Dollars and sense: UI athletics a "have-not" in the Big Ten
N -G columnist Tom Kacich looked at Big Ten athletic budgets. A sample of his findings:
The expenditure line items show how much the Big Ten has developed into a league of the haves (Ohio State, Wisconsin, Penn State, Michigan and Iowa) and the have-nots (Illinois, Northwestern, Purdue, Indiana and Minnesota).
The formers spend at least $70 million a year; the latters spend $48 million to $58 million annually. Michigan State ($60.9 million) occupies the middle ground.
Illinois' is a little more than half Ohio State's gigantic $102 million budget. Northwestern's is close to half of Wisconsin's budget of about $95 million (Wisconsin still hasn't reported its most recent budget although last year's was $91.3 million).
The term "have-not" is very misleading. If you look at the amount of exposure that the University of Illinois gets from its athletics, I would bet that it is up there with Ohio State. Plus, the University of Illinois does it for half the price. Plus, from a basketball persepective Illinois is as competitive or more competitive than Ohio State.
I believe both terms are misleading because I believe for schools like Illinois, Minnesota and Indians it is a league of the "wills" and the "will nots". It is the difference between schools/states that recognize the importance of athletics on a big time school's image and those that are not marketing savvy enough to recognize it.
Not that anyone would bother, but you need to read the entire article to understand how the numbers are calculated. You also need to look at how many sports are supported. For example, OSU supports twice as many athletes and carries twelve more sports than Illinois which obviously requires more more "expenditure".
It would be interesting to see how the players have done with their academics comparatively speaking across the 11 institutions, not excluding graduate rates, and the like. Rumors seem to be everywhere that certain BigTen Schools have lower academic standards compared to others within the BigTen, for example, entrance requirements, progress criteria and grade standards, completion success rates leading to an acadmeic degree, and so forth.
Unfortunately, Illinois will continue to be a Have-not for as long as Guenther is the AD. 18 years, 5 bowl games and 10th in the Big 10 in wins - that is Guenther's legacy. A balanced budget and not getting investigated by the NCAA is the priority of this administration - two things with which he has been reasonably successful. Winning is secondary. Our motto should be: ILLINOIS - where 10th is good enough!
This is precisely what you get when you have a football program that goes to 3 bowl games in 15 years.
This goes back to the awful mismanagement of the football program from the top down.
The DIA is a living breathing example of tripping over dollars to pick up dimes. It appears they have no big picture outlook, or understand the importance of buying victory games in order to have a long term payoff such as low tier bowl games, which if done consecutively, can lead to better bowl games, which leads to better ticket sales, which leads to the ability to raise ticket prices, which leads to more income, which leads to more flexibility to pay coaches, which leads to better on-field performance, which leads to more alumni donations, which leads to more flexbility, etc. etc. etc.
Since my junior year - 1995 - this team has gone to 3 bowl games... 15 seasons... you actually have to TRY to suck that bad.
I agree that Guenther's highest priority is to balance the budget. Other school invest money in their basketball madness, and they use it as a recruiting tool, and something to generate excitement amongst their fans.
Illinois's basketball madness is typically boring, and lackluster. It has been going downhill, recently. They had some good years, but they need to invest some money to make it great.
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