STrib: Rising Cost of College Football: Mike Henry: The U's $199,826 man

[BleedGopher]

per the STrib:

A study shows the average cost of a Gophers player -- such as fullback Mike Henry, for example -- nearly has doubled in a span of six years.

But a new database by the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics shows that the school’s cost to put Henry and others like him on the field can be pricey: The University of Minnesota spent $199,826 annually for each scholarship football player, according to the most recent data from 2011, up from $107,636 in 2005.

Henry’s total includes almost everything imaginable that goes into a big-time college football program. There was $8,393 for the lodging and meals associated with team travel; $6,510 for equipment, which includes Henry’s maroon helmet; and $12,402 to pay the wages, benefits and bonuses for the football program’s support staff, including its secretaries and trainers.

Even the $1.92 million in salary and benefits paid to the head coach was factored in: The cost of putting Henry on the field included $22,556 to compensate the team’s head coaches that fiscal year, Kill and fired predecessor Tim Brewster.

By comparison, the university invested $20,688 in 2011 in academic spending per full-time equivalent student.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/237259601.html

Go Gophers!!

 

[Schnauzer]

In reading the article, I was happy to see it did include the two biggest points: the amount spent per player by the "U" is less than most in the B1G, and the program itself does make money, not bleed it.

With that being said, all-in-all it appeared to be an attempt to grab a reader with an eye-catching headline.

Perhaps the hardest hitting journalism since KMSP 9 broke the story about U hockey players drinking BEER.

 

[killme]

Sigh. The strib just keeps giving the impression that they want their coverage of the Gophers to be slanted unfavorably whenever possible. I won't click to read the article, but it really costs $200K per man, per year? And most of the B1G spends more?! Interesting.

 

[UpnorthGo4]

The article is making a larger point about the excessive costs of college athletics in general. It is only a matter of time before there is going to be a backlash from taxpayers and tuition paying students and their parents. Our priorities are seriously skewed in America and big time college athletics is a prime example.


Most NCAA Division I Athletic Departments Take Subsidies

At a time of tight budgets throughout higher education, even the nation's few financially self-sufficient major-college athletics departments are continuing to receive subsidies in the form of student fees, school or state support, a USA TODAY Sports analysis finds.

Just 23 of 228 athletics departments at NCAA Division I public schools generated enough money on their own to cover their expenses in 2012. Of that group, 16 also received some type of subsidy — and 10 of those 16 athletics departments received more subsidy money in 2012 than they did in 2011.

The median subsidy increase for those 10 programs was a little more than $160,000. Relative to these programs' budgets, that's a small amount, but the increases were part of a huge rise in the subsidies provided for major-college sports programs as a whole. Subsidies for all of Division I athletics rose by nearly $200 million compared to what they were 2011. That is the greatest year-over-year dollar increase in the subsidy total since USA TODAY Sports began collecting finance information that schools annually report to the NCAA; the first year of those data covers the schools' 2004-05 fiscal year.

Athletics departments getting subsidy money when they are self-sufficient "raises a major question about institutions, which are always trying to play catch-up in the athletic realm, relying on institutional and government subsidies and student fees to make ends meet at a time when we have very limited resources," says Anne D. Neal, president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. "And that raises questions as to whether institutions are paying attention to their primary purpose, which is education."

LSU, Nebraska, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Penn State, Purdue and Texas were the only schools to report no subsidy money in 2012. Michigan reported receiving less than $260,000: $16,000 in federal work study funding and the remainder from the university to cover the salary of academic services director Phil Hughes, according to athletics spokesman Dave Ablauf.

All this comes at a time when academic spending at many schools is declining or not increasing at the same pace as athletics spending, according to a recent report by the Delta Cost Project at the non-profit American Institutes for Research. "Polls are showing Americans think institutions need to reduce their tuition and fees," Neal says. "And obviously to keep these athletics programs afloat, what they're doing is demanding more institutional funds and more student fees."

