Is UL Athletics Broke?

[CajunVic]

"This thread, with mounds of accurate and supplemental information is killing you, isn't?"

Actually, no.

"I don't think we did that. I believe the budget set was $750,000 and the target was CMD because with him, you get a lot more intangibles that you would not get with any other candidate at that salary."

This is your response to me an another post.

You "think" and "believe." Not "I know."

Vic, you've setting up a strawman argument. I don't think your intent is to denigrate Mike, or even his hiring, but your basic argument is that we could only afford $750,000. I even recall you saying we couldn't afford $750,001.

I don't think this is the case.

This entire thread is your supposition you try to insist is fact.

When in fact, it appears to just be your opinion.

I have seen lots of things posted here but not one of them has refuted that fact in any way.

It is what we paid, so to say there was more without evidence becomes nothing more than a red herring.

It is a hard burden to refute what in fact has been done.

SHOW ME THE MONEY

[lafman1]

Know what fills this gap, a Student Athletic Fee, just like every other competitive athletic program.

17K students × $300 athletic fee/semester = $5.1M/semester

If we are serious about athletics make this happen.

Why penalize ALL students for athletics? Fee are half of the tuition.

[Turbine]

I have seen lots of things posted here but not one of them has refuted that fact in any way.

It is what we paid, so to say there was more without evidence becomes nothing more than a red herring.

It is a hard burden to refute what in fact has been done.

SHOW ME THE MONEY

Desormeaux was the target before Napier left, for whenever he left.

All the salary $ justification (then and now) is reverse engineering Desormeaux's true value.

[Cajun Monkee]

I have seen lots of things posted here but not one of them has refuted that fact in any way.

It is what we paid, so to say there was more without evidence becomes nothing more than a red herring.

It is a hard burden to refute what in fact has been done.

SHOW ME THE MONEY

So if there is nothing there, offering Napier $3.2 was a non-starter, even if he wanted to stay.

We would have let him walk because we would have expected him to go back to $750,000.

Come on Vic, if nothing is there, nothing is there.

You "think" and you "believe."

[HoustonCajun]

Even when only 400 students attend games ?

Maybe if they pay for it they will attend. We always seem to think in small amounts to keep things cheap.

James Madison University has mandatory comprehensive student fees of $2,704 per semester. Of that amount, $1,166 per semester goes to support intercollegiate athletic programs for men and women. The rest goes to transportation services, student health services, auxiliary services, facilities, and student activity. JMU has 20,070 undergrads and a total enrollment of 22,206, just a little larger than UL. Do the math. That's $23,401,620 per semester ($1,166 X 20,070) or $46,803,240 per year in fees only. I don't think students voted for this, it is just a part of tuition as it is at most schools, if you want to attend. Hard to compete when we don't have such a fee. Excellence costs money. JMU gets it.

On top of that, JMU collects $775 per semester per undergrad student for Facilities (that would be total university facility, not just athletics). That is $15,554,250 per semester of $31,108,500 per year to maintain all facilities and we don't know how much of that is contributed to athletics.

[CajunVic]

Desormeaux was the target before Napier left, for whenever he left.

All the salary $ justification (then and now) is reverse engineering Desormeaux's true value.

It has absolutely nothing to do with his true value. It just happens to be what he is paid.

People are trying to quantify the hire based upon what he was paid.

Because of the many factors and attributes which make him the right hire for Louisiana at this time, you can’t equate pay with value. In this instance it just doesn’t work.

It is also not a proper evaluation to quantify this hire by Louisiana based upon what other schools might have hired him. The total of his positive attributes to be the HFC for Louisiana is far greater than the sum of their parts. Such would not be the case in making that evaluation for a hire at any other university.

[lafman1]

Excellence costs money.

Depends on the level of desired excellence. Not always the case. NY Yankees come to mind.

[CajunT]

Maybe if they pay for it they will attend. We always seem to think in small amounts to keep things cheap.

