FIU/FAU Balancing The price Of Success

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BALANCING THE PRICE OF SUCCESS

FAU and FIU made the jump to Division I-A, and along the way both schools have faced their share of ups and downs.

Kyle Hightower

Sentinel Staff Writer

August 19, 2005

BOCA RATON -- It was the first day of summer break, but to look at Florida Atlantic Athletic Director Craig Angelos, you'd think he hadn't gotten the memo.

When Angelos walked into the FAU athletic department two months or so ago, he was sweating. He'd just lumbered across campus after a round of meetings and, without so much as a swig of water, already was asking about his next one.

"What's left on the schedule today?" he asked his secretary. "Budget meeting, right?"

"Three o'clock," she said.

"Great, I have a little break," he said with a slight pant.

Rest has been a luxury for FAU's administration since it passed the point of no return and decided to move its 4-year-old football program from Division I-AA to I-A.

FAU and Florida International are entering the final year of their two-year transitions to I-A this year but are worlds apart financially and in mentality.

While FIU has made baby steps and been frugal with its spending since starting football in 2002, FAU took the big-splash approach and still is more than $2 million in debt even after getting a $4.25 million bailout from other university entities.

Now, for better or for worse, both schools are in the game in I-A. But although FAU reached deep into shallow pockets to get its program up and running, it enters the Sun Belt Conference this season alongside, not ahead of, FIU.

Different approach

Though the majority of FAU's woes were incurred under a since-departed athletic director and president, the effects linger at a school that is pouring a lot of faith, confidence and money into football.

Angelos, 42, is a young gun with a penchant for crunching numbers and whose resume includes stints in the athletic departments at Miami and Indiana. FAU President Frank Brogan said he selected Angelos because of his energy and experience working with big-time athletic budgets.

"We have to assure our program is accountable to make it work," Brogan said. "And it all comes from this office. I take this one very seriously. I have a great love for NCAA athletics."

But money, not love, runs a Division I-A football program. And under Coach Howard Schnellenberger, FAU has spent a lot of it since he was hired in 1999.

Whether it was because of his experience at larger programs or his reputation for success, the former FAU administration gave Schnellenberger a lot of discretion over its athletic spending.

That was evident when FAU began play in 2001 and was paying $100,000 per game to play its home games at what then was called Pro Player Stadium. The stadium, home to the NFL's Miami Dolphins, was 30 miles from campus, and the idea of a fledgling I-AA program playing at an NFL stadium -- and in an area where national powerhouse Miami rarely sells out -- struck many as a big mistake. It turned out to be an expensive boondoggle.

By comparison, FIU raised more than $2million for improvements to FIU Stadium, all without racking up debt. FIU Stadium had 7,000 seats when it opened in 1995. It expanded to 17,000 in 2004, and plans for a larger $20 million stadium will move forward only after there is a guarantee from the athletic department that it won't take funds from other school entities.

"It [careful spending] was by design, no question," FIU Athletic Director Rick Mello said. "It was made clear by my president that we had to have a business plan that was on base with realistic numbers and not operate in a deficit position. As we grew the program, we had to be cognizant of that."

Creating a successful model

There are other noticeable similarities between the schools. First, each has football programs that cost about $3 million a year to run. Additionally, students at each university pay some of the highest student-athletic fees in the country.

FAU students are expected to pay $7.9 million of the school's $12.2 million athletic budget next year, or 65 percent. FIU students pay $10.1 million of the school's $13.8 million budget, or 73 percent.

Each has also put their faith in well-known names -- FAU with Schnellenberger and FIU with former Miami Dolphins quarterback Don Strock.

Brogan, who has been FAU's president since 2003, acknowledges past athletic missteps. He said the '05 season will be critical for the overall health of the athletic department.

"I inherited a rather dysfunctional department in terms of style and accountability," said Brogan, who was lieutenant governor before taking over at FAU. "We had essentially a Division I-AA program operating off a national-championship budget. Or at least that was the mentality -- writing checks that nobody could cash."

