Excellent Article - "Does Memphis Make Sense?" - Part 1

[leopold]

http://businessofcollegesports.com/2012 ... se-part-1/

Very good article looking not only at how Memphis fits into the new Big East, but also comparing all the budgets of the new schools. We are competitive, I'm happy to say.

Interesting quote: Memphis AD RC Johnson says that the Big East schools got 8.6/yr in revenue, over 5M more per year than the CUSA schools. But that's under the old leagues.

[Digetydog]

http://businessofcollegesports.com/2012/02/13/does-memphis-to-the-big-east-make-sense-part-1/

Very good article looking not only at how Memphis fits into the new Big East, but also comparing all the budgets of the new schools. We are competitive, I'm happy to say.

Interesting quote: Memphis AD RC Johnson says that the Big East schools got 8.6/yr in revenue, over 5M more per year than the CUSA schools. But that's under the old leagues.

Although interesting, the graph was misleading in many ways:
1) The graph had ND in a small media market. While technically true, it would be like saying the Aggies are in the College Station media market.
2) It isn't clear how the money spent per student is calculated. If that number includes tuition, all the private schools will have a significantly larger "spend" than will the state schools.
3) Since there are only two revenue sports (BB and FB), the budgets for those two programs are the only ones that are relevant. If a school wants to spend an enormous amount of money on the rowing team, it doesn't really matter.

In simple terms: Memphis offers great BB and horrible (with potential) FB in a decent media market. They also offer built in rivalries to some of the existing BE teams. Considering the only other viable options (not counting BYU and AFA) were Temple, Villanova FB, ECU, Southern Miss, Tulsa or Tulane, only Temple would be worth considering.