Oregon Kills Wrestling, Replaces It With Baseball

[goferphan]

i agree with all of your points except point #2, if you don't think college athletics is a business, you are fooling yourself...they may not come out and say it and they may not be structured the same way but they receive all of the revenue with very little of the labor overhead that a normal business would need to incur in order to operate...they are the NFL without the NFL salaries.

[bluestater]

Ezra has worked as an administrator in D-1 college athletics for the past ten years. She is nose deep in it every day - and she's right. It's a not for profit-not a business.

I think one of the things that drives me nuts about this Oregon thing is how they are celebrating this-the front page of the athletics Web site has a huge layout about the return of the baseball-and they seem to have no remorse for cutting wrestling.

[Trusty]

I'd have to agree with goferphan........A huge business, all the way! If it wasn't a business, they wouldn't be hiring business CEO's to be the AD.

[goferphan]

I gotta reiterate, if anyone here thinks that NCAA sports is not a business, then they are fooling themselves. You don't have to make a profit to be a business. (see airlines) This is a business all the way and the decision to cut wrestling is a business decision, not an athletic one.

I will carry this discussion to another blog if anyone else wants to so I don't tie this one up.

[therick]

Gopher,

Funny you should bring up Ohio State in referencing business. Here's a quote from the Athletics department website:

"Ohio State?s operating budget of $98 million in 2007 does not include any state or university monies, nor does it include any student fees. The Department of Athletics is totally self supporting.
The Ohio State Department of Athletics has been the national leader in merchandise sales since 2001.
During the 2005-06 fiscal year, the Department of Athletics paid out to the University nearly $17 million, including more than $10,000,000 in grant-in-aid reimbursement.
The Department of Athletics contributed $500,000 to the Thompson Memorial Library in 2005-06.
The Department of Athletics employs more than 300 full-time workers and nearly 1,600 part-time employees.
With 36 varsity sports, Ohio State has the largest fully funded athletics program in the country."

http://www.ohiostatebuckeyes.com/Vie...&ATCLID=925225


Not too bad for a not-for-profit organization. This profitablility has allowed OSU to continue to support Olympic sports programs like Wrestling, gymnastics, track and field, swimming/diving, pistol, rifle, fencing, syncronized swimming, and Volleyball.....all but syncronized swimming and wrestling have both mens and womens teams.

BTW, the early reports are that the revenues from 06-07 are considerably higher than last year with the extra money brought in by the football and men's basketball teams national runner-up finishes.

[bluestater]

But that's exactly what Ezra was saying - they need to use up all of their money or they would have to hand it over to the school. The definition of a not-for-profit is that it does not provide dividends, whether private or public. The NCAA is a not-for-profit.

[therick]

I gotta reiterate, if anyone here thinks that NCAA sports is not a business, then they are fooling themselves. You don't have to make a profit to be a business. (see airlines) This is a business all the way and the decision to cut wrestling is a business decision, not an athletic one.

I will carry this discussion to another blog if anyone else wants to so I don't tie this one up.

For the reasons listed in my previous post....I would suggest that it's a bad business decision. Raising expenses well beyond the level of increased income (I doubt they'll see any increased income from baseball) is in fact a terrible business decision that could very well lead to the elimination of one of UO's other men's sports as well.