UofL Athletics deep in debt...what will the future bring for college athletics.? -- FRIDAY CARDINAL COUPLE

 A $30 MILLION DOLLAR PROBLEM

You've probably heard the news by now, UofL's athletic program is $30 million dollars in debt. The problem is there...staring right at The Thinker on campus. What is the answer? 

A friend sent me the Eric Crawford article. I can only take a look at some the woeful media moguls for UofL sports information and think about this suggestion. Send them packing like hobos from the railroad yards. They hid the information of the increasing debt far too long. After all, this is a public institution, not some prestigious private college Turn the promotion of UofL athletics over to companies skilled at information reporting who know a little about what they are doing in the advertising and promotion world. Put spending under a magnifying glass. 

It also may be time to start collecting for attendance to some on the non-revenue sports. I know it's a steep cliff to jump off of...attendance could plummet...but these sports are paying coaches, assistant coaches and the S.I.D's just like all the other revenue sports  and are a cost to athletics as well.

Yum! Brands, Texas Roadhouse, Humana and Brown Foreman make big money. Maybe they might have an interest in helping salvage UofL sports more than they currently do. They are based here, after all. 

And, when you are that deep in debt, it's only a matter of time before women's sports start to take some money allocation hits. You know they are gong to try and salvage men's football, basketball and baseball first before they worry about lacrosse, field hockey and volleyball. 

"How did we get this deep in the hole?" 

Maybe take a look at how Texas, Ohio St. Georgia and Michigan are out of the red and into the black in revenue producing. UK was valued at $910 million dollars....fifteenth best in the nation. UofL is at 37th. at $645 million. 

Any other business model that would lose that much would probably be shutdown. And maybe it's time for some of these high pocket professional franchises to realize that their talent comes from college athletics and maybe they need to throw some huge bucks at their source of players. 

I got tired of the way media got pushed around and slighted a few years ago and just stopped attending games. Some were definitely more equal than others . But, being a graduate of the university and fond of many of the women's coaches on campus..it's certainly not the coaches fault that monies spent far exceed revenue produced. And, a student fee for athletics isn't going to solve this dilemma. 

The SEC and Big Ten have 18 of the top 20 revenue producing programs. Notre Dame and Clemson are the only two in that top 20 that are not members of either conference. Both have storied football programs. Both have no problem getting butts in the seats to watch games.  

Maybe one of the most ridiculous things is the makeup of the Atlantic Coast Conference...that has California, Stanford and SMU...hardly on the Atlantic Ocean coast.  The Big 10 has 18 members. 

But, I'm not a numbers cruncher. I just report on the joy and excitement of UofL women's athletics.

 Being $30 million in debt, though, isn't much of a joyful thing, is it? 

pauliie