This should raise a few eyebrows.
… If you do the math, Georgia is only putting 25.8% of their football revenue back into the program. Meanwhile, the 2009 National Champion, Alabama, was putting 43.3% back into their program, and the 2010 National Champion, Auburn, invested 42.2 percent. Is there perhaps a correlation between this and results on the field? Georgia went 7-5 in 2009 and just 6-6 in 2010. Comparing Georgia to Texas, who is the only school with bigger profits from football, the two are spending at about the same rate, with Texas putting 26.7% back into their program. However, Texas is spending $25,112,331 to Georgia’s $18,308,654.
I’ll also note that Georgia is second in the SEC in terms of overall athletic department profit at $11.7 million. Alabama, who posted the highest profits for its athletic department, is an outlier with a $44 million profit (more to come on that in a later post). Ole Miss presented a balanced sheet, so they show no profit in the athletic department. However, the other 10 schools posted an average profit of $5.4 million, putting Georgia’s athletic department at more than twice the average profit.
About that correlation question – it’s hard to say without knowing what that extra spending is going into, so it would be interesting to see a school-by-school breakdown. But, yeah, it’s hard not to have a nagging feeling that making money has occupied a higher priority for the people running the athletic department (or, more accurately, the person to whom those people answer to) than spending the money to allow the program to succeed at its highest level.
Especially when it’s the continuation of a trend.
Get The Picture 
Where do all these profits go?
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There are no “investors”. Again, where do all these profits go?
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They go into an endowment fund. That way, when we want to say build a new practice facility and a bank will only advance 50% of the costs, then we have a way to pay for the remainder.
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I believe that I said sometime earlier this year, for which I was probably lambasted, that sometimes being a fan of the University of Georgia feels a little like playing Three-Card Monte.
What did Mike Leach say? The chicken is involved, but the pig is fully committed, I think. Feels like the fans are are the pigs here.
This post is yet more evidence of that.
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I believe some folks call this a direct expression of institutional will.
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As always, Senator, thanks for the linkage. One thing I’m curious about is how they account for debt service. I know in ’07 we had $100M bond debt, which likely helped fund the Butts-Mehre improvements you linked to via Gentry Estes. Clearly, money is being spent.
Then again, I presume Bama et al fund their activities the same way, so maybe that’s a wash.
Certainly telling that Georgia football’s 26% expense/revenue ratio in 2009 ranks dead last in the SEC. Also helps to explain a lot, especially in the context of Tereshinski’s comments about facilities limitations last year. We’ll skimp on equipment, but we’ll fly the whole team to Colorado and Arizona.
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That’s not a bit unfair is it? Since the “skimping” was all a result of the spending on a bigger, better, more badass facility which is, presumably, what one would want?
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When you’ve got our operating margins, it’s hardly a zero-sum game. You can build badass facilities and, in the interim, afford the necessary space and equipment to tide us over.
If we have the money (and, boy, do we) and we’re not spending it (and, of that, I’m not sure — see my comment about debt service), then we’re skimping. I don’t know how else to explain it.
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The extra 20% Auburn and Alabama spend goes into the player payroll and bonus program.
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It’s not just football.
We are also at the bottom of the league in baseball spending at $348,038 (For example, Arkansas at half our size spent $1,089,728).
We are also at the bottom of the league in basketball spending at $741,916 (Arkansas spent $1,444,520, and another much-smaller institution Kentucky spent $2,575,913).
Look at these numbers yourselves:
( http://ope.ed.gov/athletics/GetOneInstitutionData.aspx ).
UGA is the second-largest institution in the Southeastern Conference.
Someone is making out like a bandit here and it sure isn’t the students or those who pay to support these programs.
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What % of athletic revenues is UGA reinvesting in academic and non-athletic ventures? How does our % there compare to these other schools?
I bet UGA’s % reinvested in academics dwarfs that of the schools listed here.
And if so? Great. I don’t want Georgia to be another pile of garbage, unethical SEC West school. I’d rather it be a 21st century university.
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It is not as much as you think. The UGA Athletic Board is sitting on over $65 million in reserves.
http://www.ajc.com/sports/uga/uga-athletic-board-gives-536954.html
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Michael Adams in undoubtedly a turd.
That being said, he really has advanced the University, possibly at the expense of the Athletic Department. He’s greedy, controlling, and generally a grade-A douchebag, but he’s done some good things.
I think as he is nearing the end of his time as UGA prez he is starting to relinquish his iron grip on the AD. hiring McGarity and not another puppet was step one, and I expect spending in the Athletic Department to increase dramatically over the next few years. At least I sure hope so, because I’ve only got two years left before I have to start donating to the Hartman Fund for season tickets. I’d rather have a quality product on the field when I do.
