UNT Funnels Millions Into Money-Losing Sports

[Skipper]

The Texas Tribune offers a look at the money being spent on athletics by Texas public universities. Aside perennial big-time programs at Texas A&M, Texas Tech, and the University of Texas at Austin, whose teams each generate nearly $200 million in annual revenue, these schools are heavily subsidizing their quest for glory on the playing field.

The University of North Texas brings in more than $11 million in revenue but also runs up expenses totaling more than $31 million. Its students are asked to subsidize the difference in the form of additional dedicated fees ($165 per semester):

Making dramatic cuts wasn’t much of an option if the athletic departments wanted to remain competitive. So that left two choices: They could ask their universities for “direct institutional transfers,” which are dollars sent from the university to athletics. Or they could take more money in student fees.

In most cases, the schools did both. In 2008, UNT athletics collected $4.6 million from student fees. By 2015, that figure had more than doubled to $10.7 million. At UTSA, the number nearly doubled from $6.1 million to $12 million in the same time frame. At Texas State, it more than tripled from $5.3 million to $17.3 million.

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[untjim1995]

Uh oh...

UNT90 was already talking about how the students are going to eventually question this athletic fee at UNT with no results and very little interest. This will just add some fuel to that fire...if that fee gets up for a repeal vote, that sucker is gone...and so is FBS football at North Texas, literally. If that fee goes away, Apogee becomes the finest FCS stadium in the country.

This is what losing does. It makes people who care about sports walk away and it makes people who don't like sports even angrier that they are having to pay for them when they don't care. Eventually, you either turn it around or you're gonna have to pay the piper. We've seen it before here and the program almost died in the early 70s and in the I-aa debacle. If you don't win, you don't get support, financially or thru attendance. If you don't get support, you get lots of voices that get louder and louder to drop the sport, either down a level or two or outright.

[meangreenbob]

It's all so blatantly obvious.  UNT leadership is saddled with losers.

Edited March 22, 2016 by meangreenbob

[meangreenbob]

I can't help but believe that the late Dr.Pohl would have fired RV years ago. Dr. Pohl knew, understood and believed that ATHLETICS was/is the window to the University.

Edited March 22, 2016 by meangreenbob

[EagleMBA]

Wonderful media exposure for UNT...fucking wonderful.

Thanks!

Edited March 22, 2016 by EagleMBA

[Eagle1855]

The truth indeed hurts. 

[Cr1028]

45 minutes ago, untjim1995 said:

Uh oh...

UNT90 was already talking about how the students are going to eventually question this athletic fee at UNT with no results and very little interest. This will just add some fuel to that fire...if that fee gets up for a repeal vote, that sucker is gone...and so is FBS football at North Texas, literally. If that fee goes away, Apogee becomes the finest FCS stadium in the country.

This is what losing does. It makes people who care about sports walk away and it makes people who don't like sports even angrier that they are having to pay for them when they don't care. Eventually, you either turn it around or you're gonna have to pay the piper. We've seen it before here and the program almost died in the early 70s and in the I-aa debacle. If you don't win, you don't get support, financially or thru attendance. If you don't get support, you get lots of voices that get louder and louder to drop the sport, either down a level or two or outright.

You and @UNT90 must have forgotten how difficult it was to get the fee through in the first place and how pissed off the artsy crowd was when it was passed without their realizing it. There are still a boatload of guys like this around campus who don't give a damn about RV, they just don't want the fee. Regardless of how you feel, do not stir that's hornets nest because you will be harming your beloved university way more than RV ever could.

 

[UNT90]

3 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

You and @UNT90 must have forgotten how difficult it was to get the fee through in the first place and how pissed off the artsy crowd was when it was passed without their realizing it. There are still a boatload of guys like this around campus who don't give a damn about RV, they just don't want the fee. Regardless of how you feel, do not stir that's hornets nest because you will be harming your beloved university way more than RV ever could.

 

No, this is SQUARELY on Rick Villarreal's failure to perform and @flyonthewall, Ernie Kuene, and others being devoted to a man, not North Texas Athletics.

Rick Villarreal's legacy will be destroying what UNTFlyer built.

[Cr1028]

Just now, UNT90 said:

No, this is SQUARELY on Rick Villarreal's failure to perform and @flyonthewall, Ernie Kuene, and others being devoted to a man, not North Texas Athletics.

Rick Villarreal's legacy will be destroying what UNTFlyer built.

And your legacy will be burning the house down to kill a rat.

[UNT90]

2 hours ago, Cr1028 said:

And your legacy will be burning the house down to kill a rat.

Kill the messenger. There is a reason it's an expression.

Edited March 22, 2016 by UNT90

[jtm0097]

Most companies that are in the red, fire the individual behind the poor performance.

[DeepGreen]

Similar to our US government.  When other people's money is used (taxes, athletic fees), seems that those entities, government and most athletic departments, all operate in the red.

[Aldo]

1 hour ago, Eagle1855 said:

UH is $26M in the red -- $6M deeper than NT. So I assume we're not really upset about living in the red, rather, we're upset about living in the red and having very few wins to show for it.

Cause we're livin in the USA, and we ain't got a dime to pay

[untjim1995]

19 hours ago, Cr1028 said:

And your legacy will be burning the house down to kill a rat.

North Texas voted to disband football in the early 70s. North Texas chose to go down to I-aa in 1983 for 12 years and only went back up because they realized they could make more money from being a bought opponent from bigger college football teams as I-A member than as a I-aa team.

