[Hold My Own]

I asked this in another thread and really want to hear everyone's take. Should guaranteed money go straight to the program itself or to the Athletic Department as a whole?

It's interesting while complicated if you think about it. It's the specific program that earns the money but is it really golf/softball and other sports' fault they cannot pull in that kind of money for a single game?

I wonder if anyone uses a formula where some is applied to your budget while the rest is applied to Athletics as a whole. I'm sure Football programs and basketball programs have needs that the money could be used for.

[Ed Dantes]

Guaranteed games are a welfare system for the lesser sports. If you have guaranteed $$$ games go only to that program (basically, football, basketball & baseball), you run the risk of having absolutely nothing for the other sports.

Let's be honest, the money women's tennis brings in probably doesn't surpass the money it spends to bus those girls to one tournament (hey, gas was expensive last spring. If you guess 250 miles from Lynchburg to Rock Hill, SC, and figure the van gets 15 miles per gallon, at 3.50 a gallon, that's almost 60 bucks! There is no way the girls tennis team earned 60 bucks over the year!)

Sports like football and basketball allow sports like women's tennis to exist. Now, I don't have a problem with saying 'fine, if tennis can't pull its own weight, get rid of it', but... you know... Title IX and all...

[flamesbball84]

In a perfect world, it should go to the individual team that put that game on their schedule since they did the work to bring the money in But the reality is that it's not possible. Should said team benefit from it in other ways? Absolutely. When it come to issues over facilities and other stuff, the teams that bring in the guaranteed games money should get their needs catered too more than tennis to use Ed Dantes example.

[Fumblerooskies]

At UNCA, the money from the games went into the black hole of the athletics budget. Enterprising coaches, such as the baseball coach at the time, actually got his guarantees in baseballs and other gear...so he could spend his very limited budget money elsewhere (like recruiting and travel...the two budgets that always seem to get frozen this time of year).

Either way you work it, however, the budget will be the budget...with the guarantee games being another revenue stream.

[LUconn]

I think it should go directly into the AD's pocket. The Athletic Director.