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Joining the Mountain West would run an $8MM - $9MM annual deficit - can we overcome that?

BWahlberg

BWahlberg

Well-known member
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Took a stab at what Montana would need to do to move up, posted it the other day, and already others have pointed out that my numbers on expenses might be low as I ran a scenario of Montana keeping all other sports in the Big Sky, or maybe moving to the Summit or WAC - which might not be possible. For a football only move the costs associated with the move up in terms of travel, salaries, staff, scholarships, and adding 2 or 3 more sports to meet the FBS requirement.

What a move up would hinge on would be:

- Student athletic fees seeing a large increase
- Fans paying more for tickets + more focus on premium pricing
- State financial support financially and also raising the hard cap of $1.5MM in revenue share that UM/MSU are held to
- 2 high dollar road guarantee games per year for the first 5 years (so less home games)
- Some big donor help for the first year hit of nearly $16MM

Link here: Took a look at the costs here and what it might take to join the Mountain West
 
This is terrific. Thx, Brint.

I found this to be very interesting, i.e. the requirement: "
  • NDSU has to maintain a comparable football budget to other MW schools, if they have a below .500 record in conference they have to raise their budget over the MW average. Right now their football budget is about $7,500,000 where Nevada’s is nearly $15,000,000 - it appears the MW average is around $17,000,000"
 
mthoopsfan said:
This is terrific. Thx, Brint.

I found this to be very interesting, i.e. the requirement: "
  • NDSU has to maintain a comparable football budget to other MW schools, if they have a below .500 record in conference they have to raise their budget over the MW average. Right now their football budget is about $7,500,000 where Nevada’s is nearly $15,000,000 - it appears the MW average is around $17,000,000"
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Yep I thought so too - per my scenario I build the UM budget would be fairly close to the MW average
 
Does anyone know what the current school payments from tv/media are to the MW and MAC.

And what are some of the total amounts of student fees paid at schools in this conferences? Too lazy to look myself right now.
 
Thanks for all the work. It is a really good breakdown. Like you I can't see this legislature allocating the funds. We have supporters of 4 year public colleges in Billings, Dillon, Havre and Butte that fight for funding in every session and they wouldn't support this. And raising student fees significantly is probably a non starter too.
 
mthoopsfan said:
Does anyone know what the current school payments from tv/media are to the MW and MAC.

And what are some of the total amounts of student fees paid at schools in this conferences? Too lazy to look myself right now.
Click to expand...

Mountain West is working under a new deal, those payouts aren't disclosed. Previously it was about $3,500,000 per year. MAC was around $800,000 per year but are also under a newer deal with hopes to about double that.
 
UncleRico said:
Thanks for all the work. It is a really good breakdown. Like you I can't see this legislature allocating the funds. We have supporters of 4 year public colleges in Billings, Dillon, Havre and Butte that fight for funding in every session and they wouldn't support this. And raising student fees significantly is probably a non starter too.
Click to expand...

I think a combined UM / MSU move up plan could get some traction in the legislature especially if the goal would be to boost enrollment but yeah current statewide leadership is focusing mostly on cuts - not more outgoing funds.

Student fees they could get done but the scale of what schools like Sacramento can do vs what Montana can do makes it tough to really move the needle alone.
 
BWahlberg said:
I think a combined UM / MSU move up plan could get some traction in the legislature especially if the goal would be to boost enrollment but yeah current statewide leadership is focusing mostly on cuts - not more outgoing funds.

Student fees they could get done but the scale of what schools like Sacramento can do vs what Montana can do makes it tough to really move the needle alone.
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I can't imagine the legislature would provide any financial support. Nor do I think the legislature would allow it. Way too big of a risk. Many of the legislators don't even like the universities, is my understanding.
 
Athletic fees, annual (approximate amounts I found with some google searches)

Montana: $200
Montana State: $175
Sac State: $331 in 2027
Weber state: $150
NAU: $150
UC Davis: $100
Utah Tech: $90
 
Brint wouldn't it make more sense to move all of our sports to the MWC? That way we could get a full share of the media rights money?

Also just FYI Indoor T&F are separate sports per the NCAA so UM actually offers 15 sports and would only need to add one additional sport. My recommendation would be Beach Volleyball as a lot of those girls also play on the regular Volleyball team, and that could give you a little more flexibility with scholarships. If we needed to add another men's sport to balance out Title IX then the obvious choice there is Golf.
 
Griz til I die said:
Brint wouldn't it make more sense to move all of our sports to the MWC? That way we could get a full share of the media rights money?

Also just FYI Indoor T&F are separate sports per the NCAA so UM actually offers 15 sports and would only need to add one additional sport. My recommendation would be Beach Volleyball as a lot of those girls also play on the regular Volleyball team, and that could give you a little more flexibility with scholarships. If we needed to add another men's sport to balance out Title IX then the obvious choice there is Golf.
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I had a conversation with Jim O’Day not too long ago. You are correct. The Griz would have to add an additional female sport. I was racking my brain on what that could be since we already have softball and soccer and all the other big sports. Beach volleyball would be a pretty good idea.
 
@BWahlberg this is a great breakdown. Nice work on all of it. In talking to Jim Oday recently he said that Griz would only have to add 1 womens sport to meet the FBS sports requirement. I believe he said MSU would have to add 2.
 
BWahlberg said:
Mountain West is working under a new deal, those payouts aren't disclosed. Previously it was about $3,500,000 per year. MAC was around $800,000 per year but are also under a newer deal with hopes to about double that.
Click to expand...
Seems I read a statement from the Wyoming AD or MWC commissioner that the legacy schools would maintain $3.5M under the new deal. I don't know what that means for the new schools. We also know that UNLV and Air Force extorted additional shares.
 
5280Griz said:
What about adding skiing? I see that is a team at MSU but not UM.
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There's not really anywhere good for them to practice nearby. IDK that Snowbowl offers quite the terrain they would need. It's awfully steep and nowhere near as big as like Bridger or Big Sky. I think it would be really cool to have a ski team but not sure it's feasible for us.
 
HelenaHandBasket said:
Seems I read a statement from the Wyoming AD or MWC commissioner that the legacy schools would maintain $3.5M under the new deal. I don't know what that means for the new schools. We also know that UNLV and Air Force extorted additional shares.
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How long until UNLV sees all the increased competition and better path to the CFP in the PAC and decides to bolt? The MWC was able to make a sweetheart deal with them to keep them in the boat for now, but eventually I'd have to think they'll start looking over their shoulder and wondering if there's a better way. Same with Air Force too.
 
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