(01-29-2015 07:55 PM)Marge Schott Wrote: Saying you are investing is rather meaningless. Show me the proof.
Obviously Pitt has more money thanks to the ACC. Last year, specifically for football, it put more money into the recruiting budget and upgraded the practice facility including an overhaul to the weight room. This year, with the coaching change, they've crafted a larger budget for the new coaching staff.
Prior to ACC money, Pitt subsidized the athletic department to a tune of $7+ million per year (e.g. in 2012, with variations depending on annual circumstances). With the influx of new conference money, Pitt has not rolled back that subsidization. The new money is being kept in athletics. This is not new policy, but continuation of prior policy.
Even under extremely strained budgets in the past, Pitt has always disproportionately put what money it had into its money sports, football and basketball. It's why the olympic sports that we had largely sucked...we didn't even fund them up to their allowable scholarship numbers. Not even perennially strong olympic sports at Pitt like wrestling and swimming were fully funded. Now, all olympic sports are fully funded (except men's soccer). Baseball has received significant new investment. The athletic department is operating on a different financial level than it did just 3-4 years ago.
The biggest take home is that, despite something like $10+ million in new conference revenue last year, Pitt didn't reduce the subsidy from its general operations to its athletic department. And despite an additional $3 million in expected revenue growth this year, it did not budget for a reduction either.
