Take a look at Kristi Dosh’s breakdown of ACC athletic finances. It’s not a pretty picture, at least in comparison to the conference’s – and Georgia Tech’s – next door neighbor.
From a conference standpoint, Tech actually comes off favorably in terms of football revenues, ranking third in the ACC behind Virginia Tech and Clemson. But the end result is grim.
Athletic Dept Profit Univ. of Virginia $10,971,219.00 Virginia Tech $7,874,833.00 Univ. of Miami $5,247,495.00 North Carolina State $3,155,910.00 Clemson Univ. $1,442,057.00 Boston College $1,211,197.00 Wake Forest University $888,960.00 Duke Univ. $442,226.00 Univ. of North Carolina $238,644.00 Univ. of Maryland $223,424.00 Georgia Tech $138,659.00 Florida State Univ. $0.00
Hewitt shouldn’t rest easy, though. There’s a new component scheduled to kick in which isn’t reflected in those numbers.
One thing to note, however, is that revenue in the ACC should spike in 2011 under a new television contract with ESPN. The ACC currently averages $66.9 million per year under a contract that ran through the 2010 season. Under the new ESPN contract, the ACC will average $155 million…
That works out to about $7.34 million in new income for each team. Hewitt’s buyout is reportedly in the neighborhood of $7 million. You do the math. (The interested parties on the Flats already have, I’m sure.)
In any event, Tech football is comfortably paying its way, with over a $9 million profit, per Dosh’s numbers. That pales in comparison to the $52+ million profit Georgia’s football program racked up, but no doubt Mark Bradley can explain why that’s further proof of Paul Johnson’s prowess as a head coach.
Get The Picture 
How does FSU arrive exactly at zero? Something’s not right.
Reminds me of ‘Mr. Blutarsky, zero point zero zero’
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I thought the same thing, unless they have some sort of agreement where any profit that they make is given to the academic side of the school, so they always end up at $0.00 (I have no idea if that’s the case, just grasping at straws). That has to somehow be an intentional accounting function though.
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Oops, gotta read towards the bottom of the article, but I think this is the explanation…..basically they lose money, then just make up enough of the difference with the Boosters to break even:
“The other school at the bottom of the pile in the ACC in terms of athletic department profits was Florida State. They only make $2.6 million on football and around $600,000 on men’s basketball on the way to breaking even in their athletic department. I spoke with their athletic department and learned that they fund a shortfall between revenue and expenses in the athletic department with money from the Seminole Boosters. Their office commented that they would not spend more than they knew they could cover with the booster money. The athletic department also pointed out that public univesities in the State of Florida do not receive any tax money for the athletic department. Thus, they stated no funds are being pulled to fund athletics that could otherwise fund academic programs.”
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Senator, who is Paul Hewitt’s attorney? Is it Jack Reale, who has represented a number of football coaches at Tech including Bobby Ross and Paul Johnson? I’m just curious about who is was that got the better of the Tech AD in such an extreme way. Maybe Tech ought to hire that guy to represent the school.
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The best thing that happened to Tech was the departure of the previous AD, Dave Braine. He was the Reggie Ball of athletic directors.
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Reggie Ball is gonna come after you.
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Only on fourth down.
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Still, isn’t it “D-Rad’s” (that kills me) job to come up with money for their Athletic Department by soliciting donations from their omni-rich and omni-powerful alumni and fanba… Oh, right… Nevermind.
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It is difficult to solicit funds from Tech alums because they live all over the world in interesting and exotic places so it’s hard to track them down. All UGA alums, meanwhile, all inhabit area code 30605. You know, because I said so.
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You might say he was the Mike Hamilton of athletic directors.
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I believe Hewitt was represented by Mark Carmony (Career Sports & Entertainment). Mark is a University of Georgia graduate.
Insult, meet injury.
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LaCross is a money maker fellas. Let’s get us a team and increase our wine and cheese quotient.
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Too much risk for a sex scandal.
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what’s wrong with being sexy?
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A Fake sex Scandal at that, and we don’t need that.
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Looks like the contributors to the athletic programs at ACC schools can be confident their money actually goes to their athletic programs.
UGA, not so much.
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do GT’s expenses include bail money for athlete DUI’s ? Their baseball program needs to hire waushaun as designated driver it seems.
Remarkably low profile on the story compared to what would happen if it was UGA program
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I thought GT alums are millionaires. They may be, but they are sure are tightwads.
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Who can blame them for sitting on their hands. Would you give money to that school? Not me, even if I did have a degree from there (which I don’t).
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