-Jim Root

Here’s how you know I’m going insane without sports: I crept dangerously close to my days of being an accountant, dipping a toe into the world of college basketball finances. We usually stick to the on-court aspect of things, but considering we were robbed of the the sport’s best month, perhaps other troves of content must be explored.

On Monday’s 3MW podcast, a 2-star review left us reeling, skewering us for 1) using the term “Power 6” and 2) being “lazy reporters.” Chuffed at the implication, I aimed to kill two birds with one stone by proving the concept of the Power 6 via real research. I downloaded a ludicrously-sized excel report (4,274 columns – not rows, columns) from the Department of Higher Education’s website detailing college athletic department sizes and expenditures, zeroing in on college hoops.

College basketball budgets are just one way of defining the strength of the conferences, but I do feel it’s one of the best (if not the best) methods for doing so; resources matter quite a bit in terms of how much a school can pay a coach, paying for/playing in buy games, etc. And the financial measurements paint a very clear divide - showing Mean and Median for the sake of combating outliers:

Note: the data excludes Air Force, Army, Navy, and LIU.

The top six leagues stand above the rest of the country, with even the AAC falling considerably behind the Pac 12 (of note: I pushed UConn to the Big East, even though this is 2018-19 data – I won’t belabor the reasons here, but I think that’s the proper way to do it).

This also supports the notion of cordoning off the AAC, A-10, WCC, and Mountain West as their own “tier” – they stand well above Conference USA, the Colonial, etc. Perhaps it would be more realistic to include the AAC in its own one-league tier; I would not oppose that point of view. I could take or leave the line between Sun Belt and Atlantic Sun/SoCon; we don’t really differentiate much between C-USA and the Ivy League, so that’s just more of a natural break at $2M.

Side note: how impressive has the SoCon been recently? The league has been in the mix for at-large bids for two straight seasons, sporting multiple 25-game winners while four programs (Wofford, ETSU, Furman, UNC Greensboro) have spent a ton of time inside KenPom’s top 100, all while the conference ranks 23rd in average budget. That’s tremendous bang for the buck.

I don’t want to make too many sweeping generalizations about these numbers, but I do think highlighting a few outliers makes for an interesting study…

Money Monsters

Belmont (279.3% above OVC median budget, 189.4% above OVC average budget)

I had no idea that Belmont was the Brinks Truck of the mid-major world, mercilessly outspending its OVC opposition by the widest margin in the entire country. It has paid off, of course: Rick Byrd won an average of 25 games per year over his final nine seasons, and the transition to former assistant Casey Alexander went smoothly as well (26 wins and an OVC Tournament title).

I will be curious to see where this is at for 2019-20, considering this data is using the final year of Byrd’s legendary tenure.

Gonzaga (155.7% above WCC median, 114.7% above average)

Perhaps our critical reviewer was correct: the term we should be using is Power 6-PG (Power 6 – plus Gonzaga), considering how deep the Zags’ pockets have become. The Zags ranked 27th in the entire country in basketball expenditures, outpacing every Pac 12 team except UCLA, along with other “powers” like Illinois, Arkansas, Florida, and Maryland. They’re in a completely different stratosphere than their WCC foes.

High Point (130.8% above Big South median, 104.3% above average)

If I had to guess, I’d say this is heavily due to the “Tubby Effect,” as High Point brought in its lauded alum two years ago following his unceremonious dismissal at Memphis. Considering the Panthers had their lowest KenPom rating in the history of the program this past season (let’s call it the “Low Point”), I’d say it’s been a troubling investment thus far.

Grand Canyon (128.41% above WAC median, 113.3% above average)

This is just what the rabid New Mexico State fans needed: more ammunition in their taunts at the rabid fan base that fancies themselves the Aggies’ rivals. GCU’s for-profit status (and that fan base) has made them the clear financial titan in the WAC; the administration is desperately hoping that Bryce Drew is the man destined to deliver the success that those ample resources promise.

Duke (115.4% above ACC median, 89.4% above average)
Kentucky (108.1% above SEC median, 88.9% above average)

The two biggest brands in college hoops are the only two programs that exceeded $20M in basketball expenditures, and it’s not hard to see why. They have the two highest-paid coaches in the country by an extremely comfortable margin. Both programs print money, though (revenue north of $35M, per the same government report), so it’s not exactly a financial strain.

Penny Pinchers

Chicago State (65.67% below WAC median, 67.94% below average)

The downtrodden Windy City punching bag is, unsurprisingly, at the biggest monetary disadvantage relative to its peers in the entire country. The Cougars’ 2018-19 basketball expenditures totaled $801,305; the Cougars are the only team in a top 25 conference to have a budget below $1.09M. The school has flirted with financial disaster in the past, and when you couple this disadvantage with the absurd rigors of travel in the WAC, it’s easy to figure out why they’ve wallowed at the bottom of the conference (and the country) for an extended period of time.

San Jose State (51.86% below MWC median, 51.4% below average)

This should come as absolutely no surprise. The Spartans are completely out of their league in the competitive MWC, spending $1.3M less than their closest competitor. Even dating back to the WAC days, SJSU has not finished .500 or better in conference play in the KenPom era (back to 1997). That’s 23 years!

East Carolina (39.2% below AAC median, 39.8% below average)

Would you believe me if I told you that ECU is 28-80 (25.9%) in conference play since moving to the AAC? Oh, you absolutely, 100% would believe that and would have guessed even lower? Yeah, that’s understandable. And it makes sense - even Tulane spent $1M more than the Pirates in 2018-19.

Butler (38.2% below Big East median, 42.1% below average)

Another shocker for me: discovering that Butler, with its $5.8M budget in a Big East that averages nearly $10M, is at the biggest relative disadvantage, monetarily, in the entire Power 6. DePaul, the second-stingiest Big East program, spent an extra $1M compared to the frugal Bulldogs in 2018-19.

The only lower Power 6 budget belongs to Washington State, where Kyle Smith is attempting to work magic with just $5.5M of expenditures; that’s less than St. Joseph’s, St. Louis, UNLV, and Duquesne (among others), and just $0.2M more than Grand Canyon. Cal and Oregon State also help pull down the Pac 12’s average to the lowest of the Power 6, which also prevents Wazzu from being a bigger outlier than Butler.

Some random fun facts

• Combined basketball budget for the 21 MEAC/SWAC schools: $22,940,904

• Duke’s basketball budget: $22,178,473

• Duke’s budget is the highest in the country, but 61 schools still spend more on football.

• The top 69 programs (heh) spend more combined money than the bottom 284.

• BYU ranks 69th in budget. That’s too perfect - don’t be Brandon Davies!!

• The Division I school with the lowest budget that’s not from the “low-major” tier (MEAC, SWAC, Southland): Western Carolina, at just $1,089,269 (334th). Mark Prosser is working wonders.

• Four leagues have a range of budgets less than $1M (indicating equality across the conference): the Patriot League, the America East, the Ivy League, and the MEAC.

Lastly, here’s the list of all schools: