While we previewed this week’s story on the cover of Sports Illustrated, it’s important to note that the fine writing staff at Sports Illustrated is no longer living in the dream world creating fantasy-filled college football playoff brackets (which we love!) asking the question ‘What if…?’ In this week’s edition of SI, our friend Dan Wetzel (author of ‘Death to the BCS’) joins Austin Murphy to present hard facts supporting what Sports Fans Coalition has been clamoring about for more than a year now: the BCS is a cartel. Those University Presidents and beneficiaries of this unpopular and inequitable system support the status quo as cronyism rules and merit-based rewards are only granted if you know the right people.
Check out the cover here, but more importantly take a look at this snapshot of evidence explaining how and why this tax-funded non-profit institution, the NCAA, administers Division I-A football different than any other sport.
Austin Murphy and Dan Wetzel shed light on the money-making traditionalists—namely bowl executives and the highest-profile conference commissioners, ADs and coaches—that are eager to maintain the status quo. Here are several reasons why this group of power brokers wants to keep things the way they are:
• Bowl games enjoy tax-free, not-for-profit status despite generating money: “The Sugar Bowl finished 2007 with $37 million in assets and turned an $11.6 million profit. What’s more, the Sugar Bowl ¬accepted $3 million from the Louisiana state ¬government—this a year before it was announced that the state was running a $341 million shortfall in its budget.”
• Bowl executives are handsomely compensated: “Working for bowls is a great gig, if you can get it…. The money is excellent, even for such inconsequential games as the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl, whose executive director, Gary Cavalli, is unlikely to go hungry, having pocketed $377,475 in 2009. Cavalli, of course, is a bargain compared with Sugar Bowl CEO Paul Hoolahan, who made $607,500 in fiscal 2007.”
• The majority of a bowl’s revenue goes to the bowl, not the participating schools: “The 2007 Chick-fil-A Bowl generated $12.3 million in revenue but paid out just $5.9 million total to the participating schools, Auburn and Clemson.”
• Schools profit little from bowl games, even if they’re BCS bowls: “The $18.5 million [Ohio State received for making the Rose Bowl last January] went to the Big Ten, where it was added to a pool of bowl revenue that was then sliced into 12 shares—one for each team, one for the league office. That still left Ohio State with a tidy $2.2 million to spend, which the Buckeyes did. Ohio State’s team travel costs were $352,727. Unsold tickets ran the school a cool $144,710. The bill to transport, feed and lodge the band and cheerleaders came to $366,814. Throw in entertainment, gifts and sundry other expenses and the Buckeyes lost $79,597.”
• Bowls profit off of the teams that play in them: “Halftime entertainment at the Jan. 1, 2009, Outback Bowl was provided by the [Iowa] Hawkeye Marching Band. And how did the Tampa Bay Bowl Association, which runs the game, thank the band for that gratis performance? By charging the university $65 a head for each of the 346 band members. According to university records submitted to the NCAA, the school was forced to purchase face-value tickets totaling $22,490 for the band, even though the game wasn’t sold out.”
o This includes required ticket agreements: “For their appearance in the 2009 Orange Bowl, Virginia Tech and the ACC agreed to purchase 17,500 tickets at $125 per seat, but they could sell only 3,342, according to university documents. The result: a $1.77 million bath for the school, not the bowl.”
• Bonuses for certain coaches/ADs that make bowls: “Coaches land tidy bonuses for even -minor-bowl glory. ADs, too, reap a windfall for a bowl invite. The going rate: one month’s extra salary for an appearance in even the lowliest game. Oregon’s Rob Mullens ¬receives $50,000 if the Ducks go bowling. Kentucky’s Mitch Barnhart collects $30,000.”
It just goes to show that its not what you do, it’s who you know!
SFC is seeking to change that.
College football needs to play by NCAA rules of fairness like every other sport in collegiate athletics determining the champion on the field of play no matter how many fat cats gripe about losing million dollar checks because their team wasn’t good enough to get the ‘w’. It’s what the fans want and it’s time for the fans to take the power back since it is our tax dollars supporting this culture of greed and the inequitable administration of our games.
Jeremiah Tittle is the Managing Editor of SportsFansCoalition.org. Reach him at JeremiahTittle@gmail.com. Apply for a position with the SFC Sportswriter Fellowship here.
