Ever since the Federal government made their threats and shut down the national parks, states have figured they can do the same.
Now Universities are threatened that they want play football for lack of money.
BLATANT LIE... (Extortion)
College football is a cash cow that major colleges can't do without.
States can't do w/o the money football brings into their states.

I guess I don't understand how they can shut down football, if the athletic department, in particular, football is profitable.

http://businessofcollegesports.com/2014/10/03/most-profitable-college-football-programs-5-lsu/

The Tigers banked $48.5 million in net revenue from football in 2012-2013 – plenty to cover the $15.7 million lost by sports other than football and men’s basketball (which had $2.6 million in net revenue).

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Displaced Bama Fan said:

I guess I don't understand how they can shut down football, if the athletic department, in particular, football is profitable.

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Please read my posts - hey have not threatened to shut down football. That would be a result of shutting down classes, which would result in players not being qualified.

Crimson1967 said:

One year when I lived in Knoxville they could not settle the state budget and the government shut down on July 1. Nobody cared. State parks and rest stops shut down. Nobody cared. UT said they could not hold classes the second half of summer semester. Nobody cared. People said they would not be able to complete their graduate degrees if the university shut down. Nobody cared. They said a bunch of football players would not be academically eligible if they missed the second summer session. People cared and the budget quickly settled.



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That is pathetic....

KrAzY3 said:

...it's waste and the waste does not come from a profitable football program.

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I have to chime on in this. Football programs contain MASSIVE WASTES of resources (see recruiting for a great example); however, football programs in the top schools also happen to bring in lots of cash, so these programs are also profitable for a small number of schools. There's no such thing as 50 million plus dollar athletic program that has no waste. With that said, I love Alabama football, and I see the requirements for millions being spent on the program.

BamainBoston said:

Do you work in politics, cause you are great at spin. This is a threat, as old as time in the south. Give us more money, or we'll have to cut some programs, like football. After all, that's not essential, right? No one believes that the Universities are the actual cause of the deficit in Louisiana. No one believe that shutting down football--which will cost the state billions in tax revenue and economic impact--will close that deficit. But what everyone knows is that it's a lot easier to raise taxes than to make the real tough choices in the areas of government that are actually causing the problem. So drop the possibility that football might go away--hold a gun to the head of the entire state--and get what you want, which is more money.

If you can't see that, you are being willfully ignorant.

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You need to work on your reading comprehension.

Not only would football be shut down for next season, but any other sport taking place after April 30 would also. Talk about putting the citizens over a barrel.

B1GTide said:

Sorry - not true. Notice that there was no threat to shut down the football program. You guys have invented that here, in this thread. The statement is that they would have to shut down all state schools until there is money available. Any conservative would agree that the government cannot spend money that it doesn't have.

The result is that the players would not academically qualify to play football when the school reopens.

Now, maybe the football program or boosters could agree to fund classes only for its football players so they remained academically eligible. Not sure if that is legal or not, but it would be a way for the football program to stay on track without funds from the state.

ETA - this is my mentioning real options available vs how things could have been done differently in the past to avoid this.

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No threat to shutdown the football program? Here is his exact quote:

“Without legislators approving new revenue this special session, some campuses will be forced to declare financial bankruptcy, which would include massive layoffs and the cancellation of classes.
“If you are a student attending one of these universities, it means that you will receive a grade of incomplete, many students will not be able to graduate and student athletes across the state at those schools will be ineligible to play next semester. That means you can say farewell to college football next fall.”

The governor directly mentioned football.....

Think some are missing the real obvious here...

Leonard Fournette Should Transfer To Alabama

Bama Czar said:

No threat to shutdown the football program? Here is his exact quote:

“Without legislators approving new revenue this special session, some campuses will be forced to declare financial bankruptcy, which would include massive layoffs and the cancellation of classes.
“If you are a student attending one of these universities, it means that you will receive a grade of incomplete, many students will not be able to graduate and student athletes across the state at those schools will be ineligible to play next semester. That means you can say farewell to college football next fall.”

The governor directly mentioned football.....

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Seems to me they would funnel all revenue toward LSU if this were to happen. Probably not good news for schools like ULM or ULL but LSU would more than likely carry on.


