Expert: Vic Winnek - 3/12/2008

Question
Hi, I actually have 2 questions
1) Is there a limit to the number of home games a team can play in a given season
2) where can I find information about Rutgers football finances. For example, how much revenue they make per game or how much they pay an away team to play them. Things of that nature?

Thanks for all the help

Answer
JOHN

HERE IS SOME MORE FOLLOW UP INFO.  IT IS TAKEN FROM THE NCAA AND SHOWS THE EXSPENSES AND REVENUES  FOR THE 2004-05 YEAR.  THERE ARE NO MORE CURRENT REPORTS RELEASED BY THE NCAA.

NCAA Financial Reports Database FOR RUTGERS
http://www2.indystar.com/NCAA_financial_reports/revenue_stat/show







John

The number of Home games is set or limited by the individual conferences within the parameters of the NCAA rules for maximum number of games to be played per year.

Concerning  Rutgers football finances, these are closely held but because it is a public institution you can likely make a request of the school under the Freedom of Information Act and/or New Jersey's similar statute.  The Sums paid to visiting teams is per the contract as negotiated by the ADs.  I have provided a bunch of sources below.  The exact accounting you seek is held by the School on their balance sheets and Annual Financial Report.

Rutgers efforts to upgrade the quality of its football program have raised criticism of several alumni, faculty and students regarding the size of athletic department's budget, wishing to divert its funds elsewhere. The athletic department's budget is $35.5 million compared to a $1.6 billion budget for the entire university. A large portion of the athletics budget comes from mandatory student fees enacted in recent years. The rest comes from self-generating revenue (ticket sales, merchandise, broadcast rights) and from the general university budget. In addition, many argue that having a very visible football program increases the connection of alumni and members of the community at large, thus increasing donations to the athletic department and even the university as a whole. For this reason it is difficult to quantify the positive impact that a strong football program has on the university in a variety of areas.


Critics claim that the focus on Division I-A athletics lowers admissions and academic standards. At 980, Rutgers team had the third-highest Academic Performance Rate (APR) score of any Division I-A football team in 2005. However, when compared with Division I-AA schools Rutgers' marks are not as excellent. Rutgers would have the second lowest marks of a football team in the ivy league (including rivals Columbia and Princeton).  Critics also claim that off-the-field criminal incidents will damage the university's reputation, believing that big-time athletics inevitably fosters corruption. These concerns have not been empirically tested, and incidents have been less frequent at Rutgers than at other major state universities. A final complaint was that the upgraded football schedule would prevent competing against long standing rivals Princeton, Columbia, Lehigh, and Lafayette. However, supporters of the move claim it would make Rutgers more comparable to large, prestigious state universities such as the University of Michigan and University of California and private institutions such as Stanford University which have been touted for balancing their academic reputation with athletic success.

Budget cuts and lean times
In the writing of New Jersey's 2006 state budget, the state legislature cut $66 million from the government's appropriations to Rutgers. The university responded by reducing several classes, laying off staff and junior faculty, and closing several programs. The athletic department announced that it would be ending six athletic programs beginning in the 2007-2008 academic year. These athletic programs affected are the lightweight and heavyweight Crew, the swimming and diving team, men's tennis teams and the men's and women's fencing. Title IX concerns also played a significant role in these cuts.


In an 11/18/06 AP News report:  The decision to cut some sports programs while boosting funding for the football program has raised some eyebrows among legislators, including Assemblyman Patrick J. Diegnan Jr., D-Middlesex, Chairman of the Assembly Higher Education Committee. He said he's as big a football fan as anyone, but he questioned why Rutgers can't support all of its sports.

"Once you pull the plug on these six sports, they're never coming back," Diegnan said.

The sports to go are men's heavyweight crew, men's lightweight crew, men's fencing, men's swimming and diving, men's tennis and women's fencing.

Adam Pantel, 18, from Mendham, loves fencing so much he says he wouldn't have gone to Rutgers if it hadn't had a team competing in the sport. Now, he and his fellow fencing team members try not to talk about the situation as they gather to practice in an old university gym in New Brunswick.

