Football - Blessing or Curse

[SB Shock]

http://www.news-leader.com/article/20101024/NEWS01/10240386/Athletics-funding-a-question-of-priorities%3Cbr

Evidently SWMO athletic department is in the red

Last week's state audit report of Missouri State University highlighted an athletic department requiring more than $7 million per year in state and private money to break even.

According to some SWMO reps on the MVC board, the school had to resort to selling their Cows. I though human trafficking was against the law. Moral of the story - don't send your dear daughter to school in Missouri.

No schools at the Football Championship Subdivision level, at which MSU competes, break even. Only 14 at the Bowl Championship Subdivision show a profit, according to Don Fulks, a researcher for the NCAA from Transylvania University in Lexington, Ky.

[SubGod22]

According to MSU fans, the 7 million has little to nothing to do with the football program and was from other sources. Read an account about that on MVCFans.com.

[SB Shock]

According to MSU fans, the 7 million has little to nothing to do with the football program and was from other sources. Read an account about that on MVCFans.com.

I did. MoValley John is having a hey day with this. Pretty much this sum it up:

You asked I simply stated what it was. When the school needs money they can borrow it from several different place most recently they borrowed money against the school cattle herd.

Now there's an ongoing source of revenue for you!

A $5 million transposition error in the published documents? That's insane!

But then there is the evidence from UNI program budget struggles.

[Aargh]

All of this came out of an audit that was performed on the entire university.

The auditors absolutely ripped MSU for their accounting practices. I mean RIPPED! The athletic department failing to break even by $7 mill was just part of the report.

The financial practices in the athletric department were criticized along with the entire university. There weren't any smoking guns or anything, just $100,000 here or $50,000 there that was paid out (generally to coaches) with no supporting documentation.

WSU also relies on donations for the athletic department to break even, so the $7 mill shortfall isn't really "news" or that surprising - although some fun was had with it at MVCFans.

Borrowing money against the school's cattle herd to cover part of the shortage for the entire university was the most amusing part. Probably the most significant part of the report was the incredibly sloppy accounting practices. That draws attention