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Snuffy Smith said:

Seems to me they would funnel all revenue toward LSU if this were to happen. Probably not good news for schools like ULM or ULL but LSU would more than likely carry on.


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It's an easy budget problem to fix. Just tax each seat at LSU's stadium $5000. Problem solved. $500 million dollar tax hole filled.

RTR91 said:

Think some are missing the real obvious here...

Leonard Fournette Should Transfer To Alabama

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I know that was a joke, but if LSU did shut down, he could transfer and play right away.


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BamainBoston said:

It is a testament to the power of this board that we invented a story that the entire sports world is now talking about. Congrats, guys!

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^^^^^Post of the Day^^^^^

B1GTide said:

Okay, I get it - you are turning this into a philosophical debate instead of a debate about where they are now, and their real options available. In that case, I agree with you and BB. Without getting into politics too much, I am a libertarian so pretty much opposed to everything that our government is doing today.

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No, folks are just stating a fact. This trick is as old as the hills. Rather than making the tough choices, they go after the golden calf.

You can call it a threat, or whatever. The problem is that it works. They will use it as an excuse, to raise taxes, and spend even more money than the previous year. All while kicking the can, further down the road.

It works every time. The sad fact is this is just one of many dirty tricks, political hacks use, to instill fear of doom and gloom, of imaginary tragic events, to keep kicking that can.

(When this makes it over to NS, regrettably, there are lots of similar examples that might ring more true to your experience that can be cited.)

It is pretty standard budget-related politics to just go after golden calves and public facing entities.


DMVs get a budget cut...they don't cut admin jobs, they cut a few clerks and make the public deal with longer lines.

A choice...honor a pledge to Grover Norquist to never raise taxes for any reason verses having a functional state university complete with a football team. Tough choice

My Bama friend working in Baton Rouge will surely have fun with this.:BigA:

B1GTide said:

I am a libertarian

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mdb-tpet said:

I have to chime on in this. Football programs contain MASSIVE WASTES of resources (see recruiting for a great example); however, football programs in the top schools also happen to bring in lots of cash, so these programs are also profitable for a small number of schools. There's no such thing as 50 million plus dollar athletic program that has no waste. With that said, I love Alabama football, and I see the requirements for millions being spent on the program.

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I considered wording it differently after the fact. There's no doubt that many FBS programs are nothing but a huge waste of money (in Alabama it's every program other than Alabama and Auburn). However in the case of an LSU or Alabama, the programs make money and it's easy enough to argue that money spent on those programs is money well invested. It's a profitable venture, unlike South Alabama football, or UAB football, etc... If the governor of Alabama came out and said, due to budgetary restraints South Alabama is closing their football program, I would applaud it. Then again, a politician would only say something like that as an idle threat so no way he'd threaten to eliminate a football program very few care about.

Also, a lot of the waste within athletic departments as a whole come from the fact that the government mandates waste with things like Title IX, which says even if there is no fan interest they have to spend money.

Chukker Veteran said:

A choice...honor a pledge to Grover Norquist to never raise taxes for any reason verses having a functional state university complete with a football team. Tough choice 

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That's a false choice though. How about door number 3? How about cutting spending in other areas? I am perplexed and saddened to see how wasteful most people are in most aspects of their life, and they seemingly are oblivious. You could cut millions from any state budget without impacting any service at all, just by being less wasteful.

KrAzY3 said:

I considered wording it differently after the fact. There's no doubt that many FBS programs are nothing but a huge waste of money (in Alabama it's every program other than Alabama and Auburn). However in the case of an LSU or Alabama, the programs make money and it's easy enough to argue that money spent on those programs is money well invested. It's a profitable venture, unlike South Alabama football, or UAB football, etc... If the governor of Alabama came out and said, due to budgetary restraints South Alabama is closing their football program, I would applaud it. Then again, a politician would only say something like that as an idle threat so no way he'd threaten to eliminate a football program very few care about.

Also, a lot of the waste within athletic departments as a whole come from the fact that the government mandates waste with things like Title IX, which says even if there is no fan interest they have to spend money.

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Didn't we try to do that last year with UAB?