Link: Report: Alabama athletic revenues higher than all 30 NHL teams, most NBA teams

rickvox79 · Apr 7, 2014

http://tracking.si.com/2014/04/07/alabama-athletic-revenue-nhl-nba/
"The University of Alabama recorded $143 million in athletic revenues last year, more than any NHL team and 25 of 30 NBA teams, associate professor Marc Edelman of City University of New York told the Associated Press.

Edelman spoke with the AP regarding the upcoming vote by Northwestern University football players on unionization that could upend the current revenue structure of the NCAA and its member schools. The article also noted that spending by college football programs has escalated along with rising revenues."

rickvox79 · Apr 7, 2014

Another article on the same subject by the Sporting News: http://www.sportingnews.com/ncaa-fo...lrb-ncaa-alabama-revenue?eadid=SOC/Twi/SNMain

rjtide · Apr 7, 2014

yet another piece of information to be used by proponents of student-athlete union formation.

Displaced Bama Fan · Apr 7, 2014

What they don't say is it all got sucked up by unprofitable Title IX programs.

KrAzY3 · Apr 7, 2014

Of course there's a spin being placed on this. Let's see, the athletic department spends most of that, and what it doesn't spend, the University does.

davefrat · Apr 7, 2014

rjtide said:
yet another piece of information to be used by proponents of student-athlete union formation.

Not that I'm for a union but it's a bit hard to defend the notion of academic amateurism when a university sports program makes more money than any franchise in one of the four major sports leagues in North America. The reality is that at schools like bama athletes are there to play sports first and be a student second. I was a teaching assistant in grad school and my wife was on scholarship at bama. She was directly told by her coaches that she was there to play first and study second. I taught a number of athletes including some prominent football players and it was painfully obvious that sports took major precedence over academics and that the primary function of all the academic assistance they received was aimed at maintaining eligibility. Quite frankly I was appalled by it and that was almost twenty years ago, I can only imagine how bad it is now. To add some perspective I believe in '95 coach stallings made $750 grand a year which is about 1/9 of what Saban makes today? The influence of money in college sports is totally out of hand and has all but obliterated the "student" in the "student-athlete" at major sports schools.

CrimsonForce · Apr 7, 2014

Funny thing is the fans don't come to see "the players." We watch and spend money to support our school. And most of us do so regardless of which players are there at the current time.

davefrat · Apr 7, 2014

CrimsonForce said:
Funny thing is the fans don't come to see "the players." We watch and spend money to support our school. And most of us do so regardless of which players are there at the current time.

i think a number of the fans who spend their money on their favorite players' jerseys and wear them around everywhere and all the time like when they stand in line forever to get autographs from said players would beg to differ.

to be sure, true alabama fans root for the school, but they also root for specific players as well.

CrimsonProf · Apr 7, 2014

davefrat said:
Not that I'm for a union but it's a bit hard to defend the notion of academic amateurism when a university sports program makes more money than any franchise in one of the four major sports leagues in North America. The reality is that at schools like bama athletes are there to play sports first and be a student second. I was a teaching assistant in grad school and my wife was on scholarship at bama. She was directly told by her coaches that she was there to play first and study second. I taught a number of athletes including some prominent football players and it was painfully obvious that sports took major precedence over academics and that the primary function of all the academic assistance they received was aimed at maintaining eligibility. Quite frankly I was appalled by it and that was almost twenty years ago, I can only imagine how bad it is now. To add some perspective I believe in '95 coach stallings made $750 grand a year which is about 1/9 of what Saban makes today? The influence of money in college sports is totally out of hand and has all but obliterated the "student" in the "student-athlete" at major sports schools.

I was a GTA at Bama, too, so I get what you're saying, but that money goesn't go into Scrooge McDuck's vault. It pays for everything else...every last bit of it.

CullmanTide · Apr 7, 2014

Did the article mention THOUSANDS of athletes get a free education?

Ldlane · Apr 7, 2014

What is about to happen:

1. Players Union.
2. Divisional Realignment to the NCAA divisions with a "Super Conference" division created above the current Divisions.
3. Player Stipends.
4. Eight team Play-off based on Conference Champions and Wild-Cards.
5. White Helmets? :biggrin2:

2 - 3 years.

11b · Apr 7, 2014

^ i am assuming that since you are saying there would be a super conference division with 8 team playoff that you think there would only be 4 conferences in it. I count five, big10 big12 pac12 acc and sec. Are you leaving someone out?

Ldlane · Apr 7, 2014

I'm not speaking in technicalities, but I think in the "general sense" that is the way we are moving.

11b said:
^ i am assuming that since you are saying there would be a super conference division with 8 team playoff that you think there would only be 4 conferences in it. I count five, big10 big12 pac12 acc and sec. Are you leaving someone out?

CraigD · Apr 7, 2014

It's curious that Bama is the "headline" team for the article, but Texas's revenue is the highest. Why not make the headline "Texas athletic revenues higher than all 30 NHL teams, most NBA teams"?

CrimsonForce · Apr 7, 2014

davefrat said:
i think a number of the fans who spend their money on their favorite players' jerseys and wear them around everywhere and all the time like when they stand in line forever to get autographs from said players would beg to differ.

to be sure, true alabama fans root for the school, but they also root for specific players as well.

My point is the players are a revolving door and no player is bigger than the school. Not the case with pro sports. In pro sports its almost all about superstars. In many cases superstars are bigger than the team/organization. Doesn't matter who is playing QB at bama, stadium will be packed. When big 3 leave Miami heat they will have worse attendance in the league.

Padreruf · Apr 7, 2014

CraigD said:
It's curious that Bama is the "headline" team for the article, but Texas's revenue is the highest. Why not make the headline "Texas athletic revenues higher than all 30 NHL teams, most NBA teams"?

Because they have not won a National Title recently...or 3 for that matter. We are the headliner in college football -- whether we like it or not.

CrimsonProf · Apr 7, 2014

davefrat said:
i think a number of the fans who spend their money on their favorite players' jerseys and wear them around everywhere and all the time like when they stand in line forever to get autographs from said players would beg to differ.

to be sure, true alabama fans root for the school, but they also root for specific players as well.

But that changes from year to year. In a span of three seasons, a #4 jersey for Alabama could mean a fan is gumpin' hard for four different players. Fans are weird and idiosyncratic when it comes to things like this. There's just no way to fairly quantify that so that players are duly compensated.

davefrat · Apr 7, 2014

CrimsonProf said:
I was a GTA at Bama, too, so I get what you're saying, but that money goesn't go into Scrooge McDuck's vault. It pays for everything else...every last bit of it.

i understand that. my point is that the athletes are there to be athletes.

TexasBama · Apr 7, 2014

That NBA claim seemed suspect so I looked it up.

http://www.forbes.com/nba-valuations/

Still made more revenue than half the league.

davefrat · Apr 7, 2014

CrimsonProf said:
But that changes from year to year. In a span of three seasons, a #4 jersey for Alabama could mean a fan is gumpin' hard for four different players. Fans are weird and idiosyncratic when it comes to things like this. There's just no way to fairly quantify that so that players are duly compensated.

my comments weren't so much about who should get paid what, just that the individual kids can be superstars that are followed individually by fans.

Link: Report: Alabama athletic revenues higher than all 30 NHL teams, most NBA teams

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