In 2007, the MEAC conference grossed $93,988,733 in total revenues. Not a bad number for 12 schools with enrollments all below 9,000 students.
Until you read that the University of Florida alone grossed $108,309,060.
That’s downright frightening, but you don’t get the ‘Thriller’ dance until you delve further into the numbers and find an crisis-level scenario with the totality of black college athletics.
Very few black college athletic programs, if any, manage their money as profit-bearing enterprises.
The collective conference stats are outrageous; many black college athletic programs are seemingly a step away from temporary layoffs and easy credit ripoffs. It’s not uncommon for black college sports programs at the Division I and Division II levels to report no revenues for any given year. Money from guaranteed games, concessions, merchandise, fundraisers everything. Not one cent of it, in most cases, can be classified as profit.
That’s a big problem.
If you’ve never used the Office of Secondary Education’s ‘Equity in Athletics’ tool, give it a spin sometime. It will make you cringe at the glaring lack of equity between HBCUs and their power conference counterparts. For the sake of this post, let’s go by the conferences instead of individual schools. All data is from the 2007 reporting year.
CIAA
Revenues – $33,716,908
Expenses – $32,238,681
Total Conference Revenues – $1,478,227
Average Profit Per School – $134, 384
SIAC
Revenues – $26,377,710
Expenses – $25,373,824
Total Conference Revenues – $1,003,886
Average Profit Per School – $83,657
MEAC
Revenues – $93,988,733
Expenses- $93,771,977
Total Conference Revenues – $216,756
Average Profit Per School – $18,063
SWAC
Revenues – $56,243,994
Expenses – $56,243,994
Total Conference Revenues – $0
Average Profit Per School – $0
Now, this isn’t to lay the blame for inadequate business models at the feet on the conferences and commissioners. But it is to say that the governing bodies of black college sports could do a lot more to engage presidents to demand better marketing vehicles out of their sports programs.
In addition, it’s unacceptable that the HBCU Sports Blog can report more profit than the SWAC conference in 2007. I can’t even begin to imagine how every single institution in the conference, on average, made just enough to cover expenses for an entire year. As if checks for guaranteed games, football classics, tailgating fees and smoked turkey legs don’t make a difference.
Obviously, the conferences can’t turn presidents, chancellors and athletic directors into better business persons, but there has to be a more creative solution to generating profit and growing the brand of black college sports. And if you, the individual, aren’t a willing patron of black college sports, you are as culpable for this embarrassment as any official or administrator.
If you own a business and don’t advertise with your alma mater’s athletic department, if you don’t cross brand your civic and personal associations with your HBCU’s athletics (church, fraternities and sororities, fellowship clubs, etc) you are an accessory to this crime. You’ve seen empty stadiums, you’ve complained about the lack of game day experiences, and you wonder why HBCUs can’t attract a higher caliber of coach, player or administrator within their doors.
If you don’t pay, you have no say.
And by the looks of these numbers, a whole lotta black college sports fans need to shut up.
MSU93 3:56 pm on December 8, 2009 Permalink
SOMETHING SMELLS FISHY….FOR THE MEAC TO ONLY GROSS ONLY 200K AND THE SWAC TO GROSS $0 NET PROFIT. SOUNDS LIKE THEY SPEND WHAT EVER YEAR END PROFITS ARE LEFT AND EXPENSE EVERYTHING OFF THE BOOKS. WHILE THE UNIVERSITY ITSELF MAY BE A NON PROFIT ON THE SURFACE…TRUST ME ….THE ATHLETIC DEPT. IS FOR PROFIT….ANYTIME YOU PAY $4 FOR A HOT DOG OR $7 FOR A BEER AT A GAME ITS FOR PROFIT…THE REASON YOU SELL TEAM MERCHANDISE IS TO MAKE A PROFIT….THE QUESTION IS WHO IS THE BEAN COUNTER FOR OUR HBCU ATHLETIC DEPTS AND THE CONFERENCE AS A WHOLE…AND WHO IS WATCHING THE BEAN COUNTERS???? SCAREY…..MUCH LIKE CLAY DAVIS ON THE WIRE SOMEBODYS POCKETS A SWOLLEN….LOL
big don 5:25 pm on December 8, 2009 Permalink
Dude, you’ve got to calm down. Athletics is designed to BREAK EVEN, not MAKE A PROFIT. The SEC brings in more money, so they spend more money. Most schools up and down the spectrum run in the red (like the ACC as a whole). Athletics tries to bring in more money through tickets, merch, TV contracts, just so they can *gasp* spend more money on athletics. With every dollar they bring in, they quickly blow it on recruiting, or even better facilities.
The football team does not pay for the chemistry lab at any school save Alcorn State, who sucks.
If you are upset about rank amount of money we’re bringing in with revenue, then I understand.
JC 5:34 pm on December 8, 2009 Permalink
Slightly contradictory don’t you think? They make more money, “blow it” (or invest it as I would call it) and consequently make even more money then they had before. Don’t really get your point on that one.
But even on the subject of breaking even, I don’t mind breaking even. Just have something to show for it. Don’t break even and have the same stuff you always had. You project a budget based on the previous year’s performance, and NO ONE predicts exactly. Under? Fine. Over? Great. There is no breaking even DOWN TO THE DOLLAR.
And I’d like to see some proof that the ACC is running in the red. The data tool says the conference as a whole made more than seven million dollars in ‘07.
MSU93 5:57 pm on December 8, 2009 Permalink
MORGANITE you are absolutely right….they make the money regardless if you call it profit or not ,but you have to feel that they are blowing it somewhere. …Most programs have little to show for the monies that are expensed. bottom line is that more folks need to embrace HBCU brand especially alumni. The money and fan base is really what separates HBCU athletics from its ACC, Big East , Big 10 counter parts. I have seen games on tv in the pouring rain between power conferences with the stands filled to capacity over 50k, and yet most HBCU sporting evens are lucky to draw 5k on a 70 degree sunny day.