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Events & Attractions
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Intercollegiate Forum: Football Playoffs, Media Rights Discussed
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ADs Monitoring The Economy's Impact On
Schools' Athletic Programs |
The 7th annual IMG Intercollegiate Athletics Forum presented by SportsBusiness Daily/SportsBusiness Journal wrapped up Thursday at the InterContinental, The Barclay in N.Y. This year's event concluded with a panel entitled, "Managing the Business of College Sports: The Athletic Director Perspective." Panelists included Univ. of Oklahoma AD Joe Castiglione, Arizona State Univ. AD Lisa Love, Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick and Wake Forest Univ AD Ron Wellman.
The issue: A Division I-A football playoff system.
The skinny: Wellman: The presidents that I’m aware of have no interest in a playoff. I think our current system creates an awful lot of talk. I like the bowl system. I think we’re a long way from a true playoff. … I do not (favor one).
Swarbrick: What all of us can’t gauge right now is the impact of the President-elect’s interest, but absent that I see no momentum for change.
Castiglione: We’ve seen some movement in this area over the last two years. Personally, I always try to keep an open mind. I have much more of an open mind for a plus-one model. The one thing that can’t be disputed is that for all of its flaws, the BCS program has created more interest in college football than any other period in its history. How long this will last? I don’t know that we can say.
The issue: How is the economy impacting college sports?
The skinny: Castiglione: Directly, we have not yet felt the strain on our revenue other than the changes in expenses related to travel and cost of goods. ... We’re waiting to see how the first quarter of the year goes because that’s generally when we generate the most amount of revenue for the year.
Wellman: It is affecting us. Our season tickets are stable but the fact is we thought we would be a little bit above with the competitiveness in our football and basketball teams.
The issue: What are the most unique elements of facility improvements in regard to character and return on investment?
The skinny: Castiglione: Anytime you’re in the process to consider the creation of a new facility or renovation of an existing facility, benchmark against facilities of its type around the country, you engage the expertise of design firms. You’re probably limited only by creativity.
Love: There’s a characteristic that’s national and not just at the university level, and that’s building green. … This entire sustainability component has created a unique factor. It’s a little more expensive, but if you project out your entire costs, your utility costs, it levels out.
Swarbrick: One of the things that’s critical for us is sports presents a unique opportunity for community outreach. The chemistry lab can’t be used by a lot of people, but the sports facility can, so we focus on multi-use. When it’s not being used by our varsity programs, how else can we use it?
Wellman: One of our goals in renovating our football stadium was, how do we keep our stadium open 365 days a year? … How can the community use our stadium on a daily basis rather than seven or eight times a year?
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Love Says Amateursim Needs
To Be Redefined |
The issue: What one change of NCAA oversights would you like to see?
The skinny: Swarbrick: If I could pick one area where they could play a bigger role, I think they could play a bigger role in officiating. … More commonality in officiating would benefit sports.
Love: One area I think we’re heading into is a debriefing of the current policies around amateurism. … I’m not promoting paying players. But I am talking about a redefinition of amateurism. If a young person has some success in one sport and comes across and plays another like baseball as purely an amateur, … how do you classify that?
Castiglione: The underpinnings of the NCAA organization is all about governing the institutions that have decided to sponsor university athletics.
The issue: Coaching salaries -- Is that debate overblown?
The skinny: Love: The Division I program we’re working in is very market driven. … To the degree your revenue permits it you’re going to be as competitive as you possibly can.
Castiglione: I don’t think it’s overblown. I think oftentimes it’s misunderstood. We all have different demands placed on us if we’re in the arena of making intercollegiate athletics work on our campus, in our community, in our state. … We have a high paid coach, and he has been worth every penny we spend on his compensation. We’ve been able to demonstrate that to his constituents.
Swarbrick: (Georgetown Univ. President Jack DeGioia) said it’s absolutely consistent with everything else that’s going on in the university. The challenge of a top researcher these days. The cost to commit to lab space, funding, other staff members, makes the cost of hiring a football coach seem relatively small.
The issue: What is the No. 1 issue facing college athletics over next five years?
The skinny: Castiglione: The number one issue is how we deal with our academic mission and the students that we see coming through the pipeline, the ones in second and third grade and fourth grade and fifth grade, and fully understanding the difference in the way they learn.
Love: I couldn’t agree with you more. ... It’s a sticky issue right now on how you help someone who is capable, but woefully underprepared (academically).
Wellman: How we are going to interact with our stakeholders from a fundraising standpoint to the environment at our games. My second concern is: What impact are professional sports having upon collegiate sports?
Swarbrick: It’s whether we can maintain a common culture of intercollegiate athletics among ourselves, or will different models emerge in the years ahead that strain the fabric of the NCAA?
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Panelists Discuss Evolving
Media Rights Landscape |
The final day of the conference also featured a panel titled, "The Bundling of Multi-Media Rights." Panelists included UCLA Senior Associate AD for External Relations Ross Bjork, Ohio State Univ. Associate AD for External Relations David Brown, Univ. of Florida Associate AD for External Affairs Mike Hill, IMG College Senior VP & Managing Dir Tom Stultz and Univ. of Wisconsin Senior Associate AD for External Relations Vince Sweeney.
The issue: How are athletic departments working with other aspects of the college in doing rights deals?
The skinny: Stultz: Some colleges, like Ohio State, are putting out some student life inventory beyond athletics. The potential there is pretty significant.
Brown: We wrote the RFP with the university. It's not just an athletics RFP. We're thinking from a rights holder perspective, is this good inventory to have? We think it's valuable stuff to be packaged in.
Bjork: We don't want our students to be bombarded by credit card and bank loan offers. It's got to be the right thing for students.
The issue: What are you doing with your digital rights?
The skinny: Bjork: Digital rights are still evolving. We're trying to figure out online video. People want to see Bill Walton score 40 points in an NCAA Tournament game, we need to find out how to monetize that.
Brown: (Streamed games) help our coaches with recruiting. It's not just players' parents who watch online. It's recruits, too. That's important to us.
Bjork: Our volleyball coach did not want his games streamed because he didn't want to let other teams scout him online. I'm like, 'Hey coach, come on. It's 2008.'
The issue: What percentage of revenue comes from digital rights?
The skinny: Sweeney: Our multimedia guaranteed payment is 7-9% of the overall budget.
The issue: Are you looking to launch your own school channel?
Stultz: The financial model works at the University of Texas if you get the distribution, and we don't know yet if we can.
Hill: We considered a Gator TV network at one point. We felt like we gained more in partnering with Fox.
Sweeney: The media players in the market will try to make these channels not happen. Part of the reason the SEC deal was so successful is that the TV partners did not want to see the conference launch its own channel.
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