Does spending help winning?
<blockquote><p align=justify><b>Advocate: NCAA spending report incomplete</b>
Someone at NCAA headquarters has a wicked sense of humor. One day after LSU announced its plan to raise the price of football tickets and surcharges for nearly half the seats in Tiger Stadium, the NCAA released what it called a myth-busting report that said, in simple terms, there's no evidence that increased spending leads to higher winning percentages.
Before you shout "Aha!" and further condemn LSU for the first significant step in catching up with most of its Southeastern Conference brethren on ticket surcharges, there's something you should know: The NCAA report also said there's no evidence proving there's an arms race in college athletics.
That's because the data for the study didn't include capital expenditures. You know, such sundries as stadiums, luxury suites and football complexes.
Did someone say No Clue At All?
Upon further inspection, the results of the study released Thursday by the NCAA form the basis of an interim report -- and a flawed one at that.
But someone in Indianapolis, home of the NCAA offices, decided Thursday was the right time to announce, "Hey, we're still studying spending in college athletics, but so far, after ignoring the big-ticket items on campus, we can see no connection between spending and championships."
<a href="http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/081503/spo_dubois001.shtml">The rest of the story</a>
By CARL DUBOIS
cdubois@theadvocate.com
Advocate sportswriter <!--
Or between spending and academic quality. And alumni giving. And net revenue.
The NCAA began the study two years ago. It was authorized by the Division I Board of Directors Task Force as part of the board's academic and athletics reform efforts. The board solicited help from the following:
·þA vice president of research for the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City who is also a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
·þA managing director of Sebago Associates in Washington, D.C.
·þA very senior fellow in economic studies at Brookings who is also a senior director at Sebago.
·þA jolly good fellow from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
·þRodney Dangerfield, who played Thornton Melon in "Back to School."
OK, the last one is a joke. So is the NCAA report, at least until it's completed. Anyone who suggests there's no arms race in college athletics wasn't at LSU's news conference Wednesday, hasn't noticed North Carolina State just opened a $50 million football complex, hasn't seen construction, blueprints or preliminary plans for new facilities at every Top 25 program in the country.
The Mellon Foundation will continue the research and analysis represented in the interim report, the NCAA said. We can only hope the research includes real-world critical thinking, such as a thorough examination of the capital costs in college athletics programs.
The arms race is all about facilities.
The interim report focused mainly on operating expenditures and revenues -- not on capital expenditures. It noted the difficulty in comparing capital costs, since some facilities are built through municipal funds, others through private donations, and others through ticket surcharges. Some are multi-use facilities, complicating any attempt for comparing financial books from one school to another as apples to apples.
Still, the NCAA, in releasing the interim report, issued the following statements:
"An arms race can be defined as occurring when increased expenditures at one school trigger increases at other schools."
OK. We're with you so far.
"Under that definition, the data on operating expenditures do not clearly show an arms race today."
And my wristwatch can't send a fax.
"As the interim report states, however, it is important to emphasize that the existence of an 'arms race' may be concentrated in capital expenditures, which are not adequately recorded in the data."
No shishkabob, Sherlock.
The most accurate statement in the NCAA's news release came from one of the fellas, and a senior fella at that. He said, "The data, while the best available, are imperfect. The study will be improved with the additional collection of data over a longer time span, as well as the collection of better data on capital expenditures and on staff compensation from all sources."
Such as shoe contracts, TV and radio shows and camp revenues.
The same senior feller said the data so far can't prove big spending on athletics is either the road to riches or the road to ruin. So essentially the NCAA sent out a news release saying, "We don't know anything yet, but we'll get back to you real soon."
The timing of such a misleading report couldn't have been worse for LSU, but maybe no one will notice. It was probably a practical joke anyway.
Still, we offer this memo to Skip Bertman: Don't use the term "Gestapo _______s" in your next cyber-side chat. The NCAA has a memory like an elephant.
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