[LU'sbestmanager]

Sun Belt teams earning big bucks to travel

By Ted Hutton
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted October 9 2006

By adding a 12th game to Division I-A football schedules, teams at the bottom of the pecking order such as Florida Atlantic have been able to cash in as bigger schools look for opponents for an extra profit-producing home game.
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FAU started its season playing four such "guarantee" games at Clemson, Kansas State, Oklahoma State and South Carolina. The Owls received $1.8 million as a result, which will mean a balanced budget for the second straight year.
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FAU's biggest payday was the $600,000 paid by South Carolina. The smallest was the $350,000 received from Oklahoma State, part of a deal done three years ago before the prices started moving up.

Angelos said the best offer he has received was $750,000 from Nebraska, which was looking for an opponent to open this season with.
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"Think about a single donor contributing $500,000 to your program. That's unheard of, but now we can reap that in one football game," Angelos said. "That is hard to turn down."
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The MAC has been around for decades and isn't going anywhere. This year the MAC has played more BCS schools than ever before. The adding of a 12th game for 1A football has been a financial windfall. If some non-BCS school can schdule 2 or 3 BCS teams a year they can get some substantial cash. In Most cases they'll get their brains beat in, but what's a 3hour whipping when you can pick up $500,000. The Sunbelt may be a "joke" to some but big piles of money are no laughing matter. . . after all isn't that what's the BCS is all about anyway. Besides that 15k minimun attendance will never be enforced! the MAC made a big stink about it and the NCAA backed off. Why would the BCS schools want to lose 1A cannon fodder MAC and Sunbelt provide? Of coures the Boise State's and Utah's of the world have actually cracked the BCS cartel. Utah won the Fiesta Bowl 2 years back and Boise State should run the table into the BCS this year. Even the little guy has outside hope!

[Tribe4SF]

Tribe does the same thing, but only once a year. Played Maryland this year (50,000 attendance), and VA Tech, NC State, UNC and UVA twice in coming years. That extra 300K-500K a year makes a big difference. Our players look forward to those games, and we use it as a recruiting draw.

Speaking of funding, I notice LU has raised the ticket price to a hefty $8. That will surely need to go a lot higher. How will the Liberty faithful respond to prices that double or more? By comparison, W&M charges $23 for sideline and $17 for endzone. The revenue difference is pretty big.

[HarrisburgFlame]

Good point on the ticket prices. Liberty's philosophy on ticket pricing has been a little suspect since day one in my opinion. Back in the 70's and early 80's the LBC years of DIII and then DII you could find tons of Liberty tickets for free at local churches and businesses. While I think that is a nice move to create interest - I think it can also send a message of the product not being worth paying for. I do think Liberty has tried to keep prices affordable for the local fans and families. One train of thought is that as Tech and UVA continue to increase ticket prices and contribution levels for ticket priority - Liberty could pick up some fans in the area that have been left out at those schools due to the escalating financial commitment required. I also think the university has continued to try and draw people to the mountain and "cheap" tickets for Division I athletics is a nice gesture.

My tickets for the W&M game this weekend are $20 each for the chairback reserved. I have three kids coming with me (plus my wife, I'm not that crazy to try it alone) - ages 5, 3, and 1 (almost 2). They are great at the games but I found if each kid has their own chair they are more content vs. them fighting over an undefined spot on the bleachers. I consider it money well spent. Liberty faithful will pony up. The Flames Club has grown something like 200% this year alone and I think we have only just begun there. I think as the team continues to improve and we get some of the in-state folks like W&M, JMU, and hopefully one day UofR to come to Williams - LU fans will drop the coin to see these teams. Realistically, you're not going to entice too many folks to pay $20 a head for Glenville State. But I can see a day where people pay to see Liberty play no matter who the opponent is. The demand for tickets will rise and so will the price as long as the quality of play is good.

One last thing, we have only been around since 1971 so we have a young alumni base. As that base matures, program improves, I see people being in position to give more resources to the program through the Flames Club and ticket sales at increased prices. To compete in college athletics you need a hefty inflow of $$$ to fund the facilities rat race. I think we all realize that fact. There is a feeling at Liberty right now that with the improvements to the stadium, new blood in athletic administration, and the new football staff we are on the cusp of taking that next step. This weekend against W&M will be a nice report card to see just how much we have improved as a team and as a fan base for that matter.

[Purple Haize]

Great points HBF. However, I for one am tired of the "We have only been around since 1971" as an argument. There are quite a few schools (George Mason pops into mine, my alma mater as well) that are also recent and have a lot more $$$ flowing in to the athletic coffers. (Or coffeees!) Even to say "We only graduate teachers and preachers" is a cop out. Preachers have congregations, congregations have people, people have money. I have been around "Christian" education to see that type of pipeline pay off BIG TIME, and too a point, so have we.
However, I have always thought, and still do, that is a HUGE cop out. There are several reasons we are in the state we are in, and being "young" is about 20th on the list.

Please watch your step while exiting the soap box.

[HarrisburgFlame]

I for one agree with you PH on not using the "we are young" as a cop out. But the fact is - we are a young alumni base and that does play a factor. Schools who have cranked out alums for 150 years have "old money" to pull from. Follow me here. Our oldest alums are what late 50's tops? What is our average alum age? Early 40's late 30's? That's right in the middle of life where you may have other financial obligations - house, cars, saving for college, investing, etc. Chances are giving to an athletic fund (or giving significant amounts) aren't tops on the list. So we do have a smaller pool to pull from than some of the other schools. Through my uncle and dad's involvement in the Hokie Club I have seen that organization grow leaps and bounds since the late 80's. Granted Virginia Tech has been winning in football since 1993 but part of that is the orignial Hokie Club members are getting older, have more disposable income and are putting up some bucks.

That said, I agree with you. I think this athletic administration is forward thinking and has demonstrated they are serious about taking this thing to the next level. The new levels of giving for the Flames Club really don't leave much excuse for not contributing. The marketing efforts have taken a huge step forward in the last two years in my opinion and I think we can even do more there. I think we have always known where we want to be, but for the first time I feel we have people in place that can take us down that road. I really believe from this point forward we will see a difference but I still contend a young alumni base hampers the process.

Look at what USF has done in terms of football. It's amazing. But their contributions in the Bulls Club are way behind other BigEast schools. Why? They don't have old money to carry a big part of the load like a WVU, Pitt, or even Rutgers for that matter. We are in the same boat in my opinion. Someone said Richmond raised 11 million for their on campus football facility. I would like to see an age breakout of where they got the majority of that money from.

You raised good points though. I yield the soap box to the next speaker.

[Sly Fox]

GMU is a state school.