Texas Leads NCAA in Revenue Production

Yet another bragging right for us. Thanks for this. Awesome.

The list of top 10 football revenue schools has 9 of the most recent successful programs, and Notre Dame. Why does OU lag the others in revenue? For the Sooners that read this blog- is it due to how they count it? Is the Sooner Club revenue counted as something other than football revenue?

I did a little looking and saw that the football season tickets are sold out in Norman. How much does a season ticket cost? What’s the average Sooner Club donation to get tickets?

On the Texas side, our stadium sells about 85,000 season tickets, not counting students. A season ticket costs about $375, which works out to over $31 million. The Longhorn Foundation brings in about $15 – 20 million more.

Unfortunately “less is more” has become “less is less” with some of the non-revenue sports over the last few years. Let’s hope some of the good folks who are charge of those sports are motivated by the Ags recent success.

Texas may very well lose to ASU today but one thing history has shown us, the Horns wouldn’t lose if they were playing a SEC team.

Thanks for posting this Srr50. The OU numbers really are curious.

And yet, Ohio State seems to be leading in the streets of Tehran.

Maybe it’s because they can fly … sorta?

Damn, I am not sure we can cover Mike’s bar bill.

Srr50,

Good stuff as usual. FYI – your information above regarding the North and South has the headings backwards (Football Revenue – Total Revenue)

Thanks Art, I will correct that.

Spider, I think that photo is really from here in Columbus.

there’s alot of jorts in that pic; looks like it’s right outside their stadium…

More evidence it’s in Columbus: Not a single hot chick to be seen in that teeming crowd.

I’m with 8straight: I would like to see some more success out of the concentration of funds in our down-ticket sports.

There’s no reason, for example, that we shouldn’t be able to field a consistently excellent softball team even without Cat Osterman carrying the entire team.

Spider, I think that photo is really from here in Columbus.

You know, I’m beginning to think you’re right. Looks like Marshall or somebody came to town.

No way that picture is from Columbus. No one is wearing an Ohio State jersey, too many people around for some piece of furniture to not be on fire, and the women are far too attractive.

Was that picture taken in Oklahoma?

Texas is the world’s capital for college football. This is it. This is the place. UT-always makes us proud.

Isn’t this revenue as opposed to profit? So there’s no way that less is more would work.

I beg to differ.

Sooner Club donations are kept separate, Taylor. I honestly don’t know why. It wouldn’t matter anyway. Even I’m not so much of a homer to believe OU could keep pace with UT in every sport or in donations.

That said, much like OU’s recent BCS bowl performances, OSU’s spot in the top 10 is a fraud. They got a gift of stock last year that was worth 57 million dollars at the time. Half of that was supposed to go to OSU’s business school. OSU’s operating budget doesn’t exceed 48 million dollars. Simply put, there is no way their actual revenue is that high.

I notice that USC isn’t in the Top 10 either. OU is somewhat understandable- it’s the biggest program in the state, but it’s not a large state. USC is different. There are plenty of potential fans, but the west coasters just don’t care as much about college football (and it’s probably less cool to buy the jerseys).

Generally, when a program is winning, you figure that they should be maximizing their revenue. That’s what is interesting about the Ags- they are at their worst competitive position in decades, and just outside the top 10 in football revenue.

Nate, what do tickets cost to Sooner home games? Evidently the season tickets are sold out. I’m curious to compare to the Longhorn and Aggie prices, which average around $60 – 65.

OU has sold out season tickets pretty much every year since 2000. Once Bob Stoops gave us Okies some hope in ’99, we grabbed for tickets like we were going for the last OU t-shirt on sale at Wal Mart.

Last I checked, face value for OU season tickets averages about $75 not including Sooner Club donation required annually just to get tickets.

… and the women are far too attractive.

Yes.

Then I don’t get the $30 million gap in football revenue between Texas and OU. Let’s say that Texas’ larger stadium yields an extra $3 million (10%) in ticket sales. Let’s give Texas an extra $2 million in concessions. Let’s suppose that the Longhorn Foundation provides $10 million more than the Sooner Club provides OU (I expect that is on the high side). Texas leads the nation in merchandising sales ($10 million), so let’s give Texas an extra $5 million. That adds up to only an extra $20 million, and my estimates were all on the high side.

My guess? Maybe OU doesn’t count as much of the Sooner Club revenue as a result of football as Texas does with the Longhorn Foundation receipts.

“There are plenty of potential fans, but the west coasters just don’t care as much about college football (and it’s probably less cool to buy the jerseys).”

Illegals don’t play American football. They also don’t like it when guys in maroon overalls try to pick them up at Home Depot for anonymous sex.

“Then I don’t get the $30 million gap in football revenue between Texas and OU”

Could it be possible that the Texas athletic department is acting as a money laundering hub for my sheep fucking business? That would certainly explain the big boost in revenue numbers.

Taylor, my understanding is that Sooner Club revenue is pooled as a sort of collective revenue for the athletic department. Anyone with an honest mind knows that OU football carries the athletic department in terms of prestige, visibility, revenue, and NCAA violations.

Thus, if you force donors to make their donations to the “Sooner Club” to get their season tickets, and you don’t count it as football revenue, then you can redistribute it to support non-revenue sports without any donor input or oversight.

If you check the numbers posted at the Dept. of Ed site you will quickly notice it is hard to know who is reporting what where. Kansas has a majority of their athletics revenue ($50M) listed under a general category. Okla State had a similar sum which could be money from Pickens. We only had $23M listed under that heading.

As for the other big sport…Kansas had $14M as revenue from B-ball (the same as their football revenue). I believe we are second with $12M, though I didn’t check all the programs.

Recruiting expenses were generally in the $500K to $800K range and I wouldn’t be surprised if we topped that list. The disparities in the expenses between the schools were much less than I thought they would be.

Baylor and Kansas seem to be outliers in that a rather small percentage of total revenue comes from football. Ricky points out that perhaps this has something to do with how schools report their revenue. Also, as a Baylor fan, I find our football revenue comically low (although a decade and a half of near total irrelevance, combined with a small student body and alumni base, will do that to you).