Houston has enjoyed success of late on the field of play, with a New Year's Six bowl appearance in '15GETTY IMAGES
Univ. of Houston athletics generated $57M in revenue for FY '16-17, "easily outdistancing" most of the Texas schools that field teams in the FBS but "trailing its Texas counterparts" in the Power Five, according to David Barron of the HOUSTON CHRONICLE. The Univ. of Texas for the '17 calendar year "brought in" $214M and Texas A&M $211M, becoming the "first schools to top" the $200M mark. Texas Tech totaled $88M, and Baylor and TCU, based on available '16-17 data, "likely approached or topped" $100M. The difference in revenue "represents a large part of the challenge" that UH AD Chris Pezman "faces in his new role." The financial divide "reveals itself in starkest terms when comparing revenue totals for Texas Tech, which was invited to join the Big 12, and Houston, which was not." Texas Tech since '03 has brought in $320M "more in athletic department revenue than has UH." Adding estimates for the previous years since the conference split in '96, and it is "not inconceivable that being left out of the Big 12 has cost UH a chance" at more than $450M earned by its former Southwest Conference counterparts. Meanwhile, UH has "enjoyed success of late" on the field of play, with a New Year's Six bowl appearance in '15 and its first-round NCAA Tournament win this spring. UH Board of Regents Chair Tilman Fertitta said that he would "like for UH's athletics budget" to be in the $70M range. He thinks UH "can prosper" in the AAC by "upping its game on all fronts." Fertitta: "When you win you put butts in seats. If you can average 40,000 for football instead of 31,000 and 7,000 for basketball instead of 3,000, you'd be surprised at what you can bring in" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 6/16).