"We just try to have the best season we can every year, of course. But this year, so much more. It might be our last chance," Pantel said.

Rutgers athletics officials have said the cuts are needed because the university can't support a total of 30 intercollegiate sports and ensure their excellence. They've said eliminating the sports will save about $800,000 the first year.

But at the same time they're cutting some sports, overall athletic spending has increased.

Since Robert E. Mulcahy III took over as athletic director in 1998, spending has nearly doubled, from $23.5 million in the 1998-99 fiscal year to about $41 million in 2005-06. But the money has not been spread evenly, with much going to football and other high-profile sports.

Football spending has grown from $6.3 million, or 26.8 percent of the budget, in 1998-99, to $13 million, or 31.7 percent, in 2005-06, said Rutgers athletics spokesman John Wooding.

A Rutgers report to the U.S. Department of Education for the 2004-05 year, the latest available, shows the football program breaking even with $10.7 million in revenue. But that included nearly $3 million in university support and student fees, Wooding said.

Some notable examples of football spending:

• Including incentives, head football coach Greg Schiano is set to make more than $1 million this year. The money comes from both public and private sources.

• The university has spent millions on new football facilities, including $12.5 million for a recent expansion and renovation of the team's training center.

• Rutgers last year spent $175,000 to keep the team in a local hotel for six home games, a move meant to make it easier for the team to focus on the game.

Rutgers received $1.25 million for last year's Insight Bowl appearance, its first bowl appearance in decades. But after paying for everyone to go to the game, including players, coaching staff, additional university officials and family members, the university was $19,000 in the red.

Mulcahy argues that the team's success shouldn't be measured just in financial terms but also by the attention it draws to the university.

"Athletics, and in this case football, can be the front porch for the university," Mulcahy said. "The amount of exposure that Rutgers has received since the appearance at the Insight Bowl last December and through the season has been staggering."

In trying to create a moneymaking program, Rutgers has the advantage of being the only "serious football school" in the greater New York area, said Andrew Zimbalist, an economics professor at Smith College in Massachusetts who has studied college sports.

"If they play their cards right, they could catch a particularly large market," Zimbalist said.

In the long run, success at football will determine whether Rutgers is able to support other sports, Zimbalist said.

"If the football program pays off, it will help the other sports. If it doesn't, it will drain the other sports," Zimbalist said.

Many of the nation's elite college football programs make extra money that is often funneled into other sports programs. But Rutgers would likely need years of winning teams and successful marketing to achieve a similar result, said Gary Roberts, director of the Sports Law Program at Tulane University in New Orleans.

"To really compete at the same level as Michigan and Ohio State and, really, Louisville, they're really going to have to spend a ton of money," Roberts said.
Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press see http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2667334

sources:

1. WBRS Sports Blog has had some of the budget info
2.The following may also have some info http://deadspin.com/sports/blogdome/blogdome-that-rutgers-budget-230386.php

3 http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=2519938
4 The Daily Targum (4 April 2006) "Spending is Up, State Aid is decreasing"
5 NCAA's new scarlet letters are APR accessed 10 September 2006.
6 2004-05 Academic Progress Rate (APR) Data for NCAA Schools accessed 26 November 2008.
7 Reock, Ernest C. Unfinished Business: The New Jersey Constitutional Convention of 1966 (New Brunswick, New: Center for Urban Policy Research / Rutgers University Press, 2003), passim. ISBN 0882851756
8 www.scarletknights.com: Rutgers Stadium accessed 13 August 2006.

9 http://scarletknights.com/football/news/news.asp

^State of New Jersey Commission of Investigation released its report titled "Vulnerable to Abuse - The Importance of Restoring Accountability, Transparency and Oversight to Public Higher Education Governance http://ur.rutgers.edu/scireport/pdf/sci_finalreport.pdf http://ur.rutgers.edu/scireport/pdf/sci_finalreport.pdf  http://ur.rutgers.edu/scireport/pdf/sci_finalreport.pdf

Financial Report 2006-2007
http://oirap.rutgers.edu/instchar/FinancialStatements.pdf