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2013/05/07/ncaa-finances-subsidies/2142443/

 

[Gopherprof]

Yes, while the Gophers may be largely self-sustaining, outside of the BCS conferences, most athletic programs are not. Without student fees and institutional support, there would only be about 60-70 college athletic departments in the US.

I don't mind that the Trib did this study; in fact it's quite interesting and something that more people should be aware of. Why they didn't focus on the Division II programs in this state is a bit curious, however. I suppose because nobody would read that article.

 

[supadupafly]

If I understand the process correctly, the money for athletic scholarships comes from a school's AD budget, AD endowments and athletic department donations and is generally not direct aid from said university's main scholarship budget like with the general student population. If that is accurate, Mike Kaszuba is such a slimy putz with these lame slanted articles he and some of his fellow Strib cronies and headline writers keep putting out from time to time. Smh....

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

 

[PartoPitinosPosse]

We have something in the country called freedom. People are not forced to do anything. They don't have to go to the Univ of Minnesota if they don't want to, so if they prefer not to pay fees that go to help support the athletic department, then they can go to a school where they don't have an athletic department or where they don't charge fees to support their athletic department at least. And our democratically elected officials can choose not to vote to allow UMn to do what it does. But the state of Mn benefits from having such a huge and successful university located in its largest metropolitan area, and also benefits or believes it will benefit from having its athletic department being able to keep up with the competition.

There is more to being a part of the B1G conference than athletics, there is the research and academic aspects that brings in a ton of money to the university and which ends up benefitting the state in the long run, and to be a part of the B1G conference, UMn is expected to do its part towards keeping the B1G conf a top athletic conf. I suppose we could go the route of Chicago, but honestly, as the only Major Div 1A school in the state, that would never be allowed to happen. Our state has to have a Div 1A rep, and honestly, it deserves a better rep than the U has been the past couple of decades in bb and fb.

 

[UpnorthGo4]

We have something in the country called freedom. People are not forced to do anything. They don't have to go to the Univ of Minnesota if they don't want to, so if they prefer not to pay fees that go to help support the athletic department, then they can go to a school where they don't have an athletic department or where they don't charge fees to support their athletic department at least. And our democratically elected officials can choose not to vote to allow UMn to do what it does. But the state of Mn benefits from having such a huge and successful university located in its largest metropolitan area, and also benefits or believes it will benefit from having its athletic department being able to keep up with the competition.

There is more to being a part of the B1G conference than athletics, there is the research and academic aspects that brings in a ton of money to the university and which ends up benefitting the state in the long run, and to be a part of the B1G conference, UMn is expected to do its part towards keeping the B1G conf a top athletic conf. I suppose we could go the route of Chicago, but honestly, as the only Major Div 1A school in the state, that would never be allowed to happen. Our state has to have a Div 1A rep, and honestly, it deserves a better rep than the U has been the past couple of decades in bb and fb.

Nice post but it does very little to address the concerns of people upset about always increasing tuition and taxes and who couldn't care less about bb and fb.

 

[50PoundHead]

I don't see anything in this article as inherently negative. It's simply a reporting of facts. Price of college is going up. Price of college athletics is going up even faster. Gophers are below the median in football cost in the B1G and far below the SEC. We actually do better than most in terms of supporting the average student. Even the player featured--Mike Henry--acknowledges that and is appreciative of the investment.

So maybe everyone should all just read the entire article before breaking out in hives. If anything, much of the article's text will go into Lou Nanne's talking points when he's out trying to raise bucks for the new facilities.

But I think it is important to point out how all the uniform machinations play into costs as well. I for one (and I'm probably in the minority on the board and certainly will be decried by those who want a different uniform combination every week to hike the coolness factor) would just like to see them go to two uniform combinations (home and away) with one helmet design. I have now met my cranky old man quotient for the day.

 

[PartoPitinosPosse]

Nice post but it does very little to address the concerns of people upset about always increasing tuition and taxes and who couldn't care less about bb and fb.

