A recent story getting press is the ruling of a Connecticut Judge telling Quinnipiac University that competitive cheerleading is not a sport. Almost all of the reaction is to the fact a judge was allowed to decree what is and is not a sport. It will be seen as a humorous blurb and invoke discussion on what counts as a sport and what does not. This article is about more than qualifying activities though, it is about the asinine numbers game that is Title IX.
Quinnipiac is a small mid-major school that no doubt lacks the big budgets of the football superpowers. They are doing what they can to survive. Let's take a look at the college sports landscape shall we?
Football is king. It generates the most money and attention for schools, namely the FCS and a few top FBS schools. Men's basketball is also up there, due to the opportunity to get TV and NCAA tournament money. After that, there are a few sports in different patches of the country that generate interest and revenue, but none touch the big 2. The cost of supporting large scale college sports is sky-rocketing, while the economy is struggling. Added to this is the requirements of Title IX. This federal law passed in 1972 which did not even originally pertain to athletics has come to dominate the fate of non-revenue sports. Since the 1990s when the NCAA established distinct guidelines of how schools can comply with the law or lose federal funding collegiate teams have been going the way of the Dodo.
Those distinct guidelines can basically be summarized by proportionality. There are two other ways schools can comply but it has been shown to be nearly impossible to implement them. Proportionality is simplistic (and therefore ill-equipped to handle this matter) in its definition; the proportion of female to male ratio of the student body has to be reflected in the allocation of resources in an athletic department. So if a school is 55% female and 45% male, the athletic department must make sure their expenditures reflect that. For schools with football, which has over 100 males athletes, the only way to make this a reality is to cut non-revenue men's teams. A school must have at least 7 programs to stay division I in their sports, but after that it is fair game.
Over the past 20 years men's collegiate sport programs in anything from soccer, tennis, wrestling, rowing, and even baseball have been wiped out. Even women's teams have been disappearing in favor of other women's sports that are cheaper or help teams comply with Title IX more efficiently. Take women's rowing for example. Once a small sport, it has grown to into one of the biggest female collegiate sports in the country. Why? Numbers. Women's rowing is the biggest counterweight the gender has to football. The roster sizes are larger than other women's sports.
Quinnipiac has 7 men's teams (no football team) and 12 women's teams with competitive cheer and volleyball listed. They tried to eliminate volleyball and install cheerleading because it offered them a cheaper way to comply with an outdated rule. The judge in this case ruled that cheerleading did not fit the criteria to serve the purpose. As much as I love to mock cheerleading this is not what is at the crux of the situation at Quinnipiac. It is the 5,000 pound gorilla that exists in college sports. Gender equity and opportunity in athletics is important, much too important to have an old archaic law like Title IX be the utmost authority on it.
Judge in Conn.: Cheerleading not a college sport [Yahoo]
Friday, July 23
Judge's Decision Goes Deeper Than Mocking Cheerleading
Friday, May 7
Video Game Representation of Braves Nets Man $1 Million
Yesterday I took some heat from loyal reader and fan of all things involving The Dirty Dirty, Beck. She is a Braves fan and once held the gaze of Jeff Francoeur at close range, if tales be true. So when I presented the picture of the Senate catering gaff in the previous post she was not too happy. Now, since I am a Mets fan I normally take great delight in anything that casts the Bravos in a negative light. However, since I have not received any correspondence this week from Beck regarding the Saved By the Bell reruns that are part of our individual morning routines, I have a peace offering post.
Wade McGilberry of Alabama won a contest for MLB 2K10 which challenged players to throw a perfect game and send the tape in. The prize was $1 million. The team Wade used? The Atlanta Braves. The opponents? The New York Mets. Wade is not a professional gamer. He is just a working man, a husband (at only 23, but that's how they do it down south), and a guy who thought he had a chance. Once 2K verified his feat which occured in March, they appeared at his house with the ceremonial giant check. He and his wife Katy plan to pay off their mortgage and start a family. A very happy ending, all thanks to the Braves and the simulated arm of Kenshin Kawakami. The real arm of Kawakami is 0-5 with a 5.47 ERA. So huzzah for Wade and huzzah for the Braves, making dreams come true.
On Deck For Millionaire Gamer: Starting a Family [Kotaku]
Monday, March 29
It's All About The Units
Without a doubt the biggest winners of the college basketball weekend were the Final Four teams, but that is just in the competitive side of the sport. As we have all learned when it comes to college sports the money is the most influential element. That is why more people than just the quartet of teams have cause to celebrate about the way the tournament has unfolded. The NCAA has run an ad campaign this year about the amount of money being put back into their membership programs; in the commercial they claim it is 97% and while some may be dubious upon that amount it is roughly accurate. As people often need reminding the NCAA is an organization that is comprised of the member colleges and those colleges dictate the rules by which the organization operates. In the NCAA tournament, more than school pride is at stake for the teams and their conferences. There is a lot of money to be won.
While we know that college football is king when it comes to the ability to generate revenue through the bowl system, that is not an NCAA sponsored enterprise. Like the NCAA though the bowls enjoy tax exempt status but that is a story for another day. The bowl payouts are distributed to the conferences which almost all spread it evenly among their membership institutions. When it comes to the basketball tournament each team begins with a reward and those that advance earn extra rewards. Read rewards as cash. The more a team wins, the more money it gets for its conference which earns them extra money in turn. While the players and coaches are focused on winning in the hopes of raising the trophy at the end, everyone is essentially playing for money.
