Colleges pay to play - (Moving Up)

[dbackjon]

It’s expensive to compete with the big boys.


The University of Central Arkansas stepped up from Division II athletics to Division 1AA in 2006. This was one of many questionable calls made during the administration of President Lu Hardin, who has since resigned under pressure. UCA is looking for a new president now, and one of the first and largest problems he or she will have to confront is the painful cost of upward mobility in sports. It's not inconceivable that UCA, now under closer watch by state government and the public, would have to step back down, a rare occurrence in intercollegiate athletics.

Had UCA officials sought assistance in making their decision about sports, they would have found it easily accessible. Only a couple of years earlier, the NCAA, the governing body of collegiate athletics, had released a comprehensive study showing that moving up in sports classification was a losing proposition financially. NCAA researchers effectively refuted the argument made by every institution that wants to move up — that is, the greater revenue from playing bigger and better-known opponents will more than offset the increased cost of competing at the higher level (more athletic scholarships, more travel, bigger stadiums, etc.).

http://www.arktimes.com/Articles/Articl ... 720edd5dd3

[GoApps70]

This article is poorly written. For example, it says that 1-AA Last Played in 1992. Totally incorrect.
It seems that in the summation the NCAA was saying that there was basically no difference, then the article goes on to cite losing propositions. What about the winning (or gaining) from moving. If their conclusion is basically a nil factor there must have been many that increased revenue. That report had almost half taken into consideration was with schools moving from Division 2 to 1-AA. Now, I am not a genius, but I do not know of any additional revenue that would be generated by that kind of move. Maybe a few more butts in the seats or sale of merchandise or concessions. Seems as if they should not have put the two groups together. Still sounds like Central Arkansas jumped into something they might not have wanted.