In the take this for what it’s worth department, Forbes’ rankings of college football’s most valuable programs has seen Georgia’s stock fall from sixth in 2015 to sixteenth in 2018, behind eight other SEC schools.
The methodology has changed (“This is the first time Forbes has ranked college football teams since 2015, and this year we’ve taken a different approach to the endeavor. Our list of college football’s most valuable teams ranks the nation’s top programs by average annual revenue, rounded to the nearest million.”), so how much of that drop is apples to apples is somewhat hard to determine.
The current numbers are based on a three-year rolling average, in this case from 2014 through 2016. Based on what’s gone down in the last year, it’s safe to presume Greg McGarity’s on that particular mother. I expect a big jump for Georgia when Forbes revisits the list in 2021.
While I’m here, check out the big boys’ overall financial picture:
But when it comes to college football’s elite class, it’s hard to believe any arguments that there isn’t enough money to go around. From 2014 to 2016, the 23 teams at public schools on our list combined to spend an average $239 million per year on salaries and severance for football coaches, but just $90 million per year on student aid for football players. In the 2016-17 fiscal year alone, those teams’ athletic departments spent a combined $800 million on capital expenditures and $250 million on debt service for athletic facilities. That year, those same athletics programs combined to transfer just $65 million back to their universities to support academic programming.
Priorities, bitchez.
Get The Picture 
“80,000 people don’t show up to see a chemistry experiment. Why don’t you shove that bow tie up your ass?” (I have no idea where this comes from but I saw someone else here post it and it seems pertinent)
” Listen, Sherlock. While you were tucked away up here working on your ethics, I was out there busting my hump in the REAL world. And the reason guys like you got a place to teach is ’cause guys like me donate buildings.”
(Thorton Mellon)
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Necessary Roughness, I believe. Maybe ‘The Program.’
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The Program
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Think of new lounges and locker rooms and dorms and jets to ride and shoes and nutritionist and clothes as your payment, young fella. Oh yeah…College, too.
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What grips me is that they are not taxed on profits. The excuse for 501(c) status is that organizations provide scholarships and revenue to the university. It is clear the real purpose is to enrich glorified PE coaches and stadium contractors.
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If they paid taxes, then politicians would be enriched. That’s better?
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Tax dollars pay for running the country, but let’s forget all that for a minute.
The athletic associations wouldn’t even owe taxes if they truly lose money as they claim. But even those that do turn a profit could make a charitable donation and get a tax break….may I suggest, donate to the university itself which would still be tax exempt.
Until that happens, the people running bigtime college sports programs will continue to benefit from a tax exemption that was meant for education when it was put into the tax code.
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Interesting that Clemson didn’t make the list, they seem to be doing alright with their meager earnings.
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As a parent about to pay tuition, this is where I get pissed about “student athletic/activity” fees. Some of this money should be rolling back into the schools.
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It’s borderline criminal, IMO. Particularly at a public university. Staggering student debt and tuition costs while a handful of people get insanely wealthy to provide entertainment… all within institutions that were never intended to be adherents to unadulterated market capitalism.
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It’s almost like having the Hope Lottery go to the governors salary.
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You think college athletics is a free market?
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Some of the money does go back to the school. Usually on the order of a couple of million per year. About 30 million of the reserve fund sits in the endowment raising money for need-based scholarships (one of Morehead’s highest priorities).
I don’t know how much the student athletic fees are now, but I assume they are less than the amount that goes back to the University. Regardless, they should be eliminated. Donors can easily make up the difference.
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Truth
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I have been biting my tongue, but you’ve inspired me. If every department got $100k from the football revenue annually there is a LOT left for athletics and every single department would be ecstatic. Education, veterinary, etc. would be so much better off. I hate that all those millions have to be dumped just because they need to blow it off for financial reasons. I have no problem paying the players, but I also have no problem with the University at large taking a share too. It is the university after all, and with Kirby touting the top-15 ranking of universities in the latest Forbes thing, he should back it up with supporting the academic departments.
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Negative. Every department would waste the money no better than the Athletic department. How many programs on campus even have any kind of plan to handle a budget increase? Very few. What? they’d give their 100 employees a $1000 raise? No. Would they pay for parking for their employees? No. Would they upgrade their infrastructure? No. Would they provide scholarships? No. UGA brought in $273 Million in donations outside of athletics last year, so the money is there for a $100K to every department. UGA didn’t even lower tuition and bilks students out of every penny they can.
That being said I appreciate UGA’s Tuition Assistance Program that covers a little over $5K (I believe that’s a Federal limit) a year for staff educational benefits and my department that works around my schedule so I can take a class every semester.
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“to spend an average $239 million per year on salaries and severance for football coaches”
Is nobody going to ask for the math on this?
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It’s way too much money (cash, no less) for one department to deal with. They literally don’t know how to dump it, and it sucks.
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$239 million over 3 years. That’s $80 million per year. Spread among 23 schools it’s $3.5 million each. What’s not to believe?
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Maybe I’m misunderstanding but the $800 million in capex is pretty much a direct investment/contribution toward the players. The IPF and locker room upgrades being the most notable examples of these investments recently at UGA. In other words, until your argument is that college athletes should be salaried—which is a fine argument for some—then colleges already ARE spreading the wealth and investing substantially in their student athletes.
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Why don’t we say it’s a direct investment/contribution toward the coaches?
Because they’ll call cow poop on that every time. So let’s not go there.
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