Lucrative FBS Move

[SDHornet]

..or rather it isn’t. The UT ran a nice article on some comments the MWC commissioner said regarding their financial situation and how it compared to the BCS conferences. Keep in mind that this is coming from what many believe to be the strongest non-BCS conference there is…and then keep in mind that if we do move, it would be to the WAC whose member financials and conference financials are worse off than the MWC’s. Add the fact that there is a lot of speculation that the BCS conference could leave the NCAA and you are left with a very compelling reason on why making a move to the FBS wouldn’t be a good idea.

Television: The Pac-12 Conference television rights deal will mean about $20 million per member school. By contrast, Mountain West member schools this year each will get about $1.5 million as part of a 10-year, $120 million deal TV contract that started in 2006. When that contract ends, it might not get much better because Mountain West markets only cover about 5 percent of the U.S. population, Thompson said.

Such a disparity is why Utah and Texas Christian decided to leave the conference for the Pac-12 and Big East, respectively.

Realignment: With such a disparity in resources between the rich and poor in college football, what can be done about it? Should the poor leagues give up and let the six elite leagues just break off and form their own division without the likes of the Mountain West?

“Not yet,” Thompson said. “I think we’re in the mode of ‘sell the boat, go to a smaller college (with) less tuition, take a second job.’ I’m talking real life, whatever it’s going to take to maintain what we have. We have not had those conversations (about the elite conferences breaking away). Knock wood, we won’t have to have them real soon. We may have to have them sooner than we would hope.”

Rising costs and cuts: In 1999-2000, Thompson said the average athletics budget in the MWC was about $17 million. Now it’s $38 million. Meanwhile, state budget cuts have forced schools to raise tuition, which increases the cost of athletics scholarships. State cuts also have led athletic departments to cut more resources, including SDSU, which had to furlough coaches and cut 25 full-time jobs in the past three years. The football office at SDSU is down to one secretary and one athletic trainer.

"One of the biggest challenges is just keeping the doors open," Thompson said.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/jul/27/mountain-west-facing-financial-struggles/

 

[Green Cookie Monster]

Most non BCS FBS schools field a football program as a means of outreach to prospective students and donors. I am not sure why a budget of $38M cant support more than one trainer or secretary. Does SDSU fly first class to all away games? Do they pay their HC $15M a year?

If Sac State went FBS our budget would need to increase $3-4M annually, which would put us at $18-19M overall.

A fact though is that we can't sustain a $16M budget at the FCS level without additional non-state supported revenue.

Do we tax the students more?
Do we fundraise more, which seems to be a challenge for the current staff?
Do we upgrade to FBS and hope the WAC pie slice increases $3-4M per team?

Methinks the best solution is to provide a winning program that puts more butts in the stands, ala Montana.

I just hope we havent hit our high water mark for funding/budgeting.