"HURST OUT OF PSAC?

[Fightingscot82]

Every single America East school is public with the exception of Bryant.

The March Madness payouts are approximately $2 million per game for the conference over 6 years- roughly $350,000 per year. If a conference has 10 teams, that's 35k * 6 = roughly $200,000 per school annually, per conference win. When FDU got to the Round of 32 a few years back, they received 3 win shares for the NEC, so those schools are seeing a substantial revenue bump over thru 2028, if I understand it correctly. But that money isn't bridging the gap between revenue and the costs of doing business in Division I. The schools are subsidizing it in someway.

Again, I don't have the specific information, but I would be shocked if NW Mo St is generating anywhere close to $2.5 Million in revenue or donations annually.

I can almost guarantee that they're fully funded in basketball and football- with an equivalent number of scholarships spread across women's sports for Title IX.

The typical athletics fundraising model is restricted (sport specific) and unrestricted. Depending on the school, football and some other sports naturally attract lots of restricted revenue. They use the unrestricted athletic fundraising to balance for Title IX and fund some for sports that don't draw a lot of donations. The wild card is what they do with gameday revenue: paid parking ticket sales, sponsorships, etc. Some schools get a cut of the revenue from concession sales. Many schools really need to bolster the unrestricted athletic fund for Title IX purposes so that's where the bulk of football and basketball (and at schools like Edinboro, wrestling) gameday revenue goes. But at others (say, Slippery Rock) the bulk of that revenue stays with the team, so its in the coach/team's best interest to get paying butts in the stands just as much as it matters to sell out the golf outing, find other donations, etc.

[IUPHawks24]

The typical athletics fundraising model is restricted (sport specific) and unrestricted. Depending on the school, football and some other sports naturally attract lots of restricted revenue. They use the unrestricted athletic fundraising to balance for Title IX and fund some for sports that don't draw a lot of donations. The wild card is what they do with gameday revenue: paid parking ticket sales, sponsorships, etc. Some schools get a cut of the revenue from concession sales. Many schools really need to bolster the unrestricted athletic fund for Title IX purposes so that's where the bulk of football and basketball (and at schools like Edinboro, wrestling) gameday revenue goes. But at others (say, Slippery Rock) the bulk of that revenue stays with the team, so its in the coach/team's best interest to get paying butts in the stands just as much as it matters to sell out the golf outing, find other donations, etc.

That makes sense. My point is that the model is PASHEE specific.

Many Division I state schools in low major/FCS conferences are not coming anywhere close to breaking even revenue or donation wise to fund their scholarships. And their scholarship numbers aren't changing year to year. if Maine or Northern Colorado or Idaho for example doesn't raise a certain amount of money or generate X amount of dollars in concession or ticket sales, their basketball team isn't cutting scholarships.

[Ship69]

I would venture to assume that Grand Valley might be the closest of any school to be fully funded at D2 levels in all sports - and they may be by themselves. Most schools struggle to find external funding. Its why they stay D2. America East is primarily private schools who can just budget in the discounting like a car dealership. But the other conferences you mention are all D1, so they get March Madness payouts. Its not huge money but for many smaller schools, enough to make up most of the gap needed to be D1.

Northwest Missouri resembles a PSAC school on paper but upon greater inspection not at all. The Maryville community is fully invested in the university because they're so isolated. The list of corporate sponsors is astounding. Its like almost every business donates to Bearcat football. There's also a ton of fan money flowing through athletics. Their football season tickets? $100-$300 a pop plus fees. Single game tickets range from $14-35 depending on advance or walk up. Men's basketball is only a little less. And when Northwest is winning (most years) their facilities are packed. Isolated schools with excellent community engagement (read: sponsorships) tend to have a lot more behind the scenes revenue generation. Amazingly parking is free.

What's killing us is the perception that the universities are failing at worst and not worthy of our primary support at best. Granted, some kind of are. But over the last 15 years alumni giving as been decimated. It wasn't great, but those small gifts add up to equal the number of regular bigger gifts (not the gonzo Kopchik sized gifts). Most PASSHE schools at their enrollment peaks in 2010 were around 7% alumni giving. Giving meaning donates even a dollar or attended a paid fundraising event like a golf outing. That's not great. The average for 2023 (latest stats available) is 4%. The merged schools except Bloomsburg are sub 2% and I bet most of the annual giving is athletics. Schools like Grand Valley and Northwest Missouri can also thrive in the little brother role whereas for whatever reason that doesn't really work in PA. The only exception I can think of is probably Villanova but they can do better than most because Temple football is such a non-factor in SEPA.

Good post. The level of alumni giving is sad. In a way it's good for me as I can give a few hundred dollars to the programs, which I can afford, and get star treatment from the school and staff at times. But obviously most of our schools need a sugar daddy or two, both for academics and sports, to raise our level a bit. People still tend to think the state schools don't need donations because we have state support, but as we all know the level of that has dropped drastically over the years. Our schools get almost no media attention in sports with the shadow of Penn State looming over everything. Harrisburg Channel 27 recently had their sports director in New Orleans for a week providing five-minute snippets about the Eagles I could have gotten from a variety of other sources. I don't think I've ever seen her appear at Shippensburg or Millersville, both within the station's broadcast footprint. We have at least 6-7 kids on Shippensburg's men's and women's basketball teams who grew up 25 minutes or less from Harrisburg, and many more on the football team, but you'd never know it. The PennLive site, formerly the Patriot-News, at least does a few write-ups about local recruits and such. Add up our 14 campuses, and I'd bet there are a lot more Pa. kids playing sports at PASSHE schools than at Penn State, but they go unrecognized.

[iupgroundhog]

Speaking of funding ...

https://www.commonwealthu.edu/news/a...-rise-campaign