Opinions mixed on merits of big games’ cost to OU
A huge “hot-button” issue among faculty and students at Ohio University is the cost of the university’s Division I Intercollegiate Athletics program. Every year, the department runs a multi-million dollar deficit, and money is taken out of other areas, like Housing and Dining Services (see related story under “Investigative Work”), to make up for it. Meanwhile, as the argument goes, academic departments have been experiencing cuts for 10 years and have lost faculty lines in the process. So when OU’s football team made it to the MAC Championship for the first time in a few years and then to the Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl, the university cheered, but quivered when they heard how much those trips cost. Granted, the total cost was about half what OU spent last time it sent the football team to a bowl game. The epic university debate ensued – was the exposure worth the cost? Of course, this story first appeared in the Athens NEWS, and received a great deal of comments on the debate at www.AthensNEWS.com.
Opinions mixed on merits of big games’ cost to OU
The Ohio University Bobcat football team’s two trips to Detroit for the MAC Championship and theLittle Caesar’s Pizza Bowl cost the university a total of $270,000 minus revenues, according to Jim Schaus, OU’s director of athletics.
While OU officials touted the games as bringing in unprecedented exposure to the university, some faculty questionhow the university can justify this spending when cutting budgets university-wide.
The bowl game, which cost the university $218,000, generated at least $98,000 in ticket revenue for OU, putting the total expenses for that game at $120,000. The university spent $52,000 to send the football team to the MAC Championship in Detroit, though an athletics spokesperson, as of our print deadline, didn’t have figures on any revenues that might have offset that amount.
“It is always our mindset to be as cost efficient in all activities,” Schaus said. “We cut the pre-bowl practice time that the team had to be housed and fed on (OU’s) campus before traveling to the game basically in half.”
For the GMAC Bowl in 2007, the university spent $533,000 and brought in $346,000 to the university in revenue, according to Athletics Department figures. The university received a $300,000 bowl subsidy for the GMAC Bowl but received no subsidy for the Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl.
The football team lost the MAC Championship to Central Michigan 20-10 on Dec. 5 and the Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl to Marshall 21-17 on Dec. 26.
“Obviously, this is a period of great financial anxiety for our university and higher education in general,” said Joe McLaughlin, chair of Faculty Senate and professor of English. “We now have unanticipated and unbudgeted expenses due to the MAC Championship and bowl games… Faculty and staff will rightly argue that we shouldn’t have to cut our budgets if we can afford to take on extra football games.”
The university’s administration could get caught up in the football team’s success and further invest in already questionable investments, McLaughlin added.
THE UNIVERSITY SPENT $24,999 on rings, according to Schaus.
Money for the MAC Championship and the Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl came from Intercollegiate Athletics’ (ICA) championship account, Schaus said.
OU spent $3,840 to keep 48 football players in OU dorms for four days before the MAC Championship game and $8,864 for hotel rooms in Detroit for the game. For the Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl, the university spent $5,420 to keep 95 players in OU dorms and $41,524 for lodging in Detroit. The bowl game required players to be on site Tuesday for the Saturday game for bowl luncheons, practices and events, Schaus said.
“Since we are required to practice three times in Detroit (for the bowl game), we needed to have our practice-size squad (95 players) so that we can run practices properly,” Schaus said. “We are able to travel a smaller game squad (65), like we do for all regular season away games, for the MAC Championship game.”
Schaus noted that the football team’s MAC Championship game and the Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl brought in national exposure for OU that will positively affect recruiting, enrollment, alumni relations, fundraising, university image and football program building.
The university’s multiple ESPN appearances can also be looked at from a university advertising perspective, said Jason Corriher, director of media relations for Intercollegiate Athletics at OU.
“According to ESPN Marketing Coordinator Stephanie Burton, ‘Ad rates vary drastically between network, time of day and programming. I only handle college sports but I can tell you a 30-second commercial airing on ESPN Networks (not ABC) during a daytime college football game on a Saturday would be between $10,000 and $75,000,’” Corriher said. “To give you an idea how that might equate, both the MAC Championship Game (ESPN2) and the bowl game (ESPN) lasted three hours and 14 minutes. In total, we have been on the ESPN ‘Family of Networks’ (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN360) 23 times since Frank Solich became head coach for the 2005 season.”
The Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl drew in 3.8 million viewers and a 2.6 Nielsen rating, Corriher added.
BUT FACULTY MEMBERS WARNED that putting too much emphasis on this success and exposure could be misplaced.
“I don’t know if further success for our football team will change the criticism, and it could exacerbate the situation,” McLaughlin said. “Obviously, it will give the school more exposure, although one can’t be sure that a reputation as a football school will lead to improvements in our academic reputation.”
Other faculty senators agreed that whether or not the football team wins games will not change faculty’s criticism of the expenses.
“The problem with OU Intercollegiate Athletics (ICA) is not the teams, the players, or the coaches: It’s the money — big money,” said Steve Hays, senator from the College of Arts and Science and associate professor of classics and world religions. “Over the next two years we face cuts in the range of $25 million to $35 million. If the president is determined to cut academic programs, yet to continue to subsidize spectator sports by more than $15 million a year, he needs to offer a reasoned and persuasive explanation to all constituencies of this institution of higher learning, particularly the students who pay the bills, as to why.”
The Marching 110′s trip to the bowl game is not included in the $270,000 cost. Schaus estimated this cost for the band going to the Pizza Bowl at $35,201. The university spent $61,900 to send the Marching 110 to the GMAC Bowl in 2007.
The Marching 110 also participated in the Rose Bowl Parade in Pasadena, Calif., on Jan. 1. Those costs have not been released.