If the student body chooses to challenge the current path that they have been given to follow at UNT, its not going to be the first time. And it certainly won't be because some posters on a website vented about worries that have occurred COMPLETELY because of the accepted ineptitude of our approach to revenue sports.

At this point, the embarrassment that UNT has provided to us from athletics does far more damage to our degree. People can gripe about poor priorities, but many people rate a school on how they do within athletics to help support fundraising, research, and other academic endeavors. Is it right that they do that? Of course not. But its a very real issue and those of us with a UNT degree that meet other people who follow college sports either laugh at us, act as if we don't exist, or have no idea we even play at the level we do.

[GrandGreen]

Sad but true, the wide majority of D1 football schools lose a lot of money.   To pretend otherwise, is delusional.  Hopefully, one day college athletics will create some kind of cap on expenditures.    There is a legal barrier, but for the sake of competition and even to maintain college sports; it is going to have to be done.  There are limits now on the number of players and coaches, what can be offered in scholarships, etc.   

University sports are treated as non-profit entities, can you imagine the outcry if every charity had published lists of executives drawing millions in salaries and not actually contributing anything to the entity they represent.   At even NT, coaches salaries are more than the combined costs of scholarships awarded.   College sports are badly broken and without drastic change will become a thing of the past.  

As a side note, how many saw Hilary state that the cost of college should be limited to cost of educating the students.  A model that would eliminate almost all sports programs at public colleges.  Not likely now, but it is only a matter of time if radical changes are not made.  

 

[rcade]

20 hours ago, Cr1028 said:

Regardless of how you feel, do not stir that's hornets nest because you will be harming your beloved university way more than RV ever could.

The problem isn't going to disappear because we pretend it isn't happening. RV is throwing away the millions spent on athletics by putting a product on the field that embarrasses the university. If Smatresk allows this to continue, we may eventually have a student uprising that throws out the athletics fee. It's the sad truth.

2 hours ago, DeepGreen said:

Similar to our US government.  When other people's money is used (taxes, athletic fees), seems that those entities, government and most athletic departments, all operate in the red.

If you're going to call the athletics fee "other people's money," every dollar spent to support UNT is other people's money.

Students approved the fee because they wanted more from their school in athletics. It was a commitment to the future of the school that built a nice stadium and upgraded the program. If there was commitment to winning and a strong work ethic at the top from the AD, most students and alumni would be happy with this expenditure.

[oldguystudent]

19 hours ago, jtm0097 said:

Most companies that are in the red, fire the individual behind the poor performance.

Generally they do so with HUGE golden parachutes.  I'm befuddled at how much CEOs consistently get paid to fail.  /tangentrant

 

[Mike Jackson]

Does anyone on this thread can come up with 5 million a year to make a dent this short fall?  I didn't think so.  So here is were we are delusional alumni holding up signs saying "the Emerpor is Not Naked" as RV walks naked down Frye Street and down the center of campus to the new student union.  This program is in huge trouble so the fact the guy that has been in charge the last 15 years is not gone should scare the crap out of anyone that cares about athletics at this point.  Protecting this guy doesn't NOTHING for the program.  Not talking about it and hoping it goes away is how an ignorant, immature, teenager deals with VD not how a professional organization should be run or even a silly message board like this one.  The fact that we cannot unite behind firing this guy speaks of pending doom for this program.  The few large donors the program has can't save it either.  The question is this: If there is even a 10% chance that RV mismanagement could put UNT in a position to drop football down to FCS why do we even have to debate?  The big donors need to calling weekly for RV head to be delivered on a spike.  Someone asked what will it take.   Maybe the announcement we are getting kicked out of CUSA like Idaho and New Mexico were kick out of SBC.  But by then the program is barreling down the hill towards FCS or maybe even death after that.  Let look on the bright side Denton High, Guyer, and Ryan High have a great stadium to play their biggest games of the year in.  SMH

 

Edited March 23, 2016 by Mike Jackson

[UNT90]

20 minutes ago, Mike Jackson said:

Does anyone on this thread can come up with 5 million a year to make a dent this short fall?  I didn't think so.  So here is were we are delusional alumni holding up signs saying "the Emerpor is Not Naked" as RV walks naked down Frye Street and down the center of campus to the new student union.  This program is in huge trouble so the fact the guy that has been in charge the last 15 years is not gone should scare the crap out of anyone that cares about athletics at this point.  Protecting this guy doesn't NOTHING for the program.  Not talking about it and hoping it goes away is how an ignorant, immature, teenager deals with VD not how a professional organization should be run or even a silly message board like this one.  The fact that we cannot unite behind firing this guy speaks of pending doom for this program.  The few large donors the program has can't save it either.  The question is this: If there is even a 10% chance that RV mismanagement could put UNT in a position to drop football down to FCS why do we even have to debate?  The big donors need to calling weekly for RV head to be delivered on a spike.  Someone asked what will it take.   Maybe the announcement we are getting kicked out of CUSA like Idaho and New Mexico were kick out of SBC.  But by then the program is barreling down the hill towards FCS or maybe even death after that.  Let look on the bright side Denton High, Guyer, and Ryan High have a great stadium to play their biggest games of the year in.  SMH

 

Yep, sadly the big donors appear in most cases and are blatant about in some cases only caring about Rick Villarreal. That is where their allegiance lies. They aren't loyal to UNT, they are loyal to a man. Very cultish behavior. 

The ironic thing is these are the same people that will tell you Matress Mac wasn't a UNT supporter, but a Darrell Dickey supporter. 

Self awareness just isn't their thing, I guess.

Edited March 24, 2016 by UNT90