Terrapin Tables

Is Debbie Yow still in charge?

Dear Debbie Yow,

WTF, we spend less than half what Georgia Tech does? What is that?

Sincerely,

Guy that remembers riots on Route 1.

PS - Boston College Debbie. Boston College.

PPS - Vote Gary for Mayor of Bracketville.

Okay, I skimmed through the article. It said something about reducing recruiting costs, while at the same time, revenue increased by $650k. What type of revenue does basketball create for the university to be used for actual academics & research? Would it be much more if the team did better? Enough to justify increased spending on recruitment?

I'm under the impression that a best-case scenario for athletics is that it breaks even. Sure, maybe a program like Maryland can rake in close to 2 million a year on men's basketball and football alone, but sports like baseball, softball, gymnastics, none of that takes in any kind of money and they still have scholarships, equipment, and region-wide travel like everyone else. I read something to this effect a few years back, some programs were complaining about preferential treatment for football and football replied that they carried all those other programs. But of course I've forgotten every specific point in that article.

My understanding is that Maryland's athletic department is self-sufficient, and an entity largely independent of the rest of the university, budget & revenue wise. So I don't know that any revenue that athletics bring in would go directly towards academics, etc. However, for the University as a whole, the athletic department certainly serves as a substantial PR campaign in addition to other benefits.
A note from Debbie Yow's bio:
The athletic department has a 60 million dollar budget.

You can find some pdfs, which I am sure have charts, numbers and other things I don't understand on them, here.

Time for Roy to crunch some numbers. Roy, you have no major, life-changing things to plan and worry about, figure out UMD's athletic programs' finances, please. Or Pat, you're an accountant, kinda...get yer abacus sliding.