Cincinnati Bearcats (Juggalos official thread of Faygo)

[Oh8ch]

BCS bylaw 27-3a:

In order to remain eligible for BCS competition a team must not lose more than 50% of the TV audience or 40% of the live audience prior to the completion of the first half of any BCS game of which they are a part and in which they are trailing.

To be sure, UC fans will remind of us our own
Florida debacle. The primary difference, of course, is that our loss to Florida was one of the low points in OSU history. For UC it is their claim to fame.

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

Looks as though somebody is bankrupt.

Report: University of Cincinnati sports needs millions to compete | cincinnati.com | Cincinnati.Com

The University of Cincinnati's sports program will need up to $11 million in new funding every year to be competitive in the Big East Conference, but it still is running a deficit every year and owes millions of dollars from past overspending.

A new report also shows that UC's Athletic Department is losing about $3.5 million a year and has amassed a $24 million debt, mainly from a shortfall in construction of the Varsity Village complex on campus

 

[BuckeyeNation27]

Why did Brian Kelly leave, anyway?

 

[3074326]

Guess who hasn't heard shit about UC since they got destroyed?

Me.

Back into obscurity. The bandwagoners are already gone ().

 

[scott91575]

Looks as though somebody is bankrupt.

Report: University of Cincinnati sports needs millions to compete | cincinnati.com | Cincinnati.Com

UC. The 40k a year millionaire of college football. Too funny.

I do love their plan of getting more full price season ticket holders (how in the hell will you do better than they are right now?) and tranferring debt to the school as a whole. In other words, you are not a self sufficient athletic department. Why be a University and help your alumni in their jobs when you can fool your alumni into thinking they are better than Ohio State at football. Yeah, that's important. Looks like little sister still doesn't get it, and will hurt their reputation as a University just to win some football games.

 

[Steve19]

Notwithstanding the disrespect Cincy fans showed Ohio State this year, financial difficulties at an Ohio university are a matter of concern, not celebration. Education is critical to the competitive advantage of a nation during this time of increasing global competition.

The University should not pick up the tab for this financial mismanagement. The athletics department should either find sponsorship or put their expansion on hold until they can afford it from their revenues. That's how Ohio Stadium was built.

Universities exist to educate. As much as people like us (BP posters) love sports, other educational departments must not sacrifice quality to pay for athletics. The sad truth for UC fans is that, if they really want to play with the big programs, then they are going to have to put their money where their mouths are.

 

[sandgk]

Notwithstanding the disrespect Cincy fans showed Ohio State this year, financial difficulties at an Ohio university are a matter of concern, not celebration. Education is critical to the competitive advantage of a nation during this time of increasing global competition.

The University should not pick up the tab for this financial mismanagement. The athletics department should either find sponsorship or put their expansion on hold until they can afford it from their revenues. That's how Ohio Stadium was built.

Universities exist to educate. As much as people like us (BP posters) love sports, other educational departments must not sacrifice quality to pay for athletics. The sad truth for UC fans is that, if they really want to play with the big programs, then they are going to have to put their money where their mouths are.

Steve - that is a good perspective. It would also pay for any interested to actually read the report which was linked into the Enquirer article. (PDF)

Summarizing - the reasons for the shortfall are complicated but include a diminished attendance at UC Basketball games, with revenues declining precipitously following Huggins ouster. The accounting practices insisted upon by prior UC administrations where mundane items like heat, power, phones and lights are part of the AD budget - rather than general budget as often happens at other programs big or small. Then you have the athlete's village buidling project and the Huggins buy-out. It all adds up.

It is absolutely true that the UC Athletic Department budget needs to be rationalized, but some of that requires undoing the accounting gimmicks of both the athletic directorship and past University Presidents. In other words, put it on a square footing. For instance this type of silliness has to stop:

The Athletics Department also has been charged with all the debt service on Varsity Village. UC?s Student Health Services, academic classroom space, the UC Physician Imaging Center and the Faculty Club also occupy Varsity Village but do not contribute to that debt service.​

 

[TheIronColonel]

As a long-time 'nati burb resident (now in Columbus), you would think that the city would be interested in helping to foot the bill for some of this. Were UC to ever become relevant and respectable in football, the tourism boon from home games would more than recoup a small outlay to pay for improvements. Besides, it's not like there's much else to draw people to Cincinnati (the conference center, zoo,...the Montgomery Inn...um...).

