First UNI, Now MSU?

[DoubleJayAlum]

Apparently MSU athletics is also having money problems, reportedly needing $7 million in state and private money just to break even.

http://www.news-leader.com/article/2010 ... ities%3Cbr

It is probably no coincidence that the schools suffering the deepest financial problems in their athletic departments have football programs. Meanwhile, Creighton and WSU (and to a lesser extent, Bradley) are doing just fine.

[unipanther99]

Football at UNI will break even under the new plan. This is a problem everywhere. Only around 16 public athletic programs nationally make money. WSU even charges their students a significant fee towards athletics.

States are under pressure to make it look like they are conserving money, leading to stories like these.

Of course, we don't really know how healthy the bottom line is for private schools, because they don't have to open up their books to the same extent the public schools do.

[Veritas]

According to this USAToday report, UNI receives most of their money through "Direct Instiutional Support" while WSU receives most of their money through "Contributions." I think UNI mainly relies on Gov't support, while WSU relies on donations.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/ ... titialskip

At the upper left hand of the article is a drop down for year and then school.

[MoValley John]

Crap... I guess I'll just STFU, but this is the same crap over and over. It's time for Creighton, Bradley and Wichita State to bolt and find a conference that has all schools dedicated to athletics and work in an environment where some floodpantsed, geeky economics or chenmistry professor wouldn't say such things to the local fishwrap. The University of Missouri received more than $2.6 in direct institutional support for athletics, but there isn't a story in the news leader about MU's messed up athletic priorities.

[unipanther99]

According to this USAToday report, UNI receives most of their money through "Direct Instiutional Support" while WSU receives most of their money through "Contributions." I think UNI mainly relies on Gov't support, while WSU relies on donations.
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/ ... titialskip

At the upper left hand of the article is a drop down for year and then school.

The report UNI put together for our board of regents showed that WSU athletics took more student fees than UNI did, but far less "direct" support (tax money and tuition). In any event, I'm not trying to make this a UNI/WSU thing, just saying that nearly all public universities rely on more than just donations and ticket sales to fund athletics.

It's been this way for a long, long time... The current economic situation just tends to make it stick out a little more than normal.

[DoubleJayAlum]

Football at UNI will break even under the new plan. This is a problem everywhere. Only around 16 public athletic programs nationally make money. WSU even charges their students a significant fee towards athletics.

States are under pressure to make it look like they are conserving money, leading to stories like these.

I'm confused about your point. Are you saying that MSU always loses as much money as noted in the article? How long do you expect the school to be able to tap its reserves before those reserves dry up?

Also, who said anything about making money? What I think is concerning is that MSU needed $7 million, not just a couple of thousand dollars, to make up the shortfall. I don't see how these sorts of shortfalls are sustainable over the long term. UNI's situation is even more concerning to me in that they are coming off back to back conference and tourney championships, and a sweet sixteen, yet was still perilously close to having to drop down a division. If you are substantially short funds after your most successful season ever, how do you expect to do when the team struggles a bit? If UNI isn't charging student fees comparable to its peers, why not? Would enrollment take too much of a hit?

Personally, I think that if football were dropped at a lot of the MVC schools, the horrific balance sheets would suddenly look much, much better.

[unipanther99]

I read the article as saying MSU took $7 million from the school's general fund (or student fees) this past year. That sounds fairly typical for a school their size.

UNI is not, and was not, in danger of dropping down a division. That option was never really on the table. The study clearly showed dropping to Div. 2 would not save money, in fact, we would probably need even more general fund support. UNI is D-1 or nothing, and thankfully the Board of Regents saw the value UNI athletics brings to the university as a whole.

As for your last point, as I said before UNI football will support itself (and probably other programs) going forward with the addition of a second road guarantee game every few years.

[MoValley John]

Athletics at both of these schools are in peril. UNI won a battle, the war to keep athletics is far from over. The same goes for Missouri State. The fact of the matter is this, once these funding issues are brought up, they never die. Give it two years at UNI, if Iowa State is balancing their books, you guys are in trouble. As for Missouri State, it is just getting started.

[beatingrillz]

Its a non issue at Missouri State they did not factor in the 12 million the school makes in value added adventures plus it factors in some of the JQH money not yet recieved.

[MoValley John]

Its a non issue at Missouri State they did not factor in the 12 million the school makes in value added adventures plus it factors in some of the JQH money not yet recieved.

Just curious, what is a value added adventure? Also, is the JQH money you are referring to, money from concerts and other events held at the arena? If so, that revenue has nothing to do with athletics and would be available whether or not Missouri State played division 1 basketball. Lastly, $12 million is nearly the total sum of Missouri State's athletic budget, so if that $12 mil hasn't been counted yet, you guys are running one of the more profitable athletic departments in America, congratualtions! I still am curious as to what exactly value added adventures are and how they tie into your athletic department.