UNC BOG Intercollegiate Athletics report

[DoubleA]

http://www.northcarolina.edu/apps/bog/i ... 5&code=bog

BOG meeting materials includes a UNC System Intercollegiate Athletics report, which may be found in the link above. There is a lot of good, eye opening information here, regarding ASU and fellow UNC system members. A few items that jumped out at me regarding ASU: 1) men's basketball 2013/2014 freshmen class had the lowest average SAT score of any UNC system school. and among the lowest average high school GPAs. ASU avg SAT for men's basketball was an embarrassingly low 840, approximately 100 points lower than the system average. GPA was 2.86, which was under the system average of 3.0.4 for MBB. No wonder we're having APR problems with men's B-Ball! 2) Athletic dept expenses grew by over $4MM from 2012 to 2013, which resulted in the department going from a surplus of $1.4MM in 2012 to a deficit of -$1.6MM in 2013, the worst reported in the UNC system. This is a concerning trend that hopefully is short lived. If not, big changes to athletic programs are in order. 3) Student athletic fees comprise nearly half of the athletic dept budget. ASU's student athletic fee of $649 is among the highest in the system. We need to develop more diverse revenue streams!

[DaphneUrquhart]

Thanks for posting the link. There's some interesting material in there. Thankfully, I don't think our MBB program will be in the doghouse for long with Coach Fox at the helm.

Your assertion that we need additional revenue streams is right on target. Of course, I'll always be one to encourage additional Yosef giving.

I've been glad to see our licensing / branding activity increase. That's one reason we should all be careful that we're purchasing "official" App gear when we do so. Those licensing fees make their way back to the university.

Go App!

[mikeyosef]

I haven’t' looked at the documents but hopefully the shortfall is short-term; possibly related to the costs of transitioning to the Sun Belt. Otherwise, given the overall size of the budget, the noted short-fall is substantial and not sustainable. I guess this could be what has so cryptically been described on this board as "the mess" left by the previous AD. I know there were personnel problems but financials have also been mentioned. I certainly hope they are at least doing some planning to address this problem. Waiting for the next AD to save us from ourselves would be unfair to that hire and a major mistake.

[tjpappy]

There is a lot of interesting information. Regarding athlete academics though there are a few places (e.g., recent incoming class MBB) where App does not look stellar, there are also places where we look really good.

In regards to the financial reporting, what did we buy or build to incur an increase of $4M in expenditures from 2012 to 2013? Did we pay a substantial fee to join the Sunbelt?

We certainly do not spend anywhere near the most on athletics (UNC-Ch $82M, NCSU $63M, ECU $36M, UNCC $26M, App $21M); however, we had the second largest increase (percentage-wise) from 2012 to 2013 (App 24%, UNCC 29%).

It will be interesting to see how the new AD approaches funding athletics.

[BeauFoster]

Didn't we just pay the SoCon to leave? Not $4mil, bit something.

[AppDawg]

Didn't we just pay the SoCon to leave? Not $4mil, bit something.

I beleive that fee was $600,000

[bcoach]

Well the coaches don't have final say as to who gets admitted so who is really responsible for our mess.

[wb247]

Well the coaches don't have final say as to who gets admitted so who is really responsible for our mess.

I would hope their vote counts twice. Otherwise, what are they doing recruiting a kid just to have admission denied.

[DoubleA]

prospects are normally screened by admissions and coaches should have a good idea if prospect meets minimum admission standards or not. It would be interesting to know how many men's basketball players were special admit cases

[bcoach]

Well the coaches don't have final say as to who gets admitted so who is really responsible for our mess.

I would hope their vote counts twice. Otherwise, what are they doing recruiting a kid just to have admission denied.

I would hope they get NO vote when it comes to admissions. The university should have a standard that no coach can over ride. A university like ASU should NEVER let athletics become more important than academics. Someone in academic administration should be held accountable for our problems in BB.

[DoubleA]

I would hope they get NO vote when it comes to admissions.

We (and most everyone else) already make plenty of concessions in admittance standards for athletes - just look at the profile of the general student body vs. revenue sport athletes. 2013-2014 ASU FB freshmen average SAT of 957 and GPA of 3.20 vs average SAT in the 1150 range (estimate) and GPA of 4.05 (per 2013 common data set) for all admitted freshmen. When you look at high school GPA for ASU enrolled freshmen, nearly 80% of all freshmen had a high school GPA of at least a 3.75 and 98% had a GPA > 3.0. When you see basketball numbers like 840 SAT and 2.86 avg GPA, you have to wonder. Football looks more within reason, IMO. BTW, women's basketball 2013-2014 freshmen class had an average high school GPA of 3.76 and SAT of 1053 - the highest reported in the UNC system. Nice!

[WataugaMan]

deleted

[WataugaMan]

I would hope they get NO vote when it comes to admissions.

We (and most everyone else) already make plenty of concessions in admittance standards for athletes - just look at the profile of the general student body vs. revenue sport athletes. 2013-2014 ASU FB freshmen average SAT of 957 and GPA of 3.20 vs average SAT in the 1150 range (estimate) and GPA of 4.05 (per 2013 common data set) for all admitted freshmen. When you look at high school GPA for ASU enrolled freshmen, nearly 80% of all freshmen had a high school GPA of at least a 3.75 and 98% had a GPA > 3.0. When you see basketball numbers like 840 SAT and 2.86 avg GPA, you have to wonder. Football looks more within reason, IMO. BTW, women's basketball 2013-2014 freshmen class had an average high school GPA of 3.76 and SAT of 1053 - the highest reported in the UNC system. Nice!

"When you see basketball numbers like 840 SAT and 2.86 avg GPA, you have to wonder"

I must admit after I finished high school, the 840 SAT and 2.86 GPA was a good description of me. After a stint in the Air Force I was accepted to Lees-McRae (a junior college at the time). I graduated LMC with a 3.25 and was accepted to App. After receiving my BSBA from App, my final GPA was 3.20. Moral of the story, SAT scores and high school GPAs have been known to be deceptive. Just a thought.

[wb247]

I would hope they get NO vote when it comes to admissions. The university should have a standard that no coach can over ride. A university like ASU should NEVER let athletics become more important than academics. Someone in academic administration should be held accountable for our problems in BB.

First off, If a coach can't select a kid for recruitment that can meet the academic standards of a school, then that coach's qualifications should come into question. Now, I'm not saying there shouldn't be a pre-approved list that is given to coaches, that coaches shouldn't submit a list of recruitment targets to admissions for approval, or that athletics should ever trump academics, but a coach appearing at a kitchen table should be as good as, "Welcome to Appalachian State!" Admittedly, I have no idea how that is accomplished in practice.

Edit for clarification.

[bcoach]

I would hope they get NO vote when it comes to admissions. The university should have a standard that no coach can over ride. A university like ASU should NEVER let athletics become more important than academics. Someone in academic administration should be held accountable for our problems in BB.

First off, If a coach can't select a kid for recruitment that can meet the academic standards of a school, then that coach's qualifications should come into question. Now, I'm not saying there shouldn't be a pre-approved list that is given to coaches, that coaches shouldn't submit a list of recruitment targets to admissions for approval, or that athletics should ever trump academics, but a coach appearing at a kitchen table should be as good as, "Welcome to Appalachian State!" Admittedly, I have no idea how that is accomplished in practice.

Edit for clarification.

It sounds like we agree but I am not quite sure.