The NCAA’s shell game is the real women’s basketball scandal

[UcMiami]

Because the womens sports split $500,000,000 between them, not $35MM

Um - The $.5B media number for the ESPN contract is allocated across 23 men's and women's sports - basically everything except Men's Basketball. So they can claim that the expenses they incur for all the sports other than women's basketball need to be subtracted from that $.5B ESPN is paying. That makes it much easier to say the women's basketball expenses are a negative number.

Of course ESPN might pay a little money to have rights to men's wrestling or gymnastics or ..., but 90+% of their production is for and profit is from the WCBB tournament.

Mixing the WCBB income and expense together with all the other sports creates the narative that they want to perpetuate.

 

[MSGRET]

The financials would be interesting. The breakout of Revenues and Expenses would require a great deal of detail. GAAP Fund Accounting is in order I believe, which has specific rules. What I suspect is at the end of the day, most college sports are loss leaders, carried by College football and to a lesser degree a few other sports, such as men's basketball. The head of the NCAA makes $2.7M and Geno makes $2.3M, I believe. No reason for the writer to complain about that.

I believe that Geno has a income from the University (State) of $400,000.00 a year and the remaining 1.9 million is from boosters and outside contracts like his SNY show.

 

[VidNick]

Mixing the WCBB income and expense together with all the other sports creates the narative that they want to perpetuate.

For what purpose would they want to do this to WCBB?

 

[VidNick]

I believe that Geno has a income from the University (State) of $400,000.00 a year and the remaining 1.9 million is from boosters and outside contracts like his SNY show.

Geno is the highest paid employee in the State: See CT's Highest Paid State Employees
If $2M is 'side' money, why is it reported this way? Do the people at the Uconn Health Center also have side deals?

 

[Fairfield Fan]

Great opinion piece by a great sports-columnist:
"The NCAA’s shell game is the real women’s basketball scandal," by Sally Jenkins, as published in The Washington Post on March 25, 2021 at https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/03/25/ncaa-women-basketball-tournament-revenue/

Thought so. And on top of that, there is absolutely no way that Connecticut WCBB loses money. No way. Pull there threads and you'll find that UConn women contribute a great deal of cash. You watch.

 

[Fairfield Fan]

This story sounds good and may be right, but there needs to be more information. Example: AT&T other prominent Companies advertise during women's games. How much do they pay per minute? How much per minute in men's games? Nadal-Federer Wimbledon Final? Makes a big difference. Every woman playing professional tennis can thank the William's sisters for their equal share of prize money: people wanted to see them play, giving them leverage against those controlling the purse strings. Right now college basketball's marquee attraction is Uconn when they play a team that can compete with them, which is far an few between. Add an occasional matchup in a big game involving teams with somewhat of a National following, such as Notre Dame. Or the star player that has attracted National headlines, such as Ionescu last year.

I was surprised when I saw the Uconn women do not make money. If they can not make money, how can other teams?

If UConn WCBB is a key draw in the national tourney which attracts so many top advertisers, and which gets viewership equivalent to Wimbledon, then I suspect that they're making money for the NCAA and for UConn. If UConn WCBB didn't make money for UConn, why would they pay Coach Geno the salaries and comp they do? I'm guessing the AD and president of the university know full well he's golden for the school.

 

[Littlemin]

So Emmert has "...vowed to get to the bottom of the NCAA's 'blunders' on the basketball tournaments...". Yup, he has now hired a New York law firm to do an "independent" gender equity review of all the NCAA's championships in all 3 divisions and all sports. This should be good...

NCAA hires firm for review after tourney issues

The NCAA has hired a law firm to conduct an independent gender-equity review of its championships across all divisions and sports after criticism of disparities between the men's and women's basketball tournaments.

www.espn.com

BTW the article starts out, "After facing criticism for recently publicized...". This "After..." phrase could be applied to anything Mark Emmert ever did (or Roger Goodell, for that matter)

Guys like Emmert know every way to scam. I’m sure the “New York law firm” will kick back a certain portion of it’s proceeds from the thousands of billed hours to Mr. Emmert. Business as usual........

 

[UcMiami]

For what purpose would they want to do this to WCBB?

I think it probably dates back to when NCAA first took on the sponsorship of WCBB and it was very small potatoes as were all the other sports, while the men's tournament had already taken off. It never got changed because ...

Conference media deals used to only include FB and mens basketball - that is why Uconn could sell the rights to women's basketball first to CPTV (first such deal in women's basketball) and then to SNY. When the new contracts were signed for the new AAC and BE and for the other major conferences they all included the women's basketball rights, so SNY had a choice of working out a deal with ESPN and then FOX, or cancelling their contract with Uconn. Luckily they worked out deals but it is a negotiation each year.

 

[UcMiami]

If UConn WCBB is a key draw in the national tourney which attracts so many top advertisers, and which gets viewership equivalent to Wimbledon, then I suspect that they're making money for the NCAA and for UConn. If UConn WCBB didn't make money for UConn, why would they pay Coach Geno the salaries and comp they do? I'm guessing the AD and president of the university know full well he's golden for the school.

The NCAA bookkeeping is not alone in being shrouded in obfuscation - there is not an athletic department in the country that isn't shrouded as well. Some of it is not intentional - how to you value a 'Brand', how do you allocate endowment moneys, and how do you do the accounting on scholarships and student fees for athletic facilities, etc.

 

[Zinethar]

Excellent well written article. Years ago when I was asked if I coached girls or boys my answer was always that I coached athletes. PS I coached both.

 

[tomcat]

I got a one year subscription for $29. The Post has to pay the writers and they aren’t selling many papers any more. The online stuff needs to cost something in order to continue with quality coverage.

Me, too. The Post is the best bargain in journalism.

 

[Veteran]

You're probably on solid ground if you question the veracity of pretty much anything that comes from the NCAA, FIBA or the IOC. They're not exactly the Mob but they're working on it.

 

[VidNick]

f UConn WCBB didn't make money for UConn, why would they pay Coach Geno the salaries and comp they do?

You can look up the 'hard' dollars and cents info showing Uconn WBB does not make money. This includes money from boosters. What you cannot value is the PR value of the team to the University of Connecticut and to a lesser degree the State of Ct. Pretty significant amount I think and one reason to justify paying the mastermind of the program a lot of money.

 

[Tonyc]

UConn WCBB is a huge draw where ever they go. TV, parking garages, restaurants, clothing with UConn on it, boosters, contributors, etc etc and civic centers all around the country. Geno is grossly underpaid compared to other sports and tv figures. UConn is one of the top draws in WCBB. The next few years are going to be even bigger $$$$$ with the team Geno has assembled.

 

[UcMiami]

BUT do you believe their creative bookkeeping or your eyes? They are saying that they spent $14 million on the women's tournament, had ESPN and its affiliates buying the rights and broadcasting all the games, sold out the FF arena, and had decent gates at their 4 regional sites, as well as lots of corporate logo placements, and lost money?!!!

Somehow I am not buying that story from the NCAA and until they actually open there books to real auditing I am not going to buy it.