It does plenty to address the issue. You can't please everyone, especially idealists who have unrealistic expectations. And its not like we here at the GH are going to come up with a solution, present it to the U, and then schools around the nation will adopt our solution and then there won't be anyone, anywhere, that ever bitches again. I mean, come on man, there are people out there who hate sports and they will forever bitch and moan about everything to do with them, and they will never be satisfied until football, first, then other sports are completely banned from existence.

The U is a business, a very large business with tens of thousands of employees, several who have Nobel Prizes or Pulitzers or other major awards on their resumes, and I simply trust that as a business, they understand the whole concept of investment/return and are doing all they can to maximize the potential of the investments they make. And like in any market, if you can raise the price of a product because you know that the consumer will pay no matter, then why not do that, IF the increased money will bring about a worthwhile return. Raising tuition and fees pisses people off, but does the benefit of doing so outweigh the negatives? If they do, and I'm sure the people who made the decision to do such things considered these factors, then that's probably why they did them.

But the thing is, there will ALWAYS be those negatives, whiners and moaners and those who bitch and cry and protest and write misleading articles, etc.. No one, anywhere, can please everyone all of the time, we simply have to do our part, elect the best people we can for the positions in government that we get to elect, and support the decisions made my places like the U of Mn, after they've been made, or before when we find out ahead of time about them, and do what we can not to support bad decisions. It's really hard as individuals to do anything about what an entity consisting of tens of thousands of people does, so sometimes we just have to accept what it does, and just go on about our day.


There, glad I had nothing better to do with the last 10 minutes of my life or I'd think I just wasted those 10 minutes responding.



Basically I'm saying, just sit back and relax and try to accept what is, and enjoy what you can. Bitching about things that you can't change will only make you frustrated.

 

[50PoundHead]

It does plenty to address the issue. You can't please everyone, especially idealists who have unrealistic expectations. And its not like we here at the GH are going to come up with a solution, present it to the U, and then schools around the nation will adopt our solution and then there won't be anyone, anywhere, that ever bitches again. I mean, come on man, there are people out there who hate sports and they will forever bitch and moan about everything to do with them, and they will never be satisfied until football, first, then other sports are completely banned from existence.

The U is a business, a very large business with tens of thousands of employees, several who have Nobel Prizes or Pulitzers or other major awards on their resumes, and I simply trust that as a business, they understand the whole concept of investment/return and are doing all they can to maximize the potential of the investments they make. And like in any market, if you can raise the price of a product because you know that the consumer will pay no matter, then why not do that, IF the increased money will bring about a worthwhile return. Raising tuition and fees pisses people off, but does the benefit of doing so outweigh the negatives? If they do, and I'm sure the people who made the decision to do such things considered these factors, then that's probably why they did them.

But the thing is, there will ALWAYS be those negatives, whiners and moaners and those who bitch and cry and protest and write misleading articles, etc.. No one, anywhere, can please everyone all of the time, we simply have to do our part, elect the best people we can for the positions in government that we get to elect, and support the decisions made my places like the U of Mn, after they've been made, or before when we find out ahead of time about them, and do what we can not to support bad decisions. It's really hard as individuals to do anything about what an entity consisting of tens of thousands of people does, so sometimes we just have to accept what it does, and just go on about our day.


There, glad I had nothing better to do with the last 10 minutes of my life or I'd think I just wasted those 10 minutes responding.



Basically I'm saying, just sit back and relax and try to accept what is, and enjoy what you can. Bitching about things that you can't change will only make you frustrated.

Where is this article misleading?

 

[PartoPitinosPosse]

Oh, I wasn't necessarily referring to this article as being misleading. I was speaking in general more overall terms. Many articles come out that are misleading. As for this article, maybe a better thing to say is that people can misinterpret articles or posts or comments, they can miss the point trying to be made.


