Showing posts with label college sports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label college sports. Show all posts

Sunday, March 29, 2026

Universities are trying to keep secret how much money is being spent on sports

NYT:

One of the most common questions among college sports fans is also one of the hardest to answer.

How much are players getting paid?

The answer is unverifiable because programs treat revenue-sharing documents as literal state secrets.

...

Public schools that receive public money generally make their budgets public. Online databases can show you the salary of a janitor at UMass ($44,000) or a surgery professor at Florida ($1.35 million). A records request can get you the recruiting budget for North Carolina football ($2.6 million), food expenses for Houston men’s basketball ($504,000) or Lane Kiffin’s contract at LSU.

But player compensation has been a black box.

One school in the news:

The University of Kansas said "times have changed" and the university will now help financially support KU Athletics, according to a statement Tuesday from the chancellor's office.

...

After years of KU Athletics transferring roughly $15 million annually to the university's general fund, KU said it will now help fund student-athlete tuition, housing and scholarships.

Getting attention now because:

University of Kansas Chancellor ... and Provost ... addressed Kansas Athletics funding, employee salaries and campus facilities in a statement released Tuesday. 

...

Results showed that a majority of the 2,012 respondents, about 80%, expressed “no confidence” 

Friday, March 20, 2026

"Sweltering conditions expected for [women's] March Madness games in arena with no air conditioning"



"Thousands of Hawkeye fans and college basketball supporters are expected to be packed into a 15,000-seat, sold-out Carver-Hawkeye Arena building with no air conditioning when Iowa faces No. 15 seed Fairleigh Dickinson to kick off its NCAA Women's tournament run."

Wednesday, February 4, 2026

"Florida State reports $437 million in athletics-related debt in 2025"

"All told, Florida State University reported $617 million in institutional debt."

Friday, November 14, 2025

Fun account dedicated to the absurdity of college uniform reveals







Friday, October 3, 2025

Really creative uniform concept for Tulane

Wednesday, September 24, 2025

Glow in the dark football cleats for the Oregon Ducks




And speaking of specialty Nikes:

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

Very good idea for a special trophy for the USC v. Michigan State game



From this thread, which pointed to this trophy:



Tuesday, August 26, 2025

Indiana Jones and the rest of of college football's best names of the 2025 season




Great list, including King Large:




Speaking of names, a fun article about inappropriate names in spy thrillers
Let me illustrate. The Italian composer Giacomo Puccini’s 1904 opera “Madama Butterfly,” which gets rightful flak for its bumbling Orientalism, is almost as hilariously clueless about the United States. The villain’s name is Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton — the modern-day equivalent would be something like “Ronald Reagan Microsoft.”

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

USC says its deficit is more than $200 million

LAT:

“experiencing significant shifts in federal support” for its research and other programs

...

USC’s expenses have “significantly outpaced” its revenue for several years.

...

In interviews, two university employees acknowledged how grave the federal funding losses could be — but they also cited several pricey projects that they believe have hurt USC’s finances. Those endeavors include the construction of the Bloom Football Performance Center, which broke ground in November; the installation of enhanced security measures in the aftermath of spring 2024 protests over Israel’s war in Gaza; and the opening of the university’s Capital Campus in Washington, D.C., in 2023.

Football team has gotten worse every season under Lincoln Riley:

7-6

8-5

11-3 (with terrible bowl loss) 

Friday, November 15, 2024

A big chunk of the three-point arc is "underwater"





Friday, November 8, 2024

Disturbing allegations that the Florida men's basketball coach stalked students

The student newspaper broke the story. Some of the alleged less graphic, but disturbing behavior:

There was allegedly more than one occasion in which [the head coach] was taking photos of women walking or driving and sending those pictures to the subjects involved.

...

On allegedly more than one occasion, [he] was engaging women on Instagram by liking photos then waiting until they read the DM before un-liking the photos to avoid suspicion.

Another allegation:

The first woman said this misconduct goes beyond [the head coach]. She believes there is a culture of sexual harassment within Florida’s coaching staff that has only grown since his arrival in Gainesville over two years ago, she said. 

ESPN's write-up.

Saturday, October 19, 2024

Faux-leather helmets for the University of Illinois football team





They're each hand painted by Armando Villarreal:



He created some helmets honoring the USS Salt Lake City back in 2021.

Thursday, October 10, 2024

An ESPN article looking at the "red flags" raised by ESPN employee Kendrick Perkins's NIL company

ESPN:

A new company co-founded by former NBA champion Kendrick Perkins is offering college athletes upfront cash in exchange for a portion of their name, image and likeness deals, an arrangement some consumer protection experts and financial advisers say could prey on young athletes.

...

the percentage of NIL money that Nilly takes from an athlete can be as high as 50%

...

In the case of the contract obtained by ESPN, the player could end up giving Nilly the equivalent of a $75,000 fee in exchange for the guarantee of and immediate access to $50,000 up front.

Saturday, September 28, 2024

The Miami Hurricanes' offensive line coach is 5'4"




Smartest guy on the staff apparently:

Friday, September 20, 2024

It's one crazy detail after another in this story about the Colorado assistant football coach who left the program after touring the Middle East to try to raise NIL money

The Front Office Sports story is very worth reading until the end. A few details about the wild west of NIL money: 

[The former coach], who is Mormon, says he has plenty of connections to business owners and donors and people with deep pockets within the church. He worked those contacts to help bring in money at Jackson State and, later, Colorado. While he was the special teams coordinator at CU, he took it upon himself to get involved in NIL fundraising efforts that aren’t typically in the purview of college assistant coaches. 

...

Why did he pay for his own travel to Jordan, Dubai, and Saudi Arabia? 

“I’m betting on myself,” [he] says

...

[His] pitch didn’t get any bites in Jordan. He spent about five days there, bought a thawb (a long-sleeved, ankle-length, traditional robe) and worked on his manners. When he got to Saudi Arabia, he walked around a government complex all day asking to meet people, and eventually got a meeting with PIF officials. 

Monday, September 2, 2024

Trojans mascot blooper, a college coach unveils new anti-spying technology, and always bet against Ted Cruz









(1:06 and on--Holly Rowe's the best sideline reporter and it's not close.)



And here's a bunch of absurdity from this week's college football games:

Thursday, August 15, 2024

Notre Dame suspended its men’s swimming program for a minimum of a year due to widespread gambling on swimming and other sports

The report says they gambled on swimming events and other NCAA sports, and that the disciplinary decision was timed to allow them to transfer before the season starts.

The one-year suspension is a potentially devastating development for a program that had reached new heights under [its head coach], who is entering his third season on the job. Notre Dame had its first top-10 finish at the NCAA championships in program history in March, then sent its first male swimmer to the Olympics

The report also says all staff were cleared of responsibility.