Florida Gulf Coast Univ. has made an "extraordinary effort" in the past five years to fund men's basketball, which "brings in the most revenue to the athletic department and the most exposure to the university as a whole," according to a front-page piece by Joseph Cranney of the NAPLES DAILY NEWS. From FY '09 to FY '13, the operating budget of FGCU men's basketball increased 455%, "a striking uptick even for an upstart program." FGCU made a surprise run to the Sweet 16 during the '13 NCAA Tournament, and school officials said that the cost of traveling to the tourney "inflated the university's numbers." Using data from FY '14, the increase "is closer" to 340%. Experts said that while the emphasis on basketball is "typical, even critical to the health" of an athletic department, there "may not be another recent case of a Division I university that has spent so much on basketball so suddenly." As more money "has been pumped into basketball, FGCU's nonrevenue sports have been given a smaller share of the overall budget." FGCU AD Ken Kavanagh said the school is "spending money to make money." He added, "The front porch of a university is athletics done right. The front porch of our athletic department is men's basketball." Cranney reports FGCU's financial gains from men's basketball "have been outstanding." The Sweet 16 run helped create a 27% increase in freshman applications "and a year-to-year uptick in overall external athletic revenue" of nearly $1M. The overall athletic operating budget "has more than doubled," from about $740,000 in '09 to more than $1.7M in '13. But that money "has disproportionately been distributed" to basketball. Kavanagh said Olympic sports are getting "more than their fair share." He added that recruiting budgets "have gone up for each Olympic sport from last year" (NAPLES DAILY NEWS, 12/2).