Another thing many Gopher fans should realize, or just learn to accept, since they probably do realize it deep down, myself included as well, is that the newspapers and media outlets of the world are also businesses, and if they aren't hand delivered a big news story, then they have to work harder, and be more creative in finding things to write about. They are under deadlines and under pressure to produce stories, and sometimes there will be stories that are not as great as other times or that they will have to work at or be creative with to make them seem like they are more newsworthy than they really are. It is another stupid reality that there is not a lot we can do about. But like several posters here have expressed, they are doing all they can do, their example being they are boycotting the strib. Mostly out of principle, because their efforts will never bring them any real substantive reward in the short term. The strib has plenty of people who will read it anyway and my guess is they are fine with that and stick by their principles anyway, no matter if there is something to gain from it or not.

 

[dpodoll68]

the money for athletic scholarships

Mike Henry's scholarship (or lack thereof) wasn't mentioned, nor were scholarships nor tuition mentioned, at all, in the article.

comes from a school's AD budget, AD endowments and athletic department donations and is generally not direct aid from said university's main scholarship budget like with the general student population.

Again, where the money comes from was not discussed nor was even a tangential point of the article.

If that is accurate, Mike Kaszuba is such a slimy putz with these lame slanted articles he and some of his fellow Strib cronies and headline writers keep putting out from time to time. Smh....

What in the article or in the headline was false or even misleading? It's as if you didn't read the article at all. Hmm...

 

[Governor Sibley]

Great article.

College athletics is almost entirely bull**it.

I said almost!

 

[Deleted_User]

The article is BS! Here are my points.

They did not conduct an internal review of the staff's true apportioned time with the team, as opposed to other duties. If it did, oops, I didn't read it.
The time necessary to audit a job functions would surely not been granted to the Tribune without reimbursing the U, so I'm just guessing that they didn't.
Did they include the janitorial staff, buildings, the planning department, or other shared services? Probably not. Then again, how would you apportion that? Or, for that matter security, etc. It seems the cost is not all inclusive. Why the cost of team travel and travel services? How does that figure into the cost of his education? That is budgeted to his co-curricular activity by being a team member that has a separate budget from academics. If we compare apples to apples, the academic support unit for the team would be fair game, but the cost of his coaches? Really, the coaches? I don't get that they would apply that budget to the cost of having Mike Henry on the team. Did they include the recruiting budget? How about the cost of trash bags? How about the equivalent savings when Mike Henry does his community work? Did they estimate the savings to the community and the ROI that may entail? Is there a long term return on Mike Henry on the reputation of the U as he advocates for it in the future? How about Mike's estimated return to the community in future taxes paid, his non incarceration, his happy family to be, his better health from being a college graduate and other social savings as a result of his education? Where is the balance sheet in this. They set up the cost but they show nothing on the return to society.

For this reason and several others, I find the article that I never read to be a hatchet job, intended to belittle the program with little more than one side of the balance sheet on Mike Henry. F the reporters for being shills for one side of the whole equation and not reporting on the future savings and benefit of Mike Henry to society. I am sure the total economic benefit of Mike Henry.

Here is the top results of a search for the economic benefit of a college education. Just a smattering of returns.

https://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/Facts_For_Education_Advocates_Sept.pdf

The OECD estimates the return on taxes to all levels of government alone for Mike Henry should be approximately $230K over his lifetime in addition to the other taxes he would have paid if he had nothing but a high school diploma. So, if we look at it carefully, Mike pays off handsomely in just one area of social return. Just think if we look at his economic contribution to business!!! OMG, Mike will make a huge impact.

Income
http://www.sheeo.org/sites/default/...Benefit of Degrees Report with Appendices.pdf

GDP impact
http://www9.georgetown.edu/grad/gppi/hpi/cew/pdfs/undereducatedamerican.pdf

F the Strib for their low brow reporting.

I won't read their article because they have lost their edge in reporting over the years. Plus, there is the Souhan factor.

 

[UpnorthGo4]

The article is BS! Here are my points.

For this reason and several others, I find the article that I never read to be a hatchet job, intended to belittle the program with little more than one side of the balance sheet on Mike Henry. F the reporters for being shills for one side of the whole equation and not reporting on the future savings and benefit of Mike Henry to society.

F the Strib for their low brow reporting.