James Madison University has mandatory comprehensive student fees of $2,704 per semester. Of that amount, $1,166 per semester goes to support intercollegiate athletic programs for men and women. The rest goes to transportation services, student health services, auxiliary services, facilities, and student activity. JMU has 20,070 undergrads and a total enrollment of 22,206, just a little larger than UL. Do the math. That's $23,401,620 per semester ($1,166 X 20,070) or $46,803,240 per year in fees only. I don't think students voted for this, it is just a part of tuition as it is at most schools, if you want to attend. Hard to compete when we don't have such a fee. Excellence costs money. JMU gets it.

On top of that, JMU collects $775 per semester per undergrad student for Facilities (that would be total university facility, not just athletics). That is $15,554,250 per semester of $31,108,500 per year to maintain all facilities and we don't know how much of that is contributed to athletics.

My niece attends JMU and they had a student protest last year over the athletic fees. The state legislature has gotten involved and there will be no more additional student athletic fees allowed at state institutions. Right now there is a push for the legislature to go further and reduce the percentage of student fees.

[fanof71]

Maybe if they pay for it they will attend. We always seem to think in small amounts to keep things cheap.

James Madison University has mandatory comprehensive student fees of $2,704 per semester. Of that amount, $1,166 per semester goes to support intercollegiate athletic programs for men and women. The rest goes to transportation services, student health services, auxiliary services, facilities, and student activity. JMU has 20,070 undergrads and a total enrollment of 22,206, just a little larger than UL. Do the math. That's $23,401,620 per semester ($1,166 X 20,070) or $46,803,240 per year in fees only. I don't think students voted for this, it is just a part of tuition as it is at most schools, if you want to attend. Hard to compete when we don't have such a fee. Excellence costs money. JMU gets it.

On top of that, JMU collects $775 per semester per undergrad student for Facilities (that would be total university facility, not just athletics). That is $15,554,250 per semester of $31,108,500 per year to maintain all facilities and we don't know how much of that is contributed to athletics.

Nice work on this sir! I believe, but I'm not 100% sure, but that mandatory student fee is law in Virginia. Again, not positive, just something I may (or may not) have read...

[fanof71]

Pulled from Sportico website

OPERATIONAL EXPENSES 2020-2021
1) Coastal Carolina: $36,086,347
4) Louisiana: $34,129,724
9) ULM: $18,140,898

PROFIT/LOSS 2020-2021
1) Coastal Carolina: $658,821
6) Louisiana: -$862,391
7) ULM: -$1,320,345
9) South Alabama: -$2,644,738

GENERATED REVENUE 2020-2021
1) App State: $14,220,988
2) Louisiana: $11,267,394
9) ULM: $4,230,473

LOUISIANA PROFIT/LOSS BY YEAR
2020-2021: -$862,391
2019-2020: -$5,980,700
2018-2019: -$4,559,770
2017-2018: +$82,086

Very nice work Sir!

[lafman1]

Desormeaux was the target before Napier left, for whenever he left.

All the salary $ justification (then and now) is reverse engineering Desormeaux's true value.

So no thought was given to the idea of who could we hire besides Desormeaux?

[CajunT]

thanks---Did Maggard indicate to you that we could not be successful because of our budget? Did CMD indicate we could not be successful because of our budget? Why is everyone using our budget as a reason we cannot be successful if Maggard and CMD have not used that as an excuse?

If they feel they cannot succeed with the budget they have, they need to resign now.

We lost to a team that has a much lower budget than ours.

Budget has nothing to do with this.

The accountability to produce results is on Maggard and CMD.

You would have to ask both of them, that discussion did not come up. But he did say that his peers at other institutions were dealing with similar concerns of lost revenue. The greatest difference as others have discussed is student athletic fees. We have some auxiliary fees, but a large percentage of those go towards facilities.

As to your opinion that they should resign if they can't get it done with the current budget, I would remind you that Billy Napier didn't grow his organization and support staff to it's largest in program history on peanut butter and popcorn. A lot of that growth was covered by RCAF donations and other creative methods. Once Covid hit, the money was gone and some of it never came back. That also applies to season tickets sales when it comes to corporate or company tickets that no longer exist and or those that reduced their staffs by large numbers. That's the reality of our situation.