This money comes in the forms of units. Each team earns its conference a unit for appearing in the tournament. The worth of a unit changes each year depending on the total revenue but it is divided equally amongst the participants. This year a unit is worth $222,502. That means every team participating in this year's tournament, all 65 started off earning that. Yes those cringes and hung heads on Selection Sunday were not just from coaches and players, but school administrators as well. For each additional win, a school earns its conference another unit.
In this economy(!) even the big conferences view this as more than just a drop in the bucket, especially since they have multiple bids. The units are paid out based how many have been accrued on a rolling six year schedule. So if a conference makes a deep run or has multiple bids, a school can add a nice source of income over the next six years.
The smaller schools typically can expect 1 unit each year, 2 if their team manages to win their first round game. Look at Arkansas Pine-Bluff; many would think they would be upset to get into opening round game since some people consider it the play-in game. However, APB got a unit for appearing in that game AND another won for winning it and facing Duke. For one of the lowest rated teams in the tournament, they earned the SWAC $445,004 this year and those units are added to whatever they accrue for the next six years. For the next 5 years, any units the SWAC generates will be added to this year's total and paid out each year.
That is why the Horizon League had to be doing summersaults on Saturday. While Butler has earned the Horizon League a fair amount of units in the past, this year marked the first time they advance to an Elite 8 and Final Four. The Bulldogs have already earned 5 units out of a possible 6 (there is no extra unit if you win, but there is the thrill of being national champions) and reached the Final Four in their hometown of Indianapolis. Did I mention that they and the Horizon League are the official hosts of the Final Four?
Thanks to Butler, the Horizon league added $1,112,510 to the pot. They could add another unit if they beat Michigan State on Saturday. If the Horizon League evenly distributes their money, that is $111,251 per school. If you were to imagine a Horizon League team bowing out in the first round, say if Butler lost to UTEP like many (/covers face) they would get just $22,250.20 for each school in the league.
Now of course we come to the big leagues. According to this, the Big Ten earned 69 units in the previous pay cycle. That earned each school in the conference $1,395,692. They earned $1,863,000 in football bowl money this year as well. Obviously we can see the big 6 conferences have extra incentive to get as many bids as possible. The Big East's success in the tourney is debatable; West Virginia made the Final Four (3rd year in a row for the conference), only they got past the Sweet 16, the 1 seed Syracuse was upset, Villanova got lucky against Robert Morris and then bowed out in the 2nd round. What is not debatable is the Big East racking up huge money from the tournament the last few years. Granted the Big East is a huge 16 team behemoth. The conference entered the tournament with 8 teams. That is $1,780,016 for the conference without taking a dribble. Even with teams struggling and leaving in the first round, some unceremoniously (Georgetown), they still managed 8 more units which doubles their money. So far in this year's tournament alone the Big East has netted $3,560,032.
So whether the money received is a drop in the bucket for a conference and their respective athletic departments or a big payday for smaller programs, there is a lot more money to be won in the NCAA tournament than eternal glory. Memphis recently felt the sting of playing the 2008 tournament with an ineligible player. For the SAT-Derrick Rose situation, not only was the school forced to vacate the wins that led them to the title game where they lost in overtime to Kansas, but they had to return all their tournament revenue from that year. It totaled approximately $615,000 so it is no wonder the school is suing Calipari to get his $350,000 worht of bonuses back. With the possibility of expansion and changing networks, the revenues may change in the coming years, but it is likely the system will remain the same.
Monday, March 8
Tebow = $
Tim Tebow has yet to be categorized as an NFL football player. His status in our culture, however, has been solidified; Tebow is a cash cow. I do not say this in an entirely negative manner, Tebow is no longer a college athlete he is a professional. He has the right of life, liberty, and property. Sorry to go John Locke it is looking more and more that Tebow will acquire a lot of that last right. This past Saturday Tim made an appearance at a mall in Palm Beach where he signed autographs and posed for pictures. Those wishing to seek an audience with him paid the tidy sum of $160. To say the turnout was large and the autograph seekers were huge fans would be an understatement.
"Charles Hoyle brought his Bible for Tebow to sign."
Really sir? That seems a bit extreme. If you are one that holds the good book in such high esteem should it not be autographed by anyone unless they are, you know, Jesus? Yet I understand the draw of Tebow. He is a man of values, he carries himself well, and he has proved (so far) to be a person of unshakable faith. People will often gravitate towards these figures as examples who they feel can justify their faith.
The signing was not a complete cashgrab though:
"Most of the money raised at Saturday's signing will go towards the Tim Tebow Foundation. The organization's website said it wants to bring faith and hope to those needing a brighter day in their darkest hour of need."
That means money was put directly in pockets for this. Great description of the foundation too, vague enough to allow them to do whatever they want with the cash. Tebow learned a thing or two about tax shelters from his Dad I am sure. Tell me again why a team would not take this guy early in the draft? He's the most lucrative tight-end/halfback/quarterback with an awkward throwing motion maybe ever. Jersey sales from the first week alone would bring in insane amounts of money from the same people that lined up for hours Saturday. Tebow may not pay dividends on the football field but in the community, with this teammates and especially in the bank account it would be wise for an owner to take him.
100s Line Up For Tim Tebow's Autograph [News4Jax via TBL]
