Thursday, May 03, 2007
University sports
Some universities, in the US especially, put a lot of effort into their sports programs. They give athletes huge scholarships to come play sports at their school. Question: what's in it for a university to have a good sports program? Is it just bragging rights, or do they get something else out of it?
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Is it just bragging rights, or do they get something else out of it?
Money and (at least perceived) exposure. It was widely reported in the wake of appearances in the Division 1 national championship games in both football and basketball that the University of Florida sports teams generated more than $80 million in revenue in the last year.
Even typically low-profile schools (I am thinking about West Virginia, Boise State, Rutgers, George Mason) get exposure because of their sports teams. Sports put them "on the map" for the rest of the country.
Similarly, we have the University of North Dakota hockey team. People who couldn't find the state without a hint have heard of UND and it's as much or more because of the hockey team than the med or law schools, etc.
Huge wads of cash from alumni. Plus, like Fran says, for a lot of schools, sports is what they have and who they are.
How does good sports result in money though? Is it just that alumni give them more money if their sports programs do well? Or does it come from somewhere else as well?
Alumni give them money if the teams are highly competitive. And for the big sports (basketball, football), the schools profit through the NCAA. I don't know how their deals work, but they make money.
This is from a 2006 story about the NCAA basketball tournament, just as an example that goes beyond the alumni support:
...The more than $400 million that CBS will distribute to the NCAA this year for the men's tournament will go to the conferences based on the number of games played by their schools in the tournament over the past six seasons.
The conferences then distribute the money to the schools. So even a losing school from a successful conference will get to cash a big check..."
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