Shot:
Chaser:
Let’s take a moment and focus on the fact that FSU goes all-in on NIL with nothing to show for it (I’m assuming that’s where at least some of that deficit is coming from) while UGA doesn’t. But how did FSU really get in that hole?
First:
In a phone interview, Josh Turner, FSU’s deputy athletics director and chief finance officer, said the increase stems primarily from revenue bonds issued to fund renovations for Doak Campbell Stadium and the construction of a new football operations center, as well as debt service associated with earlier projects backed by FSU’s athletic booster organizations.
Okay, sounds like a legitimate one-off and attempts to improve facilities over the same period of time. That tracks.
Second:
Meanwhile, athletics spending at FSU also surged. Total expenditures rose 22.6% from FY24 to FY25, reaching $208.2 million, a period that coincided with the university suing the Atlantic Coast Conference in the hopes of joining a more lucrative league.
Roughly 16% of its expenditures were covered by campus subsidies—$33.9 million in direct institutional support and an additional $8.6 million via student fees. This kind of funding is atypical for FSU. In FY24, the school reported just $107,337 in direct institutional funds going to athletics. Outside of the COVID-affected FY22, when the department received $13.6 million from the university, the largest prior contribution from main campus was $1.66 million in 2018-19.
Turner told Sportico that the institutional funding was used to support Title IX initiatives, athlete-related expenses and legal fees tied to the ACC litigation. He added that enhanced accounting and new reporting practices also impacted the numbers.
Ah, so here we go…let’s blame it on the women’s volleyball team, while really it can be also associated with serving, setting, and spiking lawsuits down your Conference’s throat. That sounds like a great plan, let’s see how that works out in the end.
And then, the icing on the cake:
In June, FSU became the first school to take advantage of a new state law enabling schools in Florida to shift funds from other campus sources to athletics to cover athlete revenue-share payments provided for in the House v. NCAA settlement.
Tell us again why it’s a bad thing for Kirby to be frugal with his NIL money?
In truth, it seems like Kirby might be a big spender, but more to retain the guys he recruited while not flaunting it with unproven portal players or the next bright shiny QB toy that’s fresh out of high school. Vanderbilt ponied up $2 million for Jared Curtis, and gets to bring their new toy to Athens next year in what I’m sure will be a rude awakening for the very rich frosh on October 3rd. By that time, he will have faced the likes of Austin Peay, Delaware (hey, don’t sleep on the Blue Hens to pull something off here), NC State at home, and Auburn on the road. Poor kid may not see anything the likes of pure Georgia Bulldog resentment ever again in his life, as we are steeped in schaudenfreude and passionate pettiness for things like this.
Not sure how that turned into a screed about Curtis, but let’s just say it’s nice we aren’t keeping up with the NIL Joneses like FSU if this is the end result…lousy weekend experiences and mountains of debt. Sounds like someone’s description of their ex-wife.
I think you’re right. Georgia spends, but it is to retain existing talent on the roster. Kirby has said he isn’t going to pay an unproven freshman more than someone in the program that is producing or at least they know what they have.
Agree and this is why I don’t think we will end up signing #1 RB Kemon Spell. I despise this NIL wild west bullshit so much that I’m ok with it.
LOL, we hate to love it!
FSU’Josh Turner pulled out the athletic administrator’s standard excuse for their own mismanagement: blame Title IX. The reality is the The Educational Amendments Act, part of which is Title IX, passed in 1972 and signed into law by Richard Nixon. That will be 54 years ago! Guys such as Turner, their bosses and predecessors have had over half a century to effectively budget for women’s sports. If athletic administrators haven’t figured out how to budget for all the programs then the problem is a management problem.
One other consideration, Josh Turner. FSU’s athletic program gets 502(c) tax exemt status because it provides scholarship benefits to its women’s and men’s athletes. Would FSU rather fund women’s volleyball and soccer or be taxed on its revenue exceeding expenses after eliminating the expenses associated with women’s sports?
This is whut 63-3 will git ya…GO DAWGS!!
Only way UGA gets to that Number 1 ranking and past that 1.92 gazillion dollar mark, is to get those Montanaites on board, they have got to rep the “G”…GO DAWGS!!
Student athletic fees suck. In an NIL age, the rank and file student should be able to opt out of the athletic fee. In exchange, the student gets no access to any sporting event on campus.
With legitimate accounting…and that doesn’t exist here…the fee should be for facilities use by students (pool, gym, courts, fields, etc) and low cost to free tickets to the different sporting events. That fee should be strictly proportional to those benefits. Can’t police who does and doesn’t use them so all students should pay. But it damn sure should not just go into a UGAA slush fund.
The activity fee covers all of that you describe. The athletic fee is a student transfer to athletic department for the right to attend events and purchase tickets. Students can’t go use the tennis courts at Magill facility or the practice courts in the basketball facility. The only facility that has athletic purposes they get to use is the pool at Ramsey and then only at certain times.
UGA students can’t use Legion pool any more. There were some damn fine coeds that sunbathed at Legion in the 1970s.
Lol, regarding the pool – I once asked Coach Bauerle why the pool was off limits during Ramsey Center public hours and shouldn’t Swim Team practice be at 5am? He laughed and asked me if I had ever coached college kids. Full Disclosure: he, Coach Humphries and a grad assistant were very generous with their expertise at the old Stegman Pool when I used to swim there.
Grudgingly, it appears UGA/Athletic Association’s reluctance to do things until after the hat gets passed around might be the long con. McGarrity, of course, with his patented “but the reserve fund” rhetoric will take a victory lap.
First you get a valuation…
…then you get sold. The day is coming folks. Guaran damn tee it.
For those concerned about the ballooning dollars being paid to college football players this should be welcome news. FSU football is effectively broke. That’s going to put some downward pressure on player salaries.
I think you’ll see more stories like this in the future, especially at schools just below the top tier who are trying to spend their way in.
Financial pressure on FBS athletic departments should put “some downward pressure” on coaching and administrative salaries.
private equity is coming to a college town near you and it will steal your cfb soul
Yep … it is going to happen sooner or later. Which school will be the first to take the leap?
Will it be a traditional underachiever who signs up with the Abu Dhabi group (ala Man City) to become a power? Candidates include UCLA, Arizona State, NC State? Maybe it will be Florida?
Rumors are that the PIF is not as liquid as once thought and their bets in sports have not exactly brought a great return. LIV is in trouble as it hasn’t gained traction with sponsors or audiences and golfers have been going back to the PGA Tour. Newcastle United has regressed this season. Some of the other big investments are still low profile in the US. Plus the EA buyout has not been completed.
Will it be an entire conference that sells out? I am thinking the ACC might be the most logical with the alumni of schools like Stanford, Duke, etc being prominent among PE firm owners/members.
“…pure Georgia Bulldog resentment…as we are steeped in schaudenfreude and passionate pettiness for things like this.”
I don’t know what you are talking about! 😉