Husker finances

[Crusader Husker]

With all of this money talk involving Coaches, NIL, and Stadium renovation, I have questions.

Do people in Nebraska have the money to build a 30 to 40-million-dollar roster?

and

A Stadium Renovation

and

Competitive pay for coaches?

I already heard the Huskers don't have the cash to get it done in Men's basketball.

 

[Undone]

Basically anything can be financed.

But it's a question of whether the university administration & Troy Dannen really pursue such an avenue in earnest.

 

[Crusader Husker]

Do we have the donor base to pay for a top 10 team?

 

[ECisGod]

They always seem to come up with money from somewhere for whatever football wants. Volleyball gets at least 95% of what they want. For most other sports it's hit & miss.

All season ticket holders will be getting the same treatment that volleyball ticketholders are getting next year in the next several years.

There won't be anyone who doesn't have to donate to the booster club to have great seats because they are grandfathered in. There will several million more dollars for the athletic department.

I have great seats for men's basketball with a pretty minimal booster club donation, I'm sure that will change in the next couple of years or I'll end up closer to the top of the arena than the floor.

I just hope they give me the opportunity to raise my contribution to keep my seats when the time comes because we just transferred them to me from my dad a couple years ago & lost all (most?) of our points.

 

[Crusader Husker]

I am always in the mindset of Endowments. The church/school I am at has a healthy endowment.

Nebraska needs an endowment of a billion dollars to be where they want to be for the long term. I don't like the annual, pony up for the NIL fund. Not sure how teams are going to fund their athletics into the future.

 

[307husker]

It's a very valid question that I've spent a fair amount of time contemplating recently. Basically, I can see Nebraska bleeding itself dry trying to keep up with bigger market teams in an effort to "return to the glory days."

I've strongly suggested my daughter choose a school other than Nebraska because as an olympic sport athlete, the college football arms race will surely suck up of the money in the athletic department, which will leave her and her teammates with mere crumbs. There are other opportunities (schools) who will simply opt out of this obscene spectacle and maintain some balance for its student athletes.

It's all quite disgusting.

 

[Wistrom Disciple]

It's a very valid question that I've spent a fair amount of time contemplating recently. Basically, I can see Nebraska bleeding itself dry trying to keep up with bigger market teams in an effort to "return to the glory days."

I've strongly suggested my daughter choose a school other than Nebraska because as an olympic sport athlete, the college football arms race will surely suck up of the money in the athletic department, which will leave her and her teammates with mere crumbs. There are other opportunities (schools) who will simply opt out of this obscene spectacle and maintain some balance for its student athletes.

It's all quite disgusting.

This is not a new phenomenon as most schools will continue to focus on their revenue-generating sports. My hope is that the Athletic department has the foresight to invest in the lower attended sports in an attempt to become more of a mainstay in the overall athletics landscape. We'll have to 'keep up with the Joneses' in football, simply because of the exposure and impact that program drives to the University. However, if it comes to say $500k more to football versus signing 3-4 track athletes, wrestlers, or softball/baseball players I'd prefer to get the 3-4 athletes into the fold. Football will always be the key cog in the athletic department, but as a whole, if Nebraska were to become a strong program in a number of the lesser publicized sports, the department and University improve.

I attended a small chat with John Cook right before he retired. He talked about how surrounding your team and program with excellence inherently drives your team to improve. Want world class athletes? Surround them with world class support staff, medical treatments, nutrition, etc. Want your team to be full of winners? Surround them with other teams, athletes, and coaches that win. 'Complacency is the death knell for success.' An example he highlighted during that chat was LSU 4-5 years ago. Joe Burrow & Co. were dominant in football, but so was their women's basketball team, their men's track, their women's gymnastics, and baseball. Although each team worked independently, LSU enjoyed department wide success. I'd like to see Nebraska enjoy something similar in the years ahead.

 

[307husker]

This is not a new phenomenon as most schools will continue to focus on their revenue-generating sports. My hope is that the Athletic department has the foresight to invest in the lower attended sports in an attempt to become more of a mainstay in the overall athletics landscape. We'll have to 'keep up with the Joneses' in football, simply because of the exposure and impact that program drives to the University. However, if it comes to say $500k more to football versus signing 3-4 track athletes, wrestlers, or softball/baseball players I'd prefer to get the 3-4 athletes into the fold. Football will always be the key cog in the athletic department, but as a whole, if Nebraska were to become a strong program in a number of the lesser publicized sports, the department and University improve.

