(05-15-2020 08:23 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(05-14-2020 08:34 PM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  

(05-14-2020 04:34 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(05-14-2020 04:18 PM)Steve1981 Wrote:  Almost no sport or university department makes money. It's not all about money and FBS losses way less than FCS at the G5 level. FCS teams do not get 1.9 M from the P5 teams for a buy game.

According to the NCAA, the average athletic operating loss at G5 schools is $20 million. For FCS it is $13 million.

FCS do get pay-day games from P5, but unlike G5, they don't pay their coaches $2 million either. G5 is in a tough spot - they see themselves as in the same "league" as P5, so feel the need to keep up in terms of spending on coaches, facilities, etc. but they don't have the income to sustain that. FCS do bring in less revenue than G5, but aren't under the same pressure regarding expenses.

G5 are like someone with a $60,000 a year income who move into a neighborhood with $500,000 houses and annual income of $150,000. They go in to heavy debt to "keep up appearances" for the neighbors, spending more than they can afford.

https://www.ncaa.org/sites/default/files...180123.pdf

That sounds like the AAC you are talking about. Places you know like USF.

MAC schools spend $1 million more on FB than FCS programs but earn many million more. Paydays, CFP money is a few million, Maction deal, marketing rights ect.

MAC schools are among the most-subsidized G5 schools, which suggests the opposite - awful football finances. A Michigan paper published an article in 2015 or so showing that the Michigan directionals in the MAC were gushing football red ink. And IIRC, one of the Ohio MAC schools has to buy about 5,000 tickets a year just to meet the very low NCAA FBS benchmark.

In 2017 it was reported that of EMU's $32m athletic budget, $23m was subsidized, meaning an operational loss of $23m. That's really bad by any standard. The same year, WMU's operational loss was a whopping $26 million.

Football is a red ink gusher at those places. Football lost $5.8m at EMU in 2017.

https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/201..._1000.html

It's not Football that's a red ink gusher though, properly understood. It's athletics.

Looking at the Ohio Division I schools because you have some FBS, some FCS, some non-football that are all state schools. Dayton Daily News article from 2019, using the Knight Commission numbers from 2017 and the Equity in Athletics site for the total athletic budgets. (I don't think the numbers are from the same year, but it's a good ballpark estimate)

Nonfootball
Wright State. Total budget $12M, subsidy $8.5M.
Cleveland State. Total budget $13M, subsidy $11M
FCS
Youngstown State. Total budget $16M, subsidy $10M
FBS
Akron. Total budget $35M, subsidy $25M
Bowling Green. Total budget $26M, subsidy $16M
Cincinnati. Total budget $53M, subsidy $28M
Kent State. Total budget $29M, subsidy $19M
Miami-O. Total budget $39M, subsidy $25M
Ohio U. Total budget $28M, subsidy $20M
Toledo . Total budget $33M, subsidy $21M

So, with the exception of the P5 (and maybe some basketball schools), just being Division I costs a school $10M a year, whether it's Horizon League, FCS or MAC. Youngstown State isn't subsidizing much more than Cleveland State or Wright State, but that may be an exception.

Being FBS costs your students and/or university funds $20M a year.