I started to wonder about the BoT's perspective on college football and intercollegiate sports now that the Supreme Court has ruled.
Given most non revenue college sports are a luxury not a necessity ( consider Canada & Europe as one possible future US Collegiate sporting landscape) I looked up the endowments of the top 288 universities and colleges ranked from top to bottom.
The results are so overwhelming and explains such a great deal about booster involvement and outlook on NIL, and explains why certain Universities are hunting for sport and others are hunting to eat when it comes to boosters and NIL.
It's called necessity.
The top college football programs are perennially the State funded universities.
Bama, Clemson, OSU, LSU, Oklahoma, Texas, Florida Georgia, Auburn, Michigan, Penn State, Oregon, UNC, Texas A&M, Wisconsin, etc etc.
ND, USC, Miami, ( Stanford, Northwestern, BC, Duke, maybe a couple others are not truly capable of a national championship run but they are serious about their programs) are the only privately funded universities that seek to compete for national championships.
State Governors and legislators do not like to fund university athletics for a multitude of reasons, but do so indirectly by funding the university's other costs ( faculty, facilities, etc) to varying degrees on a state by state basis.
Endowments are critical to all universities public and private.
Harvard has a $39 Billion endowment, Yale, Stanford, Princeton endowments all exceed $25B.
Those figures make their respective college sports funding an option and a luxury.
Now let's look at the top State funded universities and the SEC in particular.
The date is pretty staggering.
Non SEC, State or publicly funded Universities' endowments:
Texas $31B new to SEC
Texas A&M $13B relatively new to SEC
Michigan $13.4B
Cal Berkeley $11.88B
UVA $7B
Rice $6.8B
Ohio State $5.2B
Penn State $4.5B
Pitt ( hard to believe) $4.3B
Minnesota $3.9B
UNC CH $3.6B
Wisconsin $3.1B
Michigan State $3B
Washington 2.9B
UCLA $2.7B
Purdue $2.6B
Indiana $2.4B
Illinois $2.3B
Georgia Tech $2.1B
coming in at #20 is Florida at $1.8B
Now the SEC schools not listed above:
Missouri $1.7B
Alabama $1.5B
Kentucky $1.4B
Georgia $1.3B
Tennessee $1.3B
LSU $926M
Auburn $792M
Mississippi $725M
Others:
Clemson $774M
Louisville $719M
Select Private Colleges:
Stanford $27B
Notre Dame $11B
Northwestern $ 11B
USC $5.7B
The Bama's, Georgia's, LSU's, Clemson's, Florida State's, etc., really don't have a choice but to allow their boosters to run the show - they have no other viable choice if they want to fund such an operation - the boosters are VITAL to these programs - they are hunting to eat.
The large state schools like PSU, Ohio State, UNC are really "tweeners" - better than decent size endowments but nowhere near that of the big boys ( OSU & PSU are 25th & 26th respectively in total endowment ranking) so they WANT their football programs to make money and fund the other school sports, but their state funding, endowments and tuition affords the the LUXURY up until now to ignore their potential major boosters. In the past, these schools were hunting for sport.
The SEC schools outside of Texas and Texas A&M do not have such a luxury nor do Clemson or Florida State.
USC is very similar to PSU. Although private, it's $5.7B endowment pales next to Stanford's $27B and is basically half that of Northwestern or Notre Dame. Can it afford to be a "tweener" ?
We do not have the massive endowments of Texas $31M, or even Texas A&M $13B, Michigan $13.4B or Cal Berkeley $11.8B
At $4.5B we are not in the poor house, but we do not have the luxuries such enormous endowments provide.
Unfortunately our PSU leaders sometimes think we do.....will we be hunting for sport or to eat in the next couple of months as the conference alignments take shape ?
Fascinating times folks !
Given most non revenue college sports are a luxury not a necessity ( consider Canada & Europe as one possible future US Collegiate sporting landscape) I looked up the endowments of the top 288 universities and colleges ranked from top to bottom.
The results are so overwhelming and explains such a great deal about booster involvement and outlook on NIL, and explains why certain Universities are hunting for sport and others are hunting to eat when it comes to boosters and NIL.
It's called necessity.
The top college football programs are perennially the State funded universities.
Bama, Clemson, OSU, LSU, Oklahoma, Texas, Florida Georgia, Auburn, Michigan, Penn State, Oregon, UNC, Texas A&M, Wisconsin, etc etc.
ND, USC, Miami, ( Stanford, Northwestern, BC, Duke, maybe a couple others are not truly capable of a national championship run but they are serious about their programs) are the only privately funded universities that seek to compete for national championships.
State Governors and legislators do not like to fund university athletics for a multitude of reasons, but do so indirectly by funding the university's other costs ( faculty, facilities, etc) to varying degrees on a state by state basis.
Endowments are critical to all universities public and private.
Harvard has a $39 Billion endowment, Yale, Stanford, Princeton endowments all exceed $25B.
Those figures make their respective college sports funding an option and a luxury.
Now let's look at the top State funded universities and the SEC in particular.
The date is pretty staggering.
Non SEC, State or publicly funded Universities' endowments:
Texas $31B new to SEC
Texas A&M $13B relatively new to SEC
Michigan $13.4B
Cal Berkeley $11.88B
UVA $7B
Rice $6.8B
Ohio State $5.2B
Penn State $4.5B
Pitt ( hard to believe) $4.3B
Minnesota $3.9B
UNC CH $3.6B
Wisconsin $3.1B
Michigan State $3B
Washington 2.9B
UCLA $2.7B
Purdue $2.6B
Indiana $2.4B
Illinois $2.3B
Georgia Tech $2.1B
coming in at #20 is Florida at $1.8B
Now the SEC schools not listed above:
Missouri $1.7B
Alabama $1.5B
Kentucky $1.4B
Georgia $1.3B
Tennessee $1.3B
LSU $926M
Auburn $792M
Mississippi $725M
Others:
Clemson $774M
Louisville $719M
Select Private Colleges:
Stanford $27B
Notre Dame $11B
Northwestern $ 11B
USC $5.7B
The Bama's, Georgia's, LSU's, Clemson's, Florida State's, etc., really don't have a choice but to allow their boosters to run the show - they have no other viable choice if they want to fund such an operation - the boosters are VITAL to these programs - they are hunting to eat.
The large state schools like PSU, Ohio State, UNC are really "tweeners" - better than decent size endowments but nowhere near that of the big boys ( OSU & PSU are 25th & 26th respectively in total endowment ranking) so they WANT their football programs to make money and fund the other school sports, but their state funding, endowments and tuition affords the the LUXURY up until now to ignore their potential major boosters. In the past, these schools were hunting for sport.
The SEC schools outside of Texas and Texas A&M do not have such a luxury nor do Clemson or Florida State.
USC is very similar to PSU. Although private, it's $5.7B endowment pales next to Stanford's $27B and is basically half that of Northwestern or Notre Dame. Can it afford to be a "tweener" ?
We do not have the massive endowments of Texas $31M, or even Texas A&M $13B, Michigan $13.4B or Cal Berkeley $11.8B
At $4.5B we are not in the poor house, but we do not have the luxuries such enormous endowments provide.
Unfortunately our PSU leaders sometimes think we do.....will we be hunting for sport or to eat in the next couple of months as the conference alignments take shape ?
Fascinating times folks !
Last edited:
