USF football's present & future: show me the money

[Flowers4Heisman]

We need money to grow the football program. What's the answer?

Yeah, I know... We have a lot more sports than football. But before football ever showed up at USF, only a hand full of people and a few campus squirrels ever cared about USF athletics.

Obviously, getting into a P5 is the quick answer. Why?  New money is really small money...

"AAC schools will get a little less than $2 million per year off a reported six-year, $126 million deal starting in 2013-14." Source: CBSSports.com: Left Behind

FoxSports.com: College Football Playoff Revenue Makes Every Conference Richer, Except One

But that doesn't mean the money suddenly went dry for USF.

There's the Big East exit money and NCAA Tourney money, at least for a little while longer.

Cincinnati and USF are expected to receive multi-million-dollar installments over a four-to-five period largely from the AAC's realignment pot of nearly $70 million, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation.

The league will also distribute revenue from NCAA men's basketball tournament "units" left behind in the Catholic 7 breakup. Temple, which has played one year in the league, will get a minor bump compared to the six incoming members for 2013-14 but not as much as the three mentioned above.

The AAC will likely finalize these plans at the league's spring meetings in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., from May 20-22, possibly earlier.

Last year, Documents shared between the AAC and the Big East (formerly known as the Catholic 7) highlighted the AAC's exit fee stash worth $68.8 million by 2020.

These schools would probably prefer a lump sum up front, but the AAC is wise to space out the payments. The payments will keep UConn, Cincinnati and USF closer to the old Big East deal -- which paid around $7 to $10 million per school, depending on performance-based incentives -- but that changes once the exit fees dry up.  Source: CBSSports.com: Left Behind

 

But more than that, USF athletics (and Gnat athletics) are pretty shrewd. Each institution saw it's size and student population as an asset: automatic student athletics fees.

Lots of large-population universities do it, too.

http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances/

#57 South Florida: Revenue ($48,383,928) Expenses: ($46,829,647) Subsidy: ($21,355,970)

%: 44.14

Full article: May 26, 2015 USAToday: College athletics finance report: Non-Power 5 schools face huge money pressure

This is an interesting story about the P5 programs. Look at how much their budget is as compared to ours. http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/sports/wp/2015/11/23/running-up-the-bills/

 

[smazza]

money makes the world go round

[Flowers4Heisman]

Click on #57 USF and this pops up.

http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances/

year	ticket sales	contributions	rights / licensing	student fees	school funds	other	total revenues
2014	$4,980,088	$3,719,221	$17,583,995	$16,450,523	$4,905,447	$744,654	$48,383,928
2013	$6,888,742	$2,442,458	$16,357,767	$16,248,285	$1,455,486	$1,673,520	$45,066,258
2012	$6,023,919	$3,053,827	$15,645,668	$15,534,732	$1,153,918	$2,162,336	$43,574,400
2011	$5,828,048	$2,735,003	$14,628,344	$15,231,708	$1,329,909	$2,195,111	$41,948,123
2010	$6,414,049	$2,893,587	$13,946,663	$13,026,289	$1,158,748	$1,751,603	$39,190,939
2009	$6,420,512	$2,932,840	$12,941,642	$12,477,155	$1,302,559	$1,911,463	$37,986,171
2008	$6,717,314	$2,842,750	$10,426,662	$11,553,648	$1,267,614	$2,127,825	$34,935,813
2007	$4,014,353	$2,135,633	$7,733,777	$10,812,956	$1,442,016	$2,021,896	$28,160,631
2006	$4,231,975	$2,092,880	$6,133,410	$10,227,371	$1,140,298	$1,915,212	$25,741,146
2005	$2,975,011	$2,675,193	$3,112,295	$9,183,299	$1,093,589	$1,526,484	$20,565,871

[Flowers4Heisman]

Surprisingly, 2007 didn't bring in that much in terms of ticket sales.

[usfgrad84]

Surprisingly, 2007 didn't bring in that much in terms of ticket sales.

there is always a lag effect. There was more than a 50% increase the next year.     I expect there will be a significant jump next year.

Now that Harlan has a more exciting and much better program to market and sell it will be interesting to see if his fundraising and other forms of increasing revenue will jump. 

[Bear]

The Big East was pulling in revenue similar to the Pac 12 back then...

 

 

[Roaming Bull]

The Big East was pulling in revenue similar to the Pac 12 back then...

 

 

that's something that stuck out to me as well. The pac12 is still going through some financial pain with their network being crap and everything.

[BrowardBull17]

Yes we have more sports but football should be the priority as it makes the most money. Good football schools usually bank.

[deters-]

How the hell is the Mountain West earning more than the AAC? They have like 1 good team.

[Cow Pie]

We need money to grow the football program. What's the answer?

Yeah, I know... We have a lot more sports than football. But before football ever showed up at USF, only a hand full of people and a few campus squirrels ever cared about USF athletics.

Obviously, getting into a P5 is the quick answer. Why?  New money is really small money...

FoxSports.com: College Football Playoff Revenue Makes Every Conference Richer, Except One

But that doesn't mean the money suddenly went dry for USF.

There's the Big East exit money and NCAA Tourney money, at least for a little while longer.

 

But more than that, USF athletics (and Gnat athletics) are pretty shrewd. Each institution saw it's size and student population as an asset: automatic student athletics fees.

Lots of large-population universities do it, too.

This is an interesting story about the P5 programs. Look at how much their budget is as compared to ours. http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/sports/wp/2015/11/23/running-up-the-bills/

 

I agree with your assessment of USF before and after football. Heck there wasn't even a Bullspen before we had football. As a Saint Leo Alum as well I can attest to how trans-formative a football program can be to a school. I grew up next to USF in the 1980's and can remember USF before football, and before football USF was a lot like Saint Leo now, just state funded, secular, and on a bigger and more empty campus.

Regarding P5 conferences, the only way USF is ever getting into a P5 conference is if we can somehow convince the Big12 to take us and UCF as a package. Only way that is going to ever happen is if both programs can get good, stay good, and put together some meaningful televised games as ranked top 25 teams going head to head.

The Big12 likes rivalries and rivalry games. Just my 2 cents.