Leigh Steinberg: How Can 2 Tiny States Dominate in Footballl

[sbsmith]

Texans are rapid about college football-SMU fans are not. Texas(100,000), A&M(110,000), Tech(62,000) TCU(42,000) and Baylor(45,000) have all sold out their season ticket allotments in recent years.

There are 12 FBS teams in the state but only 5 sold out their season ticket allotments? Doesn't seem all that rabid.

[lwjr]

Texans are rapid about college football-SMU fans are not. Texas(100,000), A&M(110,000), Tech(62,000) TCU(42,000) and Baylor(45,000) have all sold out their season ticket allotments in recent years.

There are 12 FBS teams in the state but only 5 sold out their season ticket allotments? Doesn't seem all that rabid.

But what do those five have in common?

[sbsmith]

But what do those five have in common?

They're all in P5 conferences.

[Big12Mustang]

But what do those five have in common?

They're all in P5 conferences.

And what else?

We can never compare to the publics. Baylor and TCU are our comparables. Baylor did not draw anyone before briles and TCU did not draw well until halfway into the GP era.

[ghost]

It isn't complicated at all. Take away the 100,000 in the stands, the bands, message boards, bumper stickers, facilities, the university itself and what you have left is a football field 120 yards long with 11 players on offense and 11 players on defense with coaches and others on the sides. Alabama and Texas don't get to use 12 players. So if you recruit well and coach well and the players believe in you then a program can be turned around fast and you don't need the biggest and fastest. After all, sometimes victory goes to the team who thinks it can.

[RebStang]

Here's a little tidbit I found really interesting. I'm not sure it's 100% accurate due to differences in the ways that different schools handle their accounting, but...

Mississippi State spends about $15.3 million a year on football.

By comparison, Ole Miss spends about $25.2 million a year on football and Alabama spends about $41.6 million on football.

While I firmly believe that MSU is going to collapse at some point this season (red & blue glasses and all), it is extremely impressive how much value they get out of their limited resources relative to other programs in the SEC and nationally.

[tristatecoog]

Thought UT and tOSU spent the most. Ole Miss at #13 is surprisingly high for the relative size of its stadium.

[RebStang]

Thought UT and tOSU spent the most. Ole Miss at #13 is surprisingly high for the relative size of its stadium.

To be honest, I just have to go by what that chart showed because the only thing I have doesn't really break it down by sport.

It doesn't really surprise me, though. Ole Miss has pumped a lot of money into its two biggest sports in recent years - football and baseball.

What I think is really neat is the fact that Ole Miss actually publishes its annual athletic budget every year. I've linked it below, but what is really popular is the fact that they hand this out on campus on gameday as a business card sized marketing piece:

http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/ole/genrel/auto_pdf/2014-15/misc_non_event/2015-operating-budget.pdf

As a fan that buys season tickets (look, I live 3 hours from Oxford... I can reasonably expect to attend a few Ole Miss games... I can't reasonably expect to make many SMU games even though I would like to), I love seeing the full budget fully disclosed like that. It's nice to see exactly what the revenue sources are and where that money is spent.

[Pony ^]

the answer is $. And lots of it. Auburn outbid Ms St for Scam Newton