Illinois 9th in the Big 10 in Revenue-SHOCKING!
Illinois Associate AD Shawn (not Shaun, Mr. Supinie) Wax waxed poetic [great pun!] about Illinois lagging behind the rest of the Big 10 except Indiana (even worse football program than Illinois, although they've won the last two games between the schools) and Northwestern (private school) in total revenue:
"We can't afford to lose anything," Wax said. "We need a 10-percent increase. If we lose 10 percent, then we're 20 percent off where we need to be if we want to stay competitive."
Obviously, having a bad football team that is 64-106-2 under the leadership of the Football Guy has a harmful effect on revenue. If Illinois had a competent football program that at least regularly made bowl games (Minnesota, Purdue) this problem would not be so glaring.
However, the article also mentions the potential impact that the scalping of Chief Illiniwek will have on donations to the Athletic Department. It will be interesting to see how the death of Chief Illiniwek not only affects the I Fund, but donations to the Alumni Association and the University. When you consider that the UI receives little funding from the state as it is now (thanks to Blago) things may get really bleak in the next few years.
And before any of you zealots say "We're not Ohio State!" my response is this: I would be happy if Illinois had revenue close to Minnesota ($56.9 million) rather than a paltry $49 million. Of course, having a competent football team helps.
BTW the article also says Illinois has only 17 team sports. Ohio State has 30.
"We can't afford to lose anything," Wax said. "We need a 10-percent increase. If we lose 10 percent, then we're 20 percent off where we need to be if we want to stay competitive."
Obviously, having a bad football team that is 64-106-2 under the leadership of the Football Guy has a harmful effect on revenue. If Illinois had a competent football program that at least regularly made bowl games (Minnesota, Purdue) this problem would not be so glaring.
However, the article also mentions the potential impact that the scalping of Chief Illiniwek will have on donations to the Athletic Department. It will be interesting to see how the death of Chief Illiniwek not only affects the I Fund, but donations to the Alumni Association and the University. When you consider that the UI receives little funding from the state as it is now (thanks to Blago) things may get really bleak in the next few years.
And before any of you zealots say "We're not Ohio State!" my response is this: I would be happy if Illinois had revenue close to Minnesota ($56.9 million) rather than a paltry $49 million. Of course, having a competent football team helps.
BTW the article also says Illinois has only 17 team sports. Ohio State has 30.
posted by Fire Ron Guenther at 9:27 AM
2 Comments:
be careful what you ask for. i'm not sure about 7 of the other 8 programs ahead of illinois, but at least in the case of Minnesota they are carrying a very large amount of debt from year to year. The current total is around $40 million (http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2007/02/13/70730 - total from a year ago)
Wow, Shawn's "entertaining" budget for his downtown escapades...
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