Got $100,000,000? Please call Renee Baumgartner ASAP!
That's a good number. Openers. My estimate to endow a national level Men's Basketball program to be perennial NCAA tourney candidates.
At SCU's current endowment payout rate, that's another $4.25 Mil per year to fuel a MBB program in catch up mode in the WCC. Add that to the current budget growth targets and you've got a top 20 budget in the $9 Mil range and more "buttons" to push to sustain national.
I told you last article to bring your "tums!"
Some examples: As of July 2016*
SCU Men's Basketball Budget: $3.34M, WCC Rank: 6th
Gonzaga: $7.3 M
BYU: $6.1 M
USF: $4.2 M
SCU Basketball Revenues: $3.9 M
Gonzaga: $12.1 M
St. Mary's: $4.25 M
SCU Operating Expenses: $340K, Rank: 6th
Gonzaga: $1.5 M
St. Mary's: $440K
Spending more doesn't always get you more wins, but you must have a budget that can create opportunities to succeed. Sources inside SCU athletics are adamant that budgets are seeing "substantial" growth now and going forward.
Everything is moving from lean to buffed up - staff, facilities, marketing, and most important - culture. Whining is out, doing is in. Excuses are out - execution is in. This is a major rebuild for a program anxious to shed the "mid-major" label with a plan to get us to the "dance" floor.
The budget growth in Athletics is a real leadership test at the top levels in the President's Council and Trustees. Budgets in some areas like the Leavey School of Business and School of Engineering are shrinking due to fewer students enrolling vs budgeted in those schools.**
As season ticket holders, we think that SCU is "printing" money through operations, donations, and endowment. Not so. While major donations have been a big help, they don't offset the voracious appetite and need for financial aid. A $900 M endowment seems like a deep pockets source of cash. It isn't. Everybody wants more, but there's "less" more to go around.
Endowments have restricted funds and when donors give, their expectation is that the donation lasts forever. Using SCU's current endowment payout rate of about 4.2%, that's only $38 M for scholarships on a total University FY '18 operations budget of $469 M or 8%. Small. Even more daunting, the planned financial aid for FY 2018 is estimated to be $100 M.
GULP...
Athletics is targeted to receive 3% of endowment for non- scholarship financial aid, $1-$1.5 M for a Leavey face-lift (interior work is mostly complete). There's $20 M in capital project money slated for facilities through 2019.
In addition, there is finally some decent budget for game guarantees. Want to play a Pac-12 or Power 5 level team? Either you get lucky with a home and home; no cash changing hands or it's "show me the money." Game guarantees is what St. Mary's has used for the past 5 years to "pump" their RPI by bringing in opponents with a decent ranking that they know they can beat.
All of the above was conceived in 2014 as part of the Santa Clara 2020 strategic plan, goal # 6; "Excellence in Intercollegiate Athletics" as a key driver of enhancing our national reputation.
SCU students have yet to buy in to the increased focus and money for Athletics. They're not old enough to have experienced the past 20 years of an athletics program adrift.
Fewer students choose Santa Clara for it's athletic reputation and therefore are unaware of it's potential impact on everything.
Back in 1999, Gonzaga took a different approach. National Men's Basketball success catapulted the Zags to higher rankings; not just in MBB, but academics as well.
It's not a coincidence that their regional Forbes top University ranking has risen to #4, or better, in the West for the past 18 consecutive years mirroring their NCAA tournament run. In fact, their Engineering school and Applied Science is ranked #28 in the nation. BTW, SCU's regional Forbes ranking is #2.
You can read about it with this link.
Frankly, I gag when I read this stuff.
BUT, at least our MBB train has left the station after nine years of ignominity and twenty-one years of being wallflowers - no dances. There are stated goals. National in MBB. For the first time, those goals are being directed and driven from the top - the President, Trustees, quarterbacked by Renee and orchestrated by Coach Sendek. That's a team we've never fielded for Athletics.
The make-over will take time. Probably more time than season ticket holders and fans want after so much angst. That's OK. Angst, impatience, and some paranoia is good. Like a wild horse in the corral who just wants to bust out...
Maybe not this season or next. But when that Bronco busts out, the rough riders, season ticket holders, fans, and alums will finally have a "horse" in the race to National.
$100 M or 46,000 Bitcoins. Send via a check, Apple Pay, or Paypal.
* Pre - Coach Sendek. The above numbers are sourced from 2 national education data collection foundations that collect information submitted by the Universities each fiscal year. The numbers are representative but may not include other revenues and expenses. For example coaches salaries are usually not in the operating budget or expenses.
** Enrollment in the School of Business and Engineering continues to grow - yet short of actual budgeted targets.
