BOWLING GREEN, Ohio – Bowling Green State University uses less money from student fees and other non-athletic school sources to pay for sports than nearly every other Mid-American Conference school in Ohio.
Yet it still added up to $14.7 million in 2013-14, according to the school’s latest financial filings with the NCAA. That averages out to $934 a year per student on campus.
In comparison, Akron subsidized sports with $22.7 million and Miami did so with $21.1 million. Only Toledo at $12.9 million contributed less than BG in sports subsidies.
The college sports bill
This is one in a series of summaries detailing the finances of Division I sports at Ohio’s 11 public universities, based on a Northeast Ohio Media Group analysis of the most recent five years of NCAA reports for each school. Private schools Dayton and Xavier declined to share their reports. Read also:
- Spending across Ohio up faster than overall college costs; trends and issues examined.
- School-by-school summaries published to date.
How does Bowling Green pay for sports?
Sixty-three percent of the money in 2013-14 came from the $14.7 million subsidy to the athletic department – $12.7 million from student fees and $2 million through the value of making facilities or services available at no charge.
Sports-related revenue made up the rest.
Bowling Green State University’s athletic program covers most of its spending bill with student fees.At BG, this included $2 million in postseason, conference and NCAA distributions; $1.9 million from ticket sales; $1.5 million in donations; $1.2 million from payments to play away games; $661,333 in royalties, licensing and advertisements; and $438,485 from programs and concessions.
These numbers are for the school year in which BG won the MAC football championship at Ford Field in Detroit and returned three weeks later to play Pitt in the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl.
BG spent $5.8 million on full or partial scholarships for 335 athletes in 18 sports during 2013-14.
Salaries and benefits for coaches, administrators and staff totaled, $7.7 million, including $4.7 million for the coaches.
The biggest chunk of the coaching portion was for football, with $545,762 for the head coach (the school transitioned from Dave Clawson to Dino Babers during the school year) and $1.3 million for his nine assistant positions.
Head coaching pay and benefits also topped $200,000 each for men’s basketball ($338,146), ice hockey ($221,288) and women’s basketball ($216,558).
Total athletic spending for 2013-14 was $23.3 million, up 31 percent since 2009-10 but still the lowest amount among Ohio’s six MAC schools.
Overall, student fees for sports leveled off somewhat after a jump three years ago. They totaled $9.5 million in the year ending in 2010, $10.7 million in 2011, $12.2 million in 2012, $12.4 million in 2013 and $12.7 million in 2014.
However, typical surpluses of $2 million to $3 million a year were nearly wiped out in 2013-14, the last year NCAA report data is available. Revenue topped expenses by $160,000 in the most recent year.
One thing that will help revenue this year is that the football schedule includes away games at Maryland and Purdue of the Big Ten, and Tennessee of the Southeastern Conference.
The Sept. 5 game at Tennessee was a late add, after South Carolina State officials said they wanted out of their commitment to visit BG this year. BG will have only five home games.
“Philosophically, that’s not what we want. We want six home games every year,” spokesman Jason Knavel said. “But we’re getting $1.2 million to go to Tennessee, which is a good alternative to not having a football game at all.”
Bowling Green’s athletic teams
Men’s sports (7): Baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, ice hockey and soccer.
Women’s sports (11): Basketball, cross country, golf, gymnastics, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, indoor track, outdoor track and volleyball.
