jacobj6 said:PlayerRep said:tnt said:Well all that just isn't true. Over half the athletic program is funded by the University. I realiz areas such a chemistry and physics, Rhodes scholars. aren't much interest and granted the most recent Nobel prize was shared with Al Gore, and one of its other developments allowed the nuclear weapons to be developed that ended WW II.
If anything U of M did BETTER before the success of Athletics and did so at a time when it was seriously considered to drop them. But despite that they do co-exist. Our new athltic Director will have to know the difference between a tail and a dog to succeed . The University can do quite well without athletics. In fact the better ones do......
Jeez, stop the lying. Over half the athletic program isn't funded by the university. I think I saw an article, perhaps today, that said that less than 30% is funded by the university/state. My recollection is that less that $4 million of a $15 or so million budget is funded by the university/state. And there's the money that the university siphons off of the athletic program for its own use.
70% of the ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT’S budget are GENERATED DOLLARS (not just the football program, but all athletics), meaning athletics generates all of this revenue on its own (tix, NCAA licensing, media, etc.). The other 30% comes from institutional contributions, private contributions, etc. “A goal at this level would be 50-50. I’m not sure anybody else is [even] at 50-50.” (Jim O’Day, the Missoulian, Wed Aug 15, 2012).
It doesn’t take a genius (nor a PhD student) to figure out which program generates the majority of that revenue, and keeps that figure at a very high 70%. And if juxtaposed, a P&L of each of the various programs will reveal that the football program is the only athletic program that generates a profit (surplus as they say in governmental/fund accounting) some of which is poured over into other University funds. And, it is quite the surplus, I might add.
And private contributions, which are included in the 30% figure above, are really generated by the athletic program, which does the fund-raising to get the private contributions.