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Re: All things Denver XXVII: From Boonetown to Motown - It's not a Ford, it's a Chevy
Mike is right that DU needs out of the Sun Belt, but to where? That's DU's dillema. We are isolated, with only 8-10 D-I teams within a days drive of here. You still need 16 sports to stay D-I and it would still cost millions to field D-I independent teams, as you'd lose a ton of home dates without a conference. You'd also lose good recruits, as good recruits want to have chance at the NCAAs, and that's hard without the auto-bids that AQ conferences provide. I'm not sure DU would save that much money outside of a major conference. They'd save a few bucks playing hoops in Hamilton Gym and not converting Magness, but realistically, that's a drop in the bucket.
DU sports will never be self-supporting. That's alright - few athletic depts make more than they spend. We don't ask the DU Symphony Orchestra to support itself, and they add value to campus and opportunitiees for students. So do sports.
DU spends $20-25 million on sports out of an $800 million overall University budget, and even if DU Hockey made a Gopher-hockey-like $7 million a year in revenue, it still would only cover 1/3 of the overall athletic costs. DU hockey might make $3 million at most.
I get that hockey people don't see the point in spending serious money on DU hoops at the expense of hockey. But as a D-I school, we have little choice...
Originally posted by du78
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Mike is right that DU needs out of the Sun Belt, but to where? That's DU's dillema. We are isolated, with only 8-10 D-I teams within a days drive of here. You still need 16 sports to stay D-I and it would still cost millions to field D-I independent teams, as you'd lose a ton of home dates without a conference. You'd also lose good recruits, as good recruits want to have chance at the NCAAs, and that's hard without the auto-bids that AQ conferences provide. I'm not sure DU would save that much money outside of a major conference. They'd save a few bucks playing hoops in Hamilton Gym and not converting Magness, but realistically, that's a drop in the bucket.
DU sports will never be self-supporting. That's alright - few athletic depts make more than they spend. We don't ask the DU Symphony Orchestra to support itself, and they add value to campus and opportunitiees for students. So do sports.
DU spends $20-25 million on sports out of an $800 million overall University budget, and even if DU Hockey made a Gopher-hockey-like $7 million a year in revenue, it still would only cover 1/3 of the overall athletic costs. DU hockey might make $3 million at most.
I get that hockey people don't see the point in spending serious money on DU hoops at the expense of hockey. But as a D-I school, we have little choice...
The teams split the season series 2-2.
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