Sun (belt) Rising

MeanGreen61 · April 4, 2008

Sun (Belt) Rising

Posted by Administrator on April 04th 2008 to General

It was nice to see the Sun (Belt) rise in the NCAA Tournament with USA’s at-large berth and Western’s run to the Sweet 16.

The timing could not have been better.

For most of its existence since the American South and Sun Belt merged, I-A or FBS football programs have been the minority in the conference or a bare majority. Asking schools that do not play football or who do no play FBS football to spend basketball earnings on a sport they do not play is a challenge. A challenge that is even tougher when the schools benefiting are cross-state rivals.

Now the 13 member Sun Belt has 8 members currently playing FBS football, Western Kentucky wraps up transition this year and will be a football member in 2009. South Alabama plans to be a football playing member by 2013. Of the 13 members 10 either play football in the Sun Belt or are working toward that goal.

A few years ago the leadership at Western Kentucky and South Alabama after having earned a combined four NCAA basketball units would have questioned the wisdom of the money they brought to the league being used to assist football when Western was playing I-AA or FCS football and USA wasn’t playing football at all. Today they would have to see such spending as an investment in their own futures.

What sort of impact could an additional boost of revenue of around $600,000 a year over six years have for football?

Quite a bit.

The MAC promises the GMAC Bowl in Mobile that it will purchase 7,500 tickets at $45 each to be part of the game. According to an article that appeared before their last GMAC appearance, Bowling Green fans and supporters purchased “about” 1,500 of the 7,500 tickets in 2004. That means that either Bowling Green or the MAC or the two combined had to pick up the tab on at least 6,000 tickets at a cost of over $270,000. Bowling Green was apparently on a pace to sell even fewer tickets this year.

The revenue from just one extra basketball unit earned would pay for a guarantee to purchase 4,000 tickets. If each Sun Belt member agreed that it would be responsible for selling 4,000 tickets if selected for the GMAC, the conference could promise the GMAC the sale of 8,000 tickets if it would replace the MAC and its guarantee of 7,500 tickets with the Sun Belt in the game.

The Sun Belt in the past has faced a tough situation talking to bowl organizers. Members obviously have had to be hesitant to promise that they individually would purchase 7,500 tickets to a game. The cost of unsold tickets coupled with sending a band, a larger traveling party and staying at the game site for four to six days could easily result in huge financial losses for an athletic program unless ticket sales were very strong. Without conference money as an insurance policy against poor ticket sales, signing a contract making that promise was just not a safe course of action.

The timing is just perfect. Not only are football and future football members a strong majority in the conference, not only did we have the good fortune of the units being earned by incoming football members, but more importantly the timing was magnificent. Most bowl contracts run the same length as the BCS contract and expire after the 2009 season. The Sun Belt will have money in the bank when the bowls begin looking at their options for the four or five year period of the next BCS deal. As those contracts begin to be negotiated over the next 24 months, the Sun Belt has the money to make the sort of promises the bowl organizers want to hear.