(08-21-2014 09:23 AM)Captain Bearcat Wrote: As you know, UMass was recently given an ultimatum: join the MAC for all sports or you're kicked out. UMass decided to leave, supposedly because they wanted to keep playing A-10 basketball.
Does this mean that A-10 basketball brings in more money than MAC football?
The A-10 got 10 NCAA tourney credits last year. This site indicates that each credit is worth between 1.5 and 1.9 million (spread out over 6 years). They've averaged 8 credits/year over the past 5 years, so that's $12-17 million/year. Their TV contract is $5 mil/year, so they should distribute 17-22 million, or $1.06 - 1.38 million per school.
This site claims that the MAC's new contract gives them $650,000 per school per year. They've averaged 2 tourney credits per year over the last 5 years, ($3-3.8 mil total, or $250k-$310k/school), for a total of $900-960k per school.
[b]Am I doing this math right?[/b] If so, it would seem that for UMass, basketball brings in a lot more money than football.
I don't think you are doing the math right. Each tournament game played is worth roughly $250K/yr to the conference. So, if the A-10 were to play in 6 games every year (4 bids, two first round wins) they would get $1.5 million. If they average 8 games a year, they get $2 million.
75% of that money goes to the team that earned the credits, and 25% is divided equally among the 13 members. So, if UMass didn't play in any games during the preceding 6 years, and the A-10 averaged 8 games during that stretch, UMass would get 1/13th of $500K, or a little under $40K per year.
If UMass got invited twice, and won one game, they would have played in 3 games total. At 3 X $250K per game, X 75% for the participant, they would get an additional $560K spread over 6 years, or an average of an additional $90K per year.
So their distribution from NCAAT revenue is probably more in the $100-150K per year range. Add $400K per year from the TV contract and you are receiving $500-550K per year from the A-10. If you are a member of an FBS conference, you will get roughly $1.3 million from the CFP, plus whatever their TV payout is.
Gate receipts are not a significant revenue producer for UMass, so that would only potentially be a factor if they were invited to the AAC, but that's highly unlikely to happen. If the MAC TV deal is worth $800K per school, then it would seem like staying in the MAC at $2 million plus per year is a much better deal than being indy in football and in the A-10 for hoops.
But that's only the revenue side, so you have to also consider any extra travel cost associated with not being in a northeast regional conference. Any way you slice it, UMass doesn't seem to have any options available to it that will let them operate even close to black numbers. The school is going to have to heavily subsidize athletics for the foreseeable future.
The fact is that any difference in conference revenues will be dwarfed by the amount of the subsidy required - enough so that it probably shouldn't even be a factor in their decision. If UMass wants to play FBS football for university marketing reasons, they should do it. But they sure aren't doing it for the money. Their football program isn't going to break even any time soon.
http://wewearthering.com/2014/03/27/atla...all-units/