September 05, 2004

Distressing Financials For Indiana University Athletics Program

FROM THE HOOSIER STATE comes an update on a decade-long string of distressing financial news for the Indiana University athletics program.

IU�s plight is the plight of many dozens of big Division I athletics programs with under-performing football teams.

First, the facts:

� The last time Indiana�s athletic budget finished in the black was the 1999-2000 season.

� In the 2002-03 season, IU athletics had a $1.8 million deficit on a budget of $36 million.

� In the 2002-03 school year, Indiana football accounted for only 21% of total athletics expenses, but generated 39% of total athletics revenue.

� In the 2002-03 school year, Indiana basketball accounted for only 8.3% of total athletics expenses, but generated 29% of total athletics revenue.

� If the deficit is to be reduced, then it is football that will have to carry the effort (Basketball is pretty much tapped out).

� Indiana�s last winning football season was in 1994, with a 6-5 record.

� Since 1994, Indiana�s football records have been 2-9, 3-8, 2-9, 4-7, 4-7, 3-8, 5-6, 3-9 and 2-10 in 2003.

� IU�s poor performance has resulted in poor attendance (and poor game revenue).

� Indiana has great difficulty in recruiting football players. Blue chip prospects go to the more prestigious (for football) Big 10 schools: Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State. Plus there�s Notre Dame and Purdue not far away.

Everyone is well aware that football will have to shoulder the load for IU�s fiscal turnaround. Third-year football coach Gerry DiNardo said, �It doesn�t matter where you�re coaching nowadays. It�s all relative. The budget is moving up and down the football field every Saturday.�

Earlier this week Indiana University named its fourth athletic director in three years, Rick Greenspan. In a symbolic gesture, Greenspan promised to donate $10,000 to the athletics program. He was hired largely due to his fund-raising abilities.

This financial report is unsettling for Indiana, but it is also unsettling for dozens of other big state universities mired in the �Keep-up-with-the-Joneses� pyramid game. These schools are by no means involved in the �arms race� of the giants. They are having trouble just coming up with the ante.

(this 358 word excerpt�with accompanying commentary�was distilled from a 2342 word article from the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette of 8-29-04 and a 652 word article from the Associated Press of 9-3-04)