl have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars a year to influence top collegiate decision makers. The Orange Bowl has treated those decision makers to Caribbean cruises. The Fiesta Bowl has annually hosted golf retreats, with most over the past decade at the Arizona Biltmore. Those athletic officials and the presidents of their institutions ultimately decide which bowls stay in the BCS.

While the Rose and Sugar bowls do not sponsor such trips, all four BCS bowls provide gifts cumulatively worth thousands of dollars each year to players, coaches, athletic officials and their families attending BCS games. Some also send unique and sometimes costly gifts to universities throughout the year.

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, a BCS opponent, said he is appalled at how bowls operate by "making money and providing extravagant gifts when schools are hurting financially - and these are taxpayer-funded schools for the most part."

- Pay for the highest executives at the BCS bowls has more than doubled since they united in the late 1990s, with average annual executive compensation now exceeding $500,000. The average pay of top BCS bowl executives is above the 90th percentile of the more than 9,000 non-profit CEOs in the country who work with similar or even slightly larger budgets.

Compensation for all four BCS bowl executives is more than double the median compensation of all those non-profit CEOs, and their pay is high when compared with chiefs of public, for-profit companies with similar or larger budgets.

- The Sugar, Orange and Fiesta bowls, which are run by non-profit organizations, have accepted government subsidies even as their revenue and assets have grown.

"They not only are receiving a subsidy, but what they are not doing is paying taxes. They (bowls) are saving millions, and the states and federal governments are losing millions with these four bowls on tax revenue they would collect if they were not non-profits," said Sharon Schneider, a philanthropic director at the Connecticut-based Foundation Source, which runs nearly 1,000 foundations.

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Burgundy Burner said:

***Official***

Texas Christian University is going to the Big12 next year. So much for going to the Big East - or whatever is left of it.

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redskins26 said:

to bad they didnt stay in the MWC they could have had a nice rivalry with Boise state

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