In all seriousness, though, it's not good for OSU when another public institution digs themselves into a financial hole (nor is it good for the state in general, or anybody else, for that matter). That money has to come from somewhere, and it's not as though OSU can afford to take any budgetary loss from the state having to clean up this fiasco. Hopefully heads will roll.

 

[MaxBuck]

I've said it before, I'll say it again - big-time D1A football is big business. If you can't participate and show a profit (holistically, of course - count the revenue from gameday hotels and restaurant sales), then you need to not be in the business.

UC has no business being in the big-time football business. In their best season EVER, they cannot break even, and they appear to be suffering substantial losses. IMO, the Board of Regents needs to put a stop to the nonsense. Ohio taxpayers deserve nothing less.

 

[Muck]

As a long-time 'nati burb resident (now in Columbus), you would think that the city would be interested in helping to foot the bill for some of this.

With what money? The 'Nati isn't exactly running in the black these days either.

Besides, it's not like there's much else to draw people to Cincinnati (the conference center, zoo,...the Montgomery Inn...um...).

The FREEDOM CENTER!!!! Duh.

Oh and an upcoming casino next to the justice center. lol

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

Notwithstanding the disrespect Cincy fans showed Ohio State this year, financial difficulties at an Ohio university are a matter of concern, not celebration. Education is critical to the competitive advantage of a nation during this time of increasing global competition.

The University should not pick up the tab for this financial mismanagement. The athletics department should either find sponsorship or put their expansion on hold until they can afford it from their revenues. That's how Ohio Stadium was built.

Universities exist to educate. As much as people like us (BP posters) love sports, other educational departments must not sacrifice quality to pay for athletics. The sad truth for UC fans is that, if they really want to play with the big programs, then they are going to have to put their money where their mouths are.

A very good perspective, Steve. While I can't help but do a little jig over their athletic department's looming implosion, I've posted earlier in the season about their looming financial crisis, which is not confined solely to athletics and my hope that if Fingerhut and Board of Regents are forced to step in, they will hold those responsible to account for their actions and mismanagement.

The great irony in all of this is that Nancy Zimpher tried to reign in the binge spending, and they demonized her as anti-athletics.

BTW, Akron's loudmouthed Ohio State-baiting president has put them in the same predicament of catastrophic budget deficits and downgraded bond status. All of which goes back to my common refrain that every frickin' public university in the state can NOT try to turn itself into Ohio State. They have a proper role in a university system and should stick to it and live within their means rather than chasing dreams of grandeur--whether on the football field or in the research lab--which will, in all likelihood, never materialize.

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

Just to throw in another couple of numbers to show how utterly mismanaged UC has been.

1. Their overall debt load is over 1.5 billion, which is nearly half their yearly operating budget and, by far, the highest debt-to-budget ratio of any public university in Ohio.
   
2. They have been "borrowing" money from their endowment's principal in order to meet annual operating costs.

This is a severely mismanaged state asset that has been burning through money they don't have in order to try and become something the state never mandated them to be. The athletic debacle is the tip of the iceberg.

 

[Jagdaddy]

Just to throw in another couple of numbers to show how utterly mismanaged UC has been.

1. They have been "borrowing" money from their endowment's principal in order to meet annual operating costs.

Keep that up and pretty soon there won't BE a UC. Unlike the US. Gov't, they don't get to print and devalue money.

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

[/LIST]
Keep that up and pretty soon there won't BE a UC. Unlike the US. Gov't, they don't get to print and devalue money.

They were on the verge of bankruptcy in the seventies when the state stepped in and saved their sorry asses by folding them into the state system. The state will probably end up bailing them out again. The one good thing that could come out of this is that it could really end up being a powerful catalyst for Fingerhut's reforms of the system that are meant to reign in this nonsense and prevent numerous schools in the system from trying to turn themselves into Ohio State.

Nothing will make the legislature wake up, take notice and enact some real reforms with teeth and accountability and structure for the university system than a couple of billion dollar bailouts to UC and Akron.

 

[sandgk]

There surely isn't the cash in Columbus (nor probably the political incentive) for UC or U of A to get a billion here and a billion there as a hand-out.