Daily Campus: Athletic Department Spending Analysis

[Stallion]

I think its pretty fair-it points out the paper deficit ($29.8 million) , operational deficit ($10.1 Million) with a heavy dose of explanation from the athletic department's point of view

http://www.smudailycampus.com/news/smu- ... -of-sports

[Mexmustang]

Pretty much says it all, doesn't it?. Joining a P-5 conference is not a goal of the university.

[stc9]

Without getting too far into the accounting games Univerities play with their books, does anyone know if our scholarships are endowed? I would imagine that after all of these years, at least the football scholarships would be, does anyone know for sure?

[Stallion]

No they aren't

[PonyKai]

Breaking News: In single sentence buried in a seven paragraph interview with the student newspaper, in what's not a direct quote, Athletic Director waves white flag, offers unadultured and complete truth on University's mid and long-term athletic goals, declares we're self-relegating to the void for all eternity.

[gostangs]

Drama queens. Of course we want P- 5. That is more money for all. They aren't stupid. We have 6500 undergrads. Its a thin line to walk.

[East Coast Mustang]

Breaking News: In single sentence buried in a seven paragraph interview with the student newspaper, in what's not a direct quote, Athletic Director waves white flag, offers unadultured and complete truth on University's mid and long-term athletic goals, declares we're self-relegating to the void for all eternity.

Not sure if serious, but I think Hart's approach has been to privately campaign when the time is right (i.e., when the football team doesn't suck) rather publicly cheerleading for P5 inclusion like Orsini did and other schools are doing now -- I think this turns off a lot of decision makers, who would rather have this discussions behind closed doors. I could be wrong, but I don't remember Chris Del Conte publicly clamoring for a B12 bid when they were in the MWC.

Hart angling for a P5 bid right now would be like me setting up a website to ask Kate Beckinsale out on a date...ain't happening. In 2018, if the football team is winning 10+ games and the basketball team has made it to the second weekend of the tournament, then we might have a puncher's chance. Right now? Nope.

[PonyKai]

Guys, tried to lay on the sarcasm pretty thick there.

[SoCal_Pony]

Doing a P&L on SMU athletics is an inexact science as it's impossible to quantify the benefits of free advertising exposure for the school, its impact on admissions, alumni satisfaction and giving. What we do know is that Texas is a FB crazy state and half its students come from here.

Look at SMU's biggest donors. How many are sports enthusiasts. I suspect there is a strong correlation.

Speaking for myself, I could have attended any school in Texas. I would NOT have selected SMU if they didn't offer a viable athletic program. That may not sound rational, but for me it's the truth.

Or to quote tiki-head, 'the Hawaii Bowl was worth $250M in free advertising'

[Charleston Pony]

I think athletics plays a big part in developing alumni pride...and future donations. The Cornell study suggests it plays only a small role, but just look back at Mustang Club membership in the early 80's compared to where it is today. Like someone said when Ford was built...when was the last time 30,000 people came to campus to watch an educational presentation?

[Pony Boss]

TCU spends around 70 Million, while SMU Spends around 55 Million...revenues for TCU are 52 million while SMU's are 25 million. The 20 million dollar P5 gap is clear. And that is SMU with the current state of affairs...

[mtrout]

We want to be the best program in the aac? How do you measure that and where do we rank currently?

[NTXCoog]

"The university’s decision to fund athletics is intended to 'develop exposure to prospective students, add to the quality of the student experience, create a sense of pride, and assist with some of the diversity goals for the campus,' says Hart." (Bold font mine)

Curious how athletics helps with the bolded text. I'm sure this is just poorly worded, but it reflects poorly and plays into stereotypes of SMU. It implies one of the important ways to get minorities on campus is athletics as opposed to academics. Even worse it can be read that minorities on campus are often athletes, not regular students.

I hesitated to post this because I don't want it taken the wrong way. SMU has made a lot of progress on diversity and stereotypes are often applied incorrectly. But why make a statement like this that seem to play into those stereotypes?

[Stallion]

actually knowing private schools better than you one of the major diversity goals at Texas private schools like SMU, TCU and Baylor is to attract MORE MEN.

[Puckhead48E]

Because athletics offers scholarship opportunities to people who might need on the cusp or not eligible for most academic scholarships. In many cases, these individuals are minorities. Many of these individuals would likely not attend SMU without this assistance and wouldn't have the opportunities to succeed personally and grow the campus community as students.

You really need a safe space and a soft helmet if you find that offensive. Now, if we were over of these big state schools who take no interest in the academic success and maturation of scholarship athletes, I can see questions being justified. However, anyone who follows the success of football over the past year+ with their academic push and followed the work done to support other athletes (some of whom seem hell bent to fight against any assistance) as well as seen how well our athletes do academically knows there is no reason to worry.


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