Revenue in College Sports: Football vs. Other Sports
A major theme revolves around which college sports generate significant revenue. Football is consistently cited as the primary revenue driver, while the profitability of other sports like baseball and hockey is questioned.
- "UVA baseball lost >$3 million in 2023 off of $1.7 million revenue. UVA football (a middling program) meanwhile is making a profit of over $20 million. Baseball is nowhere close to football." - dustincoates
- "College baseball and hockey are 'only' good for a couple million a year in the best cases, but it's still revenue." - monster_truck
- "The tiny amount of revenue from college hockey and baseball is insignificant compared to the cost of opperation - especially with how far teams often need to travel now thanks to conference realignments." - CivBase
Regional Variations in Sport Popularity
The discussion also acknowledges that the popularity and revenue generation of certain sports vary regionally.
- "Hockey is certainly very regional but, in my experience, is a fairly big thing in the North especially at schools with good teams. In fact, I went to a school where hockey almost certainly had larger paid crowds than basketball." - ghaff
- "Gopher hockey is more popular (with both students and alumni) than Gopher basketball at the University of Minnesota." - quickthrowman
The Role of Endowments and Funding in University Athletics
The fungibility of university funds, particularly endowments, and their potential use in supporting athletic programs is another topic of debate. The sentiment is that money is fungible as "Raidion" says, while users such as "Kevin_S" claim, "Academic money is actually not fungible - it can't be used to fund athletics, and vice versa. Just because both pots are relatively large doesn't mean that the money itself is fungible." It is also argued that even if the money is not directly used for athletics, it frees up funds that would otherwise be used.
- "Sure, but if an endowment is paying for, say, the football coaching staff, then that leaves that much more money free in the general fund to pay for other things. If the endowment is paying for something that otherwise wouldn't be paid for generally, that's a different story." - 98codes
Questioning the Value and Profitability of College Sports
Several comments express skepticism about the overall profitability of college sports and question whether the investment is worthwhile, especially considering the high salaries of coaches versus other departments.
- "Sports programs don't always or even usually make a profit." - PaulHoule
- "They don't return a net gain to the university, perhaps, but the people running them and advocating them are profiting nicely." - LanceH
- "In my opinion, this is like complaining that the US Postal Service isn't profitable. It isn't a business, framing it in terms of profitability is missing the whole reason it exists. No one expects a middle school soccer team or a university's drama department to be profitable, but we still invest in those things because we as a society think it is valuable for students. College sports has value beyond the money people pay to watch it." - slg
- "You don't pay the director of a university's drama department millions of dollars per year. Successful football and basketball coaches get paid those kind of sums." - tuna74
- "No, I think the director of the drama department brings more value." - Uvix
Universities as "Hedge Funds" Driven by Revenue
A more cynical viewpoint suggests that universities, particularly those with large endowments, are increasingly behaving like businesses, prioritizing revenue generation over academic pursuits.
- "If hedge funds could buy universities and then split them up so that the HF keeps the sports programs and they sell off the academic departments, they would most definitely do that" - alexpotato quoting Michael Lewis
- "Universities are already doing this. Those with modestly large endowments are functionally private equity firms whose job is to generate enough cash flow to pay themselves, top admins, sports coaches and profs. Academics, research, govt grants etc. are all means to that end." - prasadjoglekar