Very interesting Article today in The Washington Post about big time college athletics.

[bigjune]

USC is one of 3 teams in the SEC operating at a deficit. The athletic department is losing money.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/sp...op-table-main_ncaamoney-1150am:homepage/story

 

[cockhornleghorn]

A lot of it is just accounting. I doubt we're really losing money.

 

[usaguy40]

well they sure aint spending it on recruiting

 

[cockofthegoat]

This may be the reason we have cut corners on recruiting cost.

 

[king ward]

We are servicing a lot of long-term debt due to the facilities upgrades, but we are liquid in terms of cash flow. We're OK.

 

[Bongsummers]

USC is one of 3 teams in the SEC operating at a deficit. The athletic department is losing money.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/sports/wp/2015/11/23/running-up-the-bills/?hpid=hp_rhp-top-table-main_ncaamoney-1150am:homepage/story

Well Big June, the school just did a ton of facility upgrades, so that might explain it. Then again I'm not as good with numbers as you are. After all you did say that VT had a lot more money than SC, but turns out USC is ranked #22 in the country in revenue while VT is 42. Dunno. I wasn't a math major.

 

[sgacock]

28 out of 53 P-5 schools show a loss. (the 11 private schools aren't included)

Let's compare us to others. UGS, UF, UT and Mizzou showed profits. Ugh.

We showed a loss of 2.8 million out of our 94 million income. that's a 3% deficit.

Clemson showed a loss of 3 million on their 70.4 million income. A 4.3% deficit.

Note the chart in the article showing that our deficit decreased since 2004. Clem's increased.

Good Lord look at Virginia! The ran a 17 million dollar loss on only 70.5 million income. That's a deficit of 24.1 percent!

Note thast at least half of the Big Ten teams are operating at a loss, and the Big Ten Network paid big money in 2014 when the SEC Network had not yet started paying!

Note that every team in the ACC operated at a loss!

Note that all the PAC teams except Oregon and Washington operated at a loss (Southern Cal $ Stanford iare private schoolsl and do not report!

Note Big 12 looks solid with 6 of 8 reporting profits (Baylor and TCU not included privates)

 

[superflyby]

The are no equities to offset your debt so you look bad on paper. It's never going to look good on paper. This is not a net worth guys....

 

[achilles#]

The are no equities to offset your debt so you look bad on paper. It's never going to look good on paper. This is not a net worth guys....

Equity.

Tell me something. Let's say Carolina dropped football tomorrow.

What's the equity in Williams Brice Stadium? I'm sure it's something, but not what has been put into it.

What's the equity in an indoor practice facility? In a "Learning Center?" In weightrooms? Athletic offices? In a gigantic jumbotron screen at the stadium?

Some of that could be used for other stuff. Most of it is pretty much only good for athletics, specifically football. And you know you have an ongoing maintenance budget item for all this stuff.

There is no equity in it. It only has value because we have a football program.

Mark my words, one day a la carte pricing, and probably not too long from now, is going to rock ESPN's world (more than it is being rocked now).

When that day comes it won't surprise me at all if ESPN goes away, belly up, reorganized, or whatever. I don't know all the contract details and whether pro leagues and college conferences have considered this and what provisions are in place.

But one day that tv money isn't going to be there, to the extent it has been, then everyone has a heck of a problem.

The insane valuations of these pro teams go away (2 billion for the Clippers? When they sold for 18 mill in 82? 2 billion for the Dodgers?).

Colleges are going to have a heck of a fiscal problem because they have built all these brick sh*thouses out of solid gold bricks to entice recruits to sign with them (what's more disturbing is it seems to work).

I'd actually say from my perspective the problem is a lot worse than this article implies. Given the concussion issue as well, I really think we are going to see a big shinkage in college football. And some reasonably big name schools might well decide it's not worth it anymore. An example would be Wake Forest. Without the ACC tv money I'm not sure it would be viable for them to compete with the lunatics from Clemson, or the well heeled schools from an athletic standpoint like UNC and FSU (and Notre Dame now).

Not that they couldn't field a team, but what would be the point? (Even moreso than now.)

 

[superflyby]

Equity.

Tell me something. Let's say Carolina dropped football tomorrow.

What's the equity in Williams Brice Stadium? I'm sure it's something, but not what has been put into it.

What's the equity in an indoor practice facility? In a "Learning Center?" In weightrooms? Athletic offices? In a gigantic jumbotron screen at the stadium?

Some of that could be used for other stuff. Most of it is pretty much only good for athletics, specifically football. And you know you have an ongoing maintenance budget item for all this stuff.

There is no equity in it. It only has value because we have a football program.

Mark my words, one day a la carte pricing, and probably not too long from now, is going to rock ESPN's world (more than it is being rocked now).

When that day comes it won't surprise me at all if ESPN goes away, belly up, reorganized, or whatever. I don't know all the contract details and whether pro leagues and college conferences have considered this and what provisions are in place.

But one day that tv money isn't going to be there, to the extent it has been, then everyone has a heck of a problem.

The insane valuations of these pro teams go away (2 billion for the Clippers? When they sold for 18 mill in 82? 2 billion for the Dodgers?).

Colleges are going to have a heck of a fiscal problem because they have built all these brick sh*thouses out of solid gold bricks to entice recruits to sign with them (what's more disturbing is it seems to work).

I'd actually say from my perspective the problem is a lot worse than this article implies. Given the concussion issue as well, I really think we are going to see a big shinkage in college football. And some reasonably big name schools might well decide it's not worth it anymore. An example would be Wake Forest. Without the ACC tv money I'm not sure it would be viable for them to compete with the lunatics from Clemson, or the well heeled schools from an athletic standpoint like UNC and FSU (and Notre Dame now).

Not that they couldn't field a team, but what would be the point? (Even moreso than now.)

They aren't, so that's moot. What would it take to replace them. That is their value....the property alone has value. You are missing my whole point. It's debt vs payment with only real means to support it. These numbers will always be skewed and unnatural because you can't place a value....you can't take into consideration replacement cost. It will always look bad when in reality...it's not.