Conference Expansion: Stanford, California and SMU Join the ACC

[EatLeadCommie]

Regionalism makes sense when you're talking about the Sun Belt and Conference USA, but it doesn't make sense for schools in the American and it is entirely because of athletic department budgets. If you look at the expenses reported for the public school athletic departments, the schools in the American spend in the range of $50M-$60M per year on their athletic departments while teams in the Sun Belt and C-USA both typically spend in the $30M-$40M range. So while it would make geographical sense to combine all three of those conferences and divvy them out by region you're going to wind up with conferences where USF has an athletic department budget of $53M playing FIU and FAU who each have athletic department budgets near $36M. Worse yet, the three lowest spenders in the three conferences (ULM, LaTech, & Southern Miss - combined budget of $65M) would likely all wind up in the same conference as Memphis ($55M).

I'd be curious to know how different that is within the P5 conferences. For example, do other schools in the Big 12 spend as much as Texas and OU? What about Vandy vs the rest of the SEC? Wake and the ACC?

 

[Deaconblue]

I'd be curious to know how different that is within the P5 conferences. For example, do other schools in the Big 12 spend as much as Texas and OU? What about Vandy vs the rest of the SEC? Wake and the ACC?

Ohio State has the biggest athletic budget in all of college sports at just over $209 (typo here) million. Wake spent $76.5 million.

Those over in Chapel Hill were at $102 million pre-Covid.

 

[w84it]

I'd be curious to know how different that is within the P5 conferences. For example, do other schools in the Big 12 spend as much as Texas and OU? What about Vandy vs the rest of the SEC? Wake and the ACC?

Hard to say with Wake, as private schools don't have to disclose their finances, but according to the College Athletics Financial Information Database, there is a pretty big disparity in Athletic Department expenses within the major conferences. In 2019, Louisville lead the ACC and spent $151M while NCSU spent only $90M.

In the Big XII you have Texas spending $207M, OU spending $163M, and the only other school that broke $100M was Kansas. Compare that with the Big Ten and the SEC where all of the public schools spent more than $100M on athletics.

 

[Biff Tannen]

 

[uncaboref]

Ohio State has the biggest athletic budget in all of college sports at just over $109 million. Wake spent $76.5 million.

Those over in Chapel Hill were at $102 million pre-Covid.

Assuming that was a typo? See w84it's post below, but Texas and a handful of other schools are approaching (or exceeding) a $200 million dollar budget in a normal, non-Covid affected year.

 

[BarcaDeac]

More like Spencer Rattled

 

[PhDeac]

That's just good journalism right there. Props to OU Daily. Having a publicly accessible practice is something Sooner athletics may want to address.

 

[Biff Tannen]

That's just good journalism right there. Props to OU Daily. Having a publicly accessible practice is something Sooner athletics may want to address.

 

[w84it]

Assuming that was a typo? See w84it's post below, but Texas and a handful of other schools are approaching (or exceeding) a $200 million dollar budget in a normal, non-Covid affected year.

The numbers on the website that I quoted are from 2019 - the top four spenders were Ohio State ($223M), Texas ($207M), Michigan($196M), and Alabama ($185M). They are also for total expenditures, so it includes the cost of scholarships, coach compensation, administrative budget, travel, competition guarantees, etc.

 

[deacon14]

It's pretty funny that the OU student newspaper would put that out there though. Forcing TCU to prepare for both quarterbacks is an advantage, clarifying which QB is likely to start helps TCU prepare for the game. Although I guess if your goal is to go to the playoffs you don't really care about things like that against teams like TCU.

 

[Pilchard]

It's pretty funny that the OU student newspaper would put that out there though. Forcing TCU to prepare for both quarterbacks is an advantage, clarifying which QB is likely to start helps TCU prepare for the game. Although I guess if your goal is to go to the playoffs you don't really care about things like that against teams like TCU.

There is speculation that Stoops has ordered the media blackout because he is trying to protect Rattler's psyche because: a) its fragile, and b) the QB situation behind Williams and Rattler is bad; so, worse case scenario would be for Rattler to transfer mid-season, and Williams to either get hurt or suck. Not sure if it will come against TCU, but would love to see Oklahoma season unravel with Rattler curled up in the fetal position on the sidelines.

 

[Biff Tannen]

There is speculation that Stoops has ordered the media blackout because he is trying to protect Rattler's psyche because: a) its fragile, and b) the QB situation behind Williams and Rattler is bad; so, worse case scenario would be for Rattler to transfer mid-season, and Williams to either get hurt or suck. Not sure if it will come against TCU, but would love to see Oklahoma season unravel with Rattler curled up in the fetal position on the sidelines.

Stoops aka Lincoln Riley.

 

[DeacsATS]

Conference Expansion: Texas & Oklahoma to the SEC?

Hope Barry Switzer can get his team under control.

 

[PhDeac]

It's pretty funny that the OU student newspaper would put that out there though. Forcing TCU to prepare for both quarterbacks is an advantage, clarifying which QB is likely to start helps TCU prepare for the game. Although I guess if your goal is to go to the playoffs you don't really care about things like that against teams like TCU.

I’m guessing TCU prepared for Williams and would have considered themselves lucky if they got Rattler instead.

 

[MichDeac25]

Universities are for sports, not regular students.

 

[myDeaconmyhand]

It's pretty funny that the OU student newspaper would put that out there though. Forcing TCU to prepare for both quarterbacks is an advantage, clarifying which QB is likely to start helps TCU prepare for the game. Although I guess if your goal is to go to the playoffs you don't really care about things like that against teams like TCU.

From my past friendships with Carolina students that wrote for the Daily Tarheel, they are much more concerned about getting attention and recognition for their articles then they are concerned about how the football team plays. That kid at the OU newspaper is probably ecstatic that they were able to get such a scoop and go viral.

 

[PhDeac]

They’re journalists then fans. They did the work to get a scoop and should get credit for it.

 

[w84it]

Big East considering expansion in advance of their deal with FOX expiring in 2025 - they're believed to only be adding one school to get the conference up to 12 members and, obviously, rumors that they want Gonzaga are flying.

 

[DeacOnCapeCod]

Anybody think that a conference is going to start having a corporate sponsor sooner rather than later? I imagine the The Bojangles American Athletic Conference is gonna happen...

 

[PhDeac]

Seems possible. Gatorade sponsors the NBA Developmental League and it was so seamless that people may forget the G stands for Gatorade.