I won't read their article because they have lost their edge in reporting over the years. Plus, there is the Souhan factor.

I didn't read the above post but I find it to be absurd on several different levels. Since we have only 5 days left in the year it has very good chance of winning the Most Ridiculous Post of the Year trophy. Or maybe I missed the point. Dean may have been going for satire or irony and it went over my head.

 

[4four4]

The article is making a larger point about the excessive costs of college athletics in general. It is only a matter of time before there is going to be a backlash from taxpayers and tuition paying students and their parents. Our priorities are seriously skewed in America and big time college athletics is a prime example.

It sounds like you would be in favor of a Major Junior Football League.

 

[oak_street1981]

I didn't read the above post but I find it to be absurd on several different levels. Since we have only 5 days left in the year it has very good chance of winning the Most Ridiculous Post of the Year trophy. Or maybe I missed the point. Dean may have been going for satire or irony and it went over my head.

I reject the comments above. To the contrary and keeping with longstanding GH tradition, all three of the UPNorthGo4 posts in this thread were absurd and littered with the usual overly simplistic assertions, and faulty assumptions, making Dean very reasonable in comparison.

All that really matters here is that Football makes a lot of money at the U of M, and football expenses at the U of M are modest relative to Big Ten peers. I not sure what any alleged taxpayer subsidies to the U Athletic Department have to do with football spending. The average Willard Shapira, Phallis Khan types will not even read the article closely, but will be further convinced by it in reinforcing their goofball, fact deprived agenda.

Any Gopher Football fan that thinks an article like this in any way helps the U of M Football program might be beyond help.

I guess is is a secret to some up north that Title IX spending requirements are responsible for the bulk of the operating losses in the AD. Any person complaining about taxes and tuition increases and blames football spending needs to remove their head from their rear end, try not to fall into hoarding, and start pretending MIAC games (or NDSU games or that matter) mean anything to anyone.

This lazy Star Tribune story finally gets around to providing some context to the overall U of M Football spending level relative to other AQ programs, but that was about it. I really do not know what the point of story was, maybe that Minnesota needs to spend a lot more than it does and finally get above Wisco and Iowa in per player spending? I would be behind that plan as it would have been a good starting point in elevating the program besides being cheap and selling hope.

Would UpNorthGo4, being the big Gopher football fan he is, support the idea of at least spending as much as Iowa and Wisconsin do?

I'll be eagerly awaiting the Star Tribune follow up story that honestly spells out how much money Pam Borton's Basketball program spends per player, with an nice graphic showing how much revenue per player the Women's BB team brings in.

Furthermore, I'd like to see the numbers on the world champion Women's Hockey team with a 30M arena that averages under 500 fans per game in attendance. That story can be the second follow up for the Star Tribune, since they really like to pump up that team.

 

[killme]

The article is BS!

Nice effort, Dean. Thank you.

 

[killme]

Title IX

Nice effort, Oak. If the strib has guts, a nice update of Title IX would be nice. Those figures would blow people's minds. I'm surprised someone hasn't done it.

 

[disco]

I don't mind that the Trib did this study; in fact it's quite interesting and something that more people should be aware of. Why they didn't focus on the Division II programs in this state is a bit curious, however. I suppose because nobody would read that article.

D2 sports are a terrible money drain for the most part. They offer scholarships, but most programs make little money, and a lot have little support in general. FCS schools at least compete at the D1 level in other sports. D3 schools don't have scholarships, and many D3 programs are smallish private colleges with wealthy alumni who support their teams.

The D2 schools, at least here in MN, are mid-sized public colleges, many of them suitcase schools where the students don't go to games and don't give back once they graduate.

In all honesty, Minnesota should go the way of Wisconsin in this regard. Duluth, Mankato and St. Cloud could drop football and move up to D1 in other sports like UW Milwaukee and UW Green Bay have done, and the rest of the state schools could drop to D3 like all the other UW schools are (Whitewater, Stevens Point, etc.) Wisconsin has one D2 (no football) school, and that's UW Parkside in Kenosha.