The Money Game in College Athletics

[Obadiah]

The news for the past week has come fast and furious about coming changes in governance and policy making within NCAA Division 1. First, we saw the bargaining implication of the unity messages used by players in many college games last Saturday, then NCAA President Emmert alluded to coming governance changes and today Big 10 Commish Jim Delany made some strong statements that NCAA schools are not the minor leagues for the NFL and NBA and those leagues should follow the baseball model.

While Delaney dismissed "pay for play" talk, he did say that the power conferences needed to get their act together and drive for more autonomy. This is code for driving towards a two level playing field in both basketball and football. The objective will be for the power conference to raise the value of scholarships to include stipends to cover other living expenses of athletes. This stipend approach provides a better cap on costs than a "pay for play" model.

Smaller schools with less financial resources will not be able to object, as they currently do, because they will be in another governing body. In basketball, the NCAA may have one tournament for all 345 schools, but the deck will be further stacked in favor of power conference schools. How does a school recruit in an environment where the "have" schools offer better scholarships. It may not be called pay, but the effect is similar.

At a school like URI where very little has been done on either the expense side or the investment side of athletics for the last ten years, a power conference move like this will definitely hurt. And we didn't need more reminders of our lagging on the facilities side given a few weeks ago we saw URI win its first football game in many moons at a beautiful new stadium at Albany, a relative newcomer to D-1 athletics.

I was also shocked (no pun intended) with Wichita State raising the salary of their BB coach to $1.75 million. And the Shockers are not in a power conference.
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketb ... alary-175m

[reef]

Good for Gregg Marshall !!

[rambone 78]

Well, hate to say it, but URI is going to have to raise Dan's pay substantially soon if they want to keep him. Success is just around the corner as they say. Maintaining that will be the hardest part.

[URIGONZO]

Witchita State made the final four last year??

[ace]

Witchita State made the final four last year??

They sure did.

[URIGONZO]

I have a VERY bad memory.

[wakefield]

We need to drop football as soon as possible and put the money towards paying off the Ryan Center. The Ryan Center needs to become a cash cow because we cannot depend on the state for any help. Correct me if I'm wrong, but we are losing over 3 mill a year on a program which has no hope at all.

[OBRAM]

Ryan Center cost $54 million and is now over 10 years ago, $15 mill private donations, $18 mill from the state and $21 million bond being paid by student Fees. How much of this $21 million is still needed to be paid off? The Ryan Center in today's dollars new would be an $85 million or more investment in basketball, I think it is time to put money into a football stadium , outside track, , stands for baseball and replacing a pool complex that is almost 50 years old. Coaches salaries are out of control, I don't think URI should spend $1.75 million on a basketball coach.

[rjsuperfly66]

Coaches salaries are out of control, I don't think URI should spend $1.75 million on a basketball coach.

Do you want to win? Unfortunately, it's the world we live in. If you want to be anything more than a stepping stone, you need to pay, a lot. Otherwise, the only good coaches you are going to get are the guys looking to build the resume for the higher-profile job, which you can survive on, if you don't pick the wrong guy. It's hard to blame a coach for wanting to look elsewhere for 2 or 3x the money.

[ATPTourFan]

Problem is, everything has to go to basketball until basketball starts returning big $$ via NCAA credits.

[rambone 78]

URI will have to pay Dan at least 1 mil a year soon, if they want to have any chance of keeping him beyond the next year or two or three. Once he moves on, that level of pay will have to be maintained. There is no turning back, if URI truly wants to stay at a higher level.

As long as the results are there, that is. That looks pretty likely. Just a question on how fast success comes, and at what level.

VCU and Smart's contract, has set the bar for the A10. That's the price of success. A steep one for sure.

[Obadiah]

If a new division along football lines allows schools in that group to give stipends to football players, then because of title IX that stipend has to be offered to all scholarship athletes in all sports. How does this affect FCS (old 1-AA) and non-football schools in other sports? Would they be allowed to also offer stipends in sports such as basketball?

Rumor has it that the big football schools are talking about a $3000 stipend. If this stipend is extended to non-FBS schools and assuming URI has 200 scholarship athletes in all sports, the expense increase would be in the range of $600,000. If URI and similar schools are not included in allowing stipends, then basketball recruiting will be hindered versus the big schools. Either way we are between a rock and a hard spot.

We will learn more about this important development at the NCAA convention in January.

[BFC]

URI spent the most on money on men's basketball in the A-10 last year according to this: http://www.bbstate.com/info/teams-hoopsbudget. I assume Baron's buyout played a major factor.

[ATPTourFan]

Yes, BFC, that was definitely due to Baron's buyout. If you look at previous seasons URI is closer to the middle of the pack in spending on men's hoop in the A10.

Plus, that was FY2012 I think which ended June 30, 2012

[Blue Man]

contractually aren't we (thankfully) obligated to spend more on MBB?

Football, from my understanding, would cost more in donations and sponsorship money to get rid of, than it does right now.

Money has to go to basketball because basketball is our only hope of making big money for the entire athletic department.

As for paying Dan what he's worth: if you don't think coaches are worth spending the money, than you might as well shutter the entire athletics department. The only point of having an athletics department is to win. To win you need a good coach. To get a good coach, you need to spend good money.

At least this time we're paying a guy that can hang on the basketball court, unlike the last decade.

[BFC]

There's alot of pipe dreams for our football program but the idea that a successful football program will be built with basketball revenues is the biggest of them all. No marketable head coach, Hurley or the next guy, would sit by while basketball revenues are spent on another sport before salaries are raised, charter flights for away games are purchased, a practice facility is built, etc. And by the time we've caught up in those areas, they'll be a bunch of other stuff that we're behind on. And on top of it, we're not talking about supporting golf or tennis but the most expensive sport there is, football.
When basketball revenues start to roll in, the only sensible plan is to reinvest them in basketball. If we don't do that, we deserve another Baron.

[Blue Man]

There's alot of pipe dreams for our football program but the idea that a successful football program will be built with basketball revenues is the biggest of them all. No marketable head coach, Hurley or the next guy, would sit by while basketball revenues are spent on another sport before salaries are raised, charter flights for away games are purchased, a practice facility is built, etc. And by the time we've caught up in those areas, they'll be a bunch of other stuff that we're behind on. And on top of it, we're not talking about supporting golf or tennis but the most expensive sport there is, football.
When basketball revenues start to roll in, the only sensible plan is to reinvest them in basketball. If we don't do that, we deserve another Baron.

I'm not saying this is going to happen in 1, 4, or 6 years...successful programs are built over a long period of time.

The building of facilities helps all athletics programs - see the new SADC, weight room and training room.

The success of the basketball program brings a spotlight to the university as a whole, and athletics giving as well.

The donor points double when you give unrestricted to athletics, so that's another way football would reap the benefits of sustained basketball success.

I'm going off of what Temple was able to do to build their football program up, as well as UMASS.

[rodfromcranston]

Successful basketball coaches are worth EVERY penny they earn!