A lot of FAU's problems started because of overly optimistic projections for ticket sales and fund-raising, much like what happened at UCF when Lou Saban was hired as coach in 1983. For instance, FAU anticipated bringing in $2 million in private donations in 2003 but received less than $190,000. Indiana University professor emeritus Murray Sperber examined college sports in his 2001 book Beer and Circus: How Big-time College Sports Is Crippling Undergraduate Education. He takes issue with schools such as FAU diving head-first into I-A.

"There is a kind of illusion people in power at universities have, that somehow sports can put you on the map like nothing else," said Sperber, who has written two books on college athletics and their role in American culture. "I think the reason why schools do it is because they really want the fame it can bring. But it's a two-edged sword. It can go for you, but it can easily go against you."

In their defense, officials at both schools say they are patterning themselves after Florida's most recent I-A imports -- UCF and USF, both large schools in large metropolitan areas.

But UCF, especially, has struggled. The school announced in 1983 it would have Division I-AA football by 1984, but budget and fund-raising woes pushed the I-AA start-up back seven years and held up its move to I-A to 1996.

Unlike USF, which had $5 million in the bank before ever recruiting a player, UCF garnered national attention in the first few years of its football existence in hiring former Florida State coach Bill Peterson as athletic director and naming the well-traveled Saban as coach in 1983.

But the original business model imploded. The Knights planned on an average attendance of 34,500 in '83 but averaged just 10,359. Like FAU, UCF continued to spend money and over three years accumulated debt of $1.1 million.

Schnellenberger received a lot of attention in 1999 when he generated 2,500 student signatures to present to the university Board of Regents in support of the football program. He got his program. But attendance hasn't been that good. In four seasons, the Owls' highest per-game average was 12,987; that was in 2001, their first season. FAU averaged 10,784 per game last season, the second-highest total in its four-year history. FIU never has averaged more than 7,765 per game; that came in 2002, its first season.

"Our biggest challenge is going to be gate receipts and attendance," Mello said. "We knew that the second we started football. It's not like it's some big revelation. But we also knew it was going to take some time to get there."

FAU's financial problems haven't stopped officials from talking about building an on-campus stadium. Schnellenberger said the project must be completed by 2008 if football is to remain feasible at FAU. He said the school has sent out "feelers" to local groups and businesses with an "RSVP date" of Sept. 1.

"Our president feels that by going in this direction, this quickly will give us the best opportunity to know where our future lies with a stadium on campus," he said.

Strock also has talked about plans to build an on-campus stadium at FIU, with construction set to hopefully begin after the 2006 season.

Diamond in the rough

If Mello's approach is true to his last name, FAU's one-two punch of Brogan and Angelos is more like two top-level executives thwarting a hostile takeover. The duo talks or meets daily about balancing the budget and raising revenues in 2005-06.

They speak with passion and harp not so much on what was done wrong in the past as what they will do right from here on out.

"It was a good idea to start football, but the business model was not quite as sound as maybe it could be. . . . Now has come the time to try and strengthen the business model," Angelos said. "And I think we've done that in ascertaining where our debts are and who owns the debt. . . . We've taken great pains in working toward our goals the last six months or so. Next year is going to be very pivotal."

And officials aren't leaving FAU's fate during this pivotal year to chance: The '05 football schedule includes three "money" games: at Minnesota, Louisville and Kansas.

In addition, Brogan said the hiring of basketball Coach Matt Doherty -- formerly the head man at Notre Dame and North Carolina -- was done with fund-raising ability in mind.

Doherty will make a base salary of $171,000 but has numerous incentives based mostly on his ability to generate revenue and raise funds for the department.

Every little bit helps, after all.

"It was a diamond in the rough," Angelos said. "I look at everything we have around here: climate, people within a 40-50 mile radius to draw a crowd and land to build facilities. . . . The sky is the limit. I really envision the next five or 10 years, we'll be every bit as good as Miami, Central Florida and South Florida."

"In a perfect world, we would like to have done it like South Florida -- taking a seven- or eight-year process to do it," he said. "There will be some bumps along the way, but it will be positive in the long run."