WallyBalls
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Not to be disagreeable but in 2015 AL and TN had almost the exact revenue from football, $98M (TN) vs $97M (AL). TN was the second most profitable football program, behind Texas at $70M meaning we spend about $28M on football. Meanwhile, AL comes in at #10 on the list at $48M profit meaning they spend roughly 50% of their revenue on their program. What is happening to the money we don't spend on football? I realize we support other non-revenue sports but Bama does too. Our basketball while isn't great is still more successful than Bama's on both the men's and women's side. The money is there, it's in how you spend it.
Bama wants a championship level program, we seem to be happy with what we have. It really makes sense if you think about it in the regards to a business model. Why spend all that money when you don't have to? Almost identical revenues with spending half to achieve it.
I don't know if it matters in this case, but every time Athletic Department numbers come out, I seem to remember a few people like Hyams pointing out that UTs reporting requirements/method is different than several schools. Something like UT's numbers are more realistic but generally don't look as good. IIRC, Georgia and a couple others really added a lot of window dressing to their reports.
Not that it excuses poor management on UT's case when it happens, but that the numbers that ADs report aren't always equal.
Someone with more time and a better understanding would have to dig into it to explain it better. I'll see if I can find an article that mentions it.