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Yes, let’s give MA credit for the HOPE scholarship. The lie continues.
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And just for extra effect…
The brilliant thing about the HOPE scholarship is that MA and other university presidents have used it as an opportunity to consistently raise tuition… after all, the HOPE scholarship is paying for it, right?
Which, of course, has resulted in the HOPE running low on funds which in turn has resulted in changes to the HOPE requirements which means fewer students are eligible.
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Too bad they can’t scrape a few bucks together to clean up/organize North Campus tailgating or to pay a few cops to help out with 316 traffic.
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As always, a few more porter potties wouldn’t hurt either.
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Because of the many games that can be played with P & L statements and balance sheets as well as the different accounting methods that can legitimately be used, it’s hard to read much into these results.
However, it would be really interesting to see a side-by-side comparison of solely football expenditures and their descriptions for UGA and Alabama.
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What’s the point for the University if it’s not a revenue stream?
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UGA is a public non-profit[oh, really] institution so an ambitious reporter should be able to obtain all relevant information through the Freedom of Information Act under the State’s Sunshine Law. We all know that the People’s money is not always wisely handled, and we are talking major bucks here. I am becoming more and more concerned about the billions generated by big time college sports. With this amount of money at stake I fear that Camgate and Reggiegate are just the tip of the iceberg and that we shall soon see the mother of all scandals in college sports. If street hustlers and teenagers can game the system, how much more can a highly educated bald headed white guy steal?
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UGAA gets none of The People’s money. Unless you count the “athletic fee” which students are required to pay as a tax.
How much more can whitey steal? I don’t know. Ask a Kansas fan.
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Stoop, I live in Lee Co. Ga., so tell me just where in the Sam Hill I am going to find a Kansas fan to ask? However, my cousin is bald headed, maybe I’ll ask him. That reference in my last post was tounge in cheek. I am concerned about the massive amounts of money in CFB. My fear is that absolute money, like absolute power, corrupts absolutely.
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During my many conversations with people about the state of our program, one individual made a comment that really struck me. “The powers that be in Athens have to decide if they want to be a ‘Big Time’ football program. ” This article sheds some light on that comment. Seems possible that Evans and/or Adams were/are not willing to pony up to ensure the hightest level of success.
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My grandma told me, “Most times people get the face they deserve.” Look at Adams and tell me what you see. Crookedy, crook, crook.
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I have a feeling that McGarity will have more of a backbone in standing up to Adams about investing more of the profit back into all athletics and especially football. I do think it is a good idea to hold some of the money back in a rainy day fund so that the program is never in trouble of going into debt, however with the profit we are making we should be constantly investing in coaches, facilities, gameday experience for the fans. Anything left over should go into building an endowment fund for athletics.
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How UGA manages its operating budget is more of an indictment on the board of regents than Mike Adams
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There is another thing. UGA has for years reportedly made LESS money on sales of licensed products ( hats, shirts, etc.) than its SEC peer group (FLA, Bama, Auburn, UT, etc.). The football operations profitability has masked this. I believe that UGA really has been making about the same amount as those other institutions all along and that the money has been siphoned off. If you get into the guts of all this something is rotten in Athens and has been ever since Adams showed up. There needs to be a thorough state audit of EVERYTHING, not just football revenue.
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Oh, jeez.
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Oh, jeez what? Read BEHIND THE HEDGES.
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Yeah, I’d much rather have UGA be like UT than like Alabama/Auburn. I’m no Longhorn fan (to put it lightly), but Texas is a respectable university. Alabama and Auburn are backwoods jokes.
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I wouldn’t call myself a Longhorn fan, but I got my master’s there. You can hate ’em like most people hate the Yankees, but, in either case, there’s no doubt that the Horns, like the Yanks, don’t bat an eye at thinking big and investing accordingly. Hard for any self-respecting capitalist not to respect either organization’s approach.
We can either take that approach (as Florida clearly has) or we can follow the Auburn/Alabama model of being a regional university that only cares about football.
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Someone go drag Charles Knapp out of his think tank and dust him off.
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Oh no….trust me, you don’t want this.
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One thing most people are missing (especially those asking where the profits go) is that we are most likely trying to build up an endowment. We obviously still spend a lot of money on athletics (though I agree not as much as we need to). I may be wrong, but I can really see that it is mostly going to one large endowment fund so that in future years we can build what we want- or even survive severe budget cuts.
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http://onlineathens.com/stories/013011/uga_778281528.shtml
Looking for where some of the money goes, apparently to fund a tv station that has been losing money for years and so now is going to be a non-profit. Read to the very bottom of the article and it says that some of the funds come from the UGA athletic foundation.
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