Volume 6, No. 3

KU FEELING BLUE IN THE RED Because of a strong football program and donor base, A&M stays away from financial problems By Homer Jacobs

To most of those of non-maroon persuasion, Texas A&M represents all that is stuck in time:

Khaki, leather boots, conservatism, even family values.

For years, Aggies have lived with jeers and sneers from the uninformed who see snippets of football games on TV or read tasteless cartoons about the Bonfire tragedy.

Some of the perception out there has been created by an us-against-the-world mentality still lingering from the days when it really was us against the world.

But for the most part, most people still don’t have a clue about the goings-on in College Station.

To think that some people have a vision of a small cow college in the middle of nowhere still floors me. Talk about someone stuck in time.

In athletics, A&M still has a lot of work to do to become a national player in all of its 21 sports. To be frank, watching 128 men’s and women’s basketball teams revel in NCAA Tournament glory, while the nation’s fourth-largest university sits idly by in the shadow of Gonzaga, well, it’s sometimes too much to fathom.

But recent athletic developments at one Big 12 school appease the pain somewhat. In fact, it should provide comfort for A&M fans that their school and athletic department still bask in resources most schools could only dream of having.Sure, A&M’s $32 million athletic budget isn’t the largest in the nation or even the Big 12, as Nebraska and Texas own the deepest pockets in the league.

But at least A&M hasn’t slid into the unfortunate position Kansas University has found itself.

You see, Kansas is a basketball school with more hoops tradition than just about every school outside Tobacco Road. It’s the home of Phog Allen and "Rock Chalk Jayhawk." But the basketball bluebloods with Longhorn-like arrogance have a major problem on their hands.

They don’t have football.

In the physical sense, sure the Jayhawks have a stadium and uniforms and a head coach. But fiscally speaking, there’s more red in Lawrence than just the trim on their classic basketball jerseys.

Primarily because of poor attendance at football games and KU’s complaint that the Big 12 television partners favor the Texas markets, the Jayhawk athletic program had to find ways to cut $650,000 from the budget.

Men’s tennis and men’s swimming and diving got the knife.

"I think it’s a sad, sad day," KU basketball coach Roy Williams told the local Lawrence media. "Yet, it’s happening all around the country – sports are being cut."

Luckily at Texas A&M, sports are being added instead of slashed. Archery and equestrian may not add up to attention-getters or revenue-producers, but how many student-athletes who can now attend A&M on an athletic scholarship are complaining?

The fact is, A&M has been as much a visionary in financial planning as it’s been a bastion of tradition.

Shockingly, Kansas just recently decided to implement a donor program and priority seating for basketball season ticket holders. Are you kidding me?

Do you want to know why North Carolina has the largest athletic endowment in the country? Because it requires thousands of dollars per seat in donations just to order season tickets for games in its cavernous Dean Smith Center.

As for A&M, football is the financial bellcow, and it’s been that way since forever. While KU and even Kansas State in football are just starting athletic donor programs for priority seating, A&M has been requiring donations for football for over three decades. For over 30 years, there’s been an endowment program that has grown into the $50 million range.

You can be proud that the 12th Man Foundation is one of the nation’s largest and most successful athletic fund-raising organizations. The Foundation is run like a blossoming, non-profit corporation, far removed from the mom and pop outfits most schools have at their disposal.

Last year alone, gracious A&M donors anted up over $10 million in annual contributions. Out of that money, scholarships for the 21 sports were funded as was the bond indebtedness for The Zone at Kyle Field.

While places like Kansas saw football attendance drop, A&M saw it skyrocket to an unprecedented average of 77,579 per game. Games with 85,000-plus in attendance are now far from freakish.

Season ticket sales at A&M have set records the last few years, rising by 4,000 last year alone. Adding in the nation’s largest student season ticket base, and over 55,000 season tickets were sold last fall.

Even at Kansas, which worships life on the hardwood, the Jayhawks can only watch the A&Ms and Texases of the world with envy.

"If we can start filling up Memorial Stadium, it makes everything else a heck of a lot easier," Williams added. "We want people to have their tails in the seats any way to support our football team."

Under athletic director Wally Groff’s supervision, A&M’s athletic department is now a staple in the black, using no state funds or student fees for support.

A&M’s budget has hit the $30 million mark, and that’s without any significant financial help from men’s basketball attendance. Imagine A&M’s bottom line should men’s hoops begin to attract some larger crowds.

Besides the fact that several schools out there are having huge problems financially, it’s still difficult to watch student-athletes have their dreams shattered in the name of cost-cutting.

When the Kansas men’s tennis players found out about the impending doom of their sport, they played with such emotion against the Aggies on March 7 that they almost pulled a major upset with a win over A&M. During the match in Lawrence, KU players were playing at a feverish level, often crying when the matches were over.

In the end, A&M survived the hornet’s nest, 4-3, but there was no mistaking the Aggies’ emotions: They were grateful to survive and, no doubt, relieved their sport is on solid footing in College Station.

A few days ago, the A&M men’s tennis team played at one of the nation’s premier collegiate tennis facilities. Big crowds and high emotions were rampant, as the Aggies carved up top-five foes TCU and Duke at the A&M Tennis Center.

It wasn’t the boiler room that is college football or even the NCAA Tournament. It was just six or eight Aggie athletes playing their guts out before their maroon and white faithful.

It was collegiate athletics in its purest form, and how can you put a price on that?

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