Why Football Matters

[lawmanfan]

Not to me, but unfortunately to college sports:

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...edia-pot-big-east-facing-deal-of-its-lifetime

"Just last spring, the Big East turned down a nine-year deal from ESPN worth $1.17 billion, an average of $130 million annually, which would have earned full members $13.8 million a year and non-football members $2.43 million."

No, that's not a misprint. Football schools get paid more than 5 times as much as basketball schools, and that's just from the TV contract.

Tough to compete on that playing field if you're a hoops-only school in a hoops-only conference. That's why those schools are pretty much all known as "mid majors."

 

[austour]

All true however it also costs the football schools a lot of money to operate a BCS level football program. For example a quick google search indicated that Ohio State spent $18 million running their football program in 2009 not including capital improvements. Even if the average cost is only half that the differences between the net for football schools and basketball schools shrinks dramatically. Anyone know what a school like Rutgers or Syracuse spend operating their football team?

Of course that $13.8 million/year would be the lowest per year average for any BCS conference as well. Here's a link that outlines all the BCS conference TV packages.

http://espn.go.com/blog/playbook/dollars/post/_/id/705/college-tv-rights-deals-undergo-makeovers