I attended a small chat with John Cook right before he retired. He talked about how surrounding your team and program with excellence inherently drives your team to improve. Want world class athletes? Surround them with world class support staff, medical treatments, nutrition, etc. Want your team to be full of winners? Surround them with other teams, athletes, and coaches that win. 'Complacency is the death knell for success.' An example he highlighted during that chat was LSU 4-5 years ago. Joe Burrow & Co. were dominant in football, but so was their women's basketball team, their men's track, their women's gymnastics, and baseball. Although each team worked independently, LSU enjoyed department wide success. I'd like to see Nebraska enjoy something similar in the years ahead.

While it's not a new phenomenon, it's a dramatically different financial game than pre House. The athletic department at UNL historically made more money than it spent. Those days are over. Everything will be thrown at football and there won't be anything left for the non revenue sports, much moreso than in the past.

 

[307husker]

An example he highlighted during that chat was LSU 4-5 years ago. Joe Burrow & Co. were dominant in football, but so was their women's basketball team, their men's track, their women's gymnastics, and baseball. Although each team worked independently, LSU enjoyed department wide success. I'd like to see Nebraska enjoy something similar in the years ahead.

This example is great, but it's not the reality anymore. If LSU had spent 30-40 million on it's football roster during the Burrow run, would it have been able to fund the other teams to a championship level?

There are two very different eras and we're just starting the second one. Pre House and After House. It's all different now.

 

[Mavric]

I already heard the Huskers don't have the cash to get it done in Men's basketball.

A lot of the issue with basketball is it's at least second - if not third - fiddle at Nebraska. There are not a lot of schools that are top-tier in both football and basketball. We dump resources into football. A lot of the top basketball schools have that same effort and funding go to basketball instead.

 

[DrinkinwitTerrellFarley]

This example is great, but it's not the reality anymore. If LSU had spent 30-40 million on it's football roster during the Burrow run, would it have been able to fund the other teams to a championship level?

There are two very different eras and we're just starting the second one. Pre House and After House. It's all different now.

Yes and Louisiana State also has so much more talent surrounding Baton Rouge as well and a population more than twice as big.

 

[Wistrom Disciple]

While it's not a new phenomenon, it's a dramatically different financial game than pre House. The athletic department at UNL historically made more money than it spent. Those days are over. Everything will be thrown at football and there won't be anything left for the non revenue sports, much moreso than in the past.

The athletic department will make more. The Big Ten’s new private equity venture indicates that more money will flow to the schools. The House payments will increase incrementally, but at some point, market forces will cap the amount of money flowing to the athletes.

While I hope Nebraska continues to chip off good chunks to non-football athletes, they will probably be like most schools and have +75% of these payments going to football players.

 

[TGHusker]

Who is a good friend of Wm Buffet? If he were so inclined, he could set up a healthy endowment fund for Nebraska all by himself. Unfortunately,, he hasn't seen it as something he values to invest it. My concern is as others have mentioned, can we keep up wt OSU and Michigan and Oregon in our own conference not to mention the major players in the SEC in order to compete for a NC? Without a Buffet we probably cannot. What is realistic? The environment during our glory days was far different than today. As Matt Rhule said in his pressor the other day, NU lead in nutrition, training, tutoring, facilities, etc. Now everyone (worth their salt) has what we have and more. PSU is spending $700m on their stadium upgrade while we are looking at a $400m approx upgrade. How much money do we throw into this arms race?
It seems that it would be best if a governing body, (NCAA or other) bring some control over this (NIL, portal, spending arms race) otherwise the balance in all of college sports will lean towards just a few rich schools and sports as a whole will suffer as a result.

Thinking out loud here: Maybe it is time that the major college sports (FB, Basketball, Baseball) breakaway from the schools and become what they already really are: are farm club league for the major leagues? Let the schools earn revenue by leasing their facilities to the league and perhaps gaining revenue for using the school's name and logo. Privatize the whole thing - maybe a 32 team league of the biggest schools. May be far fetched but something has got to give otherwise this arms race is going to cause education to suffer, sports to suffer and bankrupt some schools.

 

[huskered17]

I heard many years ago that, Buffett would only contribute to the academic's side some day. Wouldn't that help release some of the money being used now, on academic's, towards the athletic side if that comes to pass ?

GBR!!!

 

[Mavric]

I heard many years ago that, Buffett would only contribute to the academic's side some day. Wouldn't that help release some of the money being used now, on academic's, towards the athletic side if that comes to pass ?

GBR!!!

Not really. The University doesn't send any money to the Athletic Department. A few years ago, the Athletic Department was giving $5-10M per year to the University, basically as a good-will gesture. I haven't heard about that recently so I'm not sure if that still a thing. If it is still a thing, perhaps they would not do that anymore if they feel the University has other healthy funding sources. Other than that, I don't know a Buffett gift the the University would change anything for the Athletic Department.