Comparing Valpo to others...

[vu72]

Rick posted this site:

ope.ed.gov/athletics/index.asp

which was given to him by Mark LaBarbera. It details monies spent by, I presume, all colleges in the country.

I looked up Valpo, Butler, Ball State, Indiana State, Evansville (all part of the old ICC) and then ORU and Oakland, to see how Valpo stood relative to schools in Indiana, albeit in "higher" conferences, as well as our biggest rivals in the Mid-Con.

Here's how we measure up:

Men's BB Total all sports*
Valpo

[vu72]

Sorry, somehow the rest of the message was deleted.

Let me try again:

Men's basketball All sports
Valpo 243,992 1,128,319
Butler 178,961 765,285
Ball State 172,699 1,262,762
Indiana State 236,088 1,008,505
Evansville 609,084 1,309,643

ORU 234,902
Oakland 193,993

It is obvious that we compare fairly well to our instate and conference compitition. Can we do better? Certainly. Are we not spending money on athletics? Not according to this report.

BTW, I deleted golf from the totals as Valpo doesn't have golf teams. ORU lacks a couple of sports so the total is irrelavant.

[nkvu]

To supplement VU72's post, I did a quick comparison, using info from the site Rick gave us, between Valpo and the other Mid-Con Schools, and between Valpo and three of the Catholic Schools (Gonzaga, Creighton, and Xavier) whose programs or conferences could be considered a step up from ours.

According to the site, in the Mid-Con, UMKC reports the most operating expenses for Men's Basketball at $316,464. Valpo is next at $243,992, and Oral Roberts is next at $234,902. The rest of the other schools are under $200,000, with Chicago State last at $105,996.

Of the Catholic Schools, Gonzaga is closest at $314,035 (22% more than Valpo), Creighton is next at $343,361 (28% more), and Xavier is off the charts at $704,067 (a whopping 280% more). (Duke by the way is out of sight at $1,980,734!)

One obvious difference is that none of the three Catholic schools has a football program, while Valpo reports $148,184 in football related expenses. In the Mid-Con, only Western Illinois has a football program, and they reported $232,939 in expenses for it. (I'm not advocating Valpo dump football, just making an observation).

A quick and dirty observation could be that if there is a correlation between money devoted to a program and the level it sustains, Valpo spends at a level to be a top Mid-Con program, but not to compete in a sustained fashion with the Creightons, Gonzagas and Xaviers.

Of course this is simplistic. Much more enters in, otherwise how would one explain Gonzaga's ability to compete with the Xaviers and maybe this year with the Dukes of the world. But it is interesting.

[vu72]

A couple of other interesting things from this site. Valpo is often compared to Butler (similar size, both private,same football conference and formerly the same basketball conference)

So I thought I would compare a couple of things to see how we measure up. The first is total revenue from all sports. Here we win with 8,482,301 vs. 7,194,537 for BU. Next I looked at revenue from Men's Basketball. Here we win with 1,576,543 vs. 1,046,773 and lastly i looked at coaches salaries. Both schools have 7 full time coaches. Our average pay for the 7 is 95,824 vs. their 74,764. Quite a disparity. I guess we could play in the horizon. I think our teams have done reasonably well in head to head meetings and our revs and coaches salaries certainly compare well, at least against mighty Butler!

[jmill]

vu72 said:

A couple of other interesting things from this site. Valpo is often compared to Butler (similar size, both private,same football conference and formerly the same basketball conference)

So I thought I would compare a couple of things to see how we measure up. The first is total revenue from all sports. Here we win with 8,482,301 vs. 7,194,537 for BU. Next I looked at revenue from Men's Basketball. Here we win with 1,576,543 vs. 1,046,773 and lastly i looked at coaches salaries. Both schools have 7 full time coaches. Our average pay for the 7 is 95,824 vs. their 74,764. Quite a disparity. I guess we could play in the horizon. I think our teams have done reasonably well in head to head meetings and our revs and coaches salaries certainly compare well, at least against mighty Butler!

Obviously, money spent doesn't always correlate into better results.
We spend and make way more than Butler, but they're doing comparatively better in a tougher league. Same with Gonzaga, Creighton, etc ..

[aztrig3]

Thanks for the financial info, VU72 and nkvu. It shows that Valpo is adequately funding athletics including men's basketball compared to the rest of our league and also compared to the Horizon League. As nkvu points out these figures are simplistic in that they do not include the amounts provided on a yearly basis from private donors "over and above budgeted amounts". That is where the Gonzaga's of the basketball world differentiate themselves from the rest of the pack and that is what explains their sustained basketball success. Their new basketball arena was paid by donors and I'm sure donors also supplement the coaches' salaries and add big bucks to the recruiting budget.
VU72, the total revenue for all sports at VU and the other schools is out of whack. I would be shocked if total revenue for all VU sports is more than $500,000/yr (the large majority from men's basketball), not the $8,482,301 you report. And where do they come up with 7 basketball coaches getting an average salary of $95,824 each?

[reality]

Expenditures $244,000
Revenue 1,5xx,xxx

Not bad! Wonder why their offices are a bit nicer!

[reality]

aztrig3 said:

I would be shocked if total revenue for all VU sports is more than $500,000/yr (the large majority from men's basketball), not the $8,482,301 you report. And where do they come up with 7 basketball coaches getting an average salary of $95,824 each?

You should be shocked then! If you don't think Basketball brings in $500,000 a year than you don't know much.
Have you thought about all the signs in the gym? Road trip revenue, non-conference bringing in the most of course. How about Alumni, boosters, etc? Let's think about concessions? How about ticket sales? There's alot more!

Shocked aren't you!