Football spending per athlete

[LibertyTurns]

Buddy of mine emailed me this link off another site. Wow, you cannot believe how much less GT is paying for its football program than our competitors. You have to sort your own data, but go into the customized section and look at football.

This is without scholarships to level the playing field (just extra $$$ spent on the player for football):

Auburn- $396k per scholarship football player
Alabama- $309k
Mutts- $231k
FSU- $190k
Clemson- $161k
GT- $134

GT is spending in the lower 2nd quartile. You can argue about how much better our performance on the field is compared to what we're spending on football, but there's a much bigger gap here than I would ever had imagined.

http://spendingdatabase.knightcommission.org/

 

[IronJacket7]

Not surprised at all.

 

[franklinjacket]

I did a quick search on tuition costs for Auburn and us, and Auburn is a lot more expensive.

http://www.finaid.gatech.edu/content/cost-attendance-2012-2013

http://www.auburn.edu/administration/business_office/finaid/pdf/cost.pdf

Maybe I read it wrong but it looks like at Auburn it costs about 28k per semester while a year at Tech is only 22k. Out of state costs are Auburn at 48k per semester and Tech at 42k per year. So either I read this wrong and look dumb, or most of the difference is based on tuition and fees.

 

[KlausMikaelsonTheOriginal]

Could please explain FSU doing so well and recovering from the end of the Bowden era?

 

[Rodney Kent]

I might have looked at the graph incorrectly, but it appeared we spent this much on each football athlete for each year; 2005(150,000), 2006(105,000), 2007(220,000), 2008(170,000), 2009(175,000), 2010(175,000), 2011(170,000). In a five year span, each player has an education paid for that is costing the institution approximately (165,000 x 5) = $825,000. Each player is getting costing the institution $825,000 per year, yet the players are wanting the schools to pay them to play like the pros. Again, I have made it completely clear that I do not like the heavy salaries for the coaches, but I do not think we should ever pay the players since they are already getting an expensive education, food, and housing free of charge for five years.

The teachers do no get this kind of payment in kind, and the other students only wish they had this advantage. For 84 football players on scholarship, it is costing (165,000 x 84) = $13,860,000 per year for football, plus the proceeds from any of the game revenue also must go to pay for the other non-paying sports in the school. Is it any wonder, many of the football programs are in debt. The wealthy boosters cannot continue to pay these bills indefinitely. Then the coaches are ripping off the fans and wealthy boosters in ticket prices and donations.

 

[LibertyTurns]

Maybe I read it wrong but it looks like at Auburn it costs about 28k per semester while a year at Tech is only 22k. Out of state costs are Auburn at 48k per semester and Tech at 42k per year. So either I read this wrong and look dumb, or most of the difference is based on tuition and fees.

The search I performed took the tuition and fees out of the $$, so what's quoted is solely costs to have a football player in the program above and beyond what the scholarship costs are (tuition, room and board, books, fees, etc) for them to be students. Geez, Auburn and Alabama are spending over $25k per month on each football player just for football. Not sure what the NFL's paying but that's a lot for coaches, tutors and "other relaxing type activities".