July 04, 2004

All’s Well With The Big Gun In The Arms Race

FROM THE BIG DADDIE OF ALL THE COLLEGE ATHLETIC PROGRAMS IN THE LAND comes word of yet another season in the black. Ohio State University, with its largest-in-the-country athletics budget of $83.6 million (that’s in one year, not lifetime), has operated on a self-sufficient basis for many years.

OSU is projecting about $1 million in reserves.

A survey by USA Today revealed that OSU is one of only about 40 NCAA programs operating independently. Meanwhile, about 60% of D1 schools charge student fees to subsidize sports programs.

Here’s how the major sports stack up on a P & L basis:

• Football (avg 105,000 fans for 8 home games): $22.6 profit

• Men’s basketball: $7 million profit

• Women's basketball: $1 million loss

• Baseball: $550,000 loss

The size of the OSU program is evidenced by the fact that it supports 35 varsity teams, including several new women’s teams to maintain Title IX equity. For example, the women's ice hockey program has the luxury of working with the NCAA-maximum 18 scholarships.

Overall, OSU hands out the equivalent of about 400 full athletic scholarships yearly.

Someday someone will dig deep for an analysis of the arms race. Obviously a key chapter (or two) will be devoted to OSU.

(this 212 word article—with attendant commentary—was extracted from an 860 word article from SpringfieldNewsSun.com, Cox News Service, 6-30-04)