--- Original Message ---
From: "MacKinnon, John" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject:      Re: University of Minnesota Sports
Revenue / Expenses Numbers

>If anyone wants an interesting read on the Athletic
Department budget vs.
>the University, "College Sports, Inc." by Murray
Sperber.  He's the English
>professor who took on Bob Knight at Indiana while
serving on the Athletics
>committee.

College Sports, Inc. is a good book, though it suffers
a bit from Sperber's obvious axe-grinding mentality.
(He and the athletic department at IU have gone about
12 rounds over the years, as much about Knight's
conduct as anything financial.)

I also recommend _Keeping Score_ by Richard Sheehan,
an economist at Notre Dame.  Most of the book is taken
up with analyses of various professional sports
leagues, including what is by far the most sensible
proposal for baseball revenue sharing I've ever seen.
It does give college sports its due, though.  One of
Sheehan's conclusions is that there probably aren't
more than about seven schools in the country that
actually turn a profit on football, if you account for
everything properly.
>
>Sperber's definitely a sports fan, however explains
much more in detail
>about the "facilities" budget vs. Athletic budgets,
shoe contracts and much
>of the accounting shifts that occur depending on
whether you want to show
>"cash cow" athletics vs. "oh poor athletic
department" ones.

Many of them are, in fact, variations on the same
tricks that baseball teams play in shifting finances
around between various parts of a corporate structure.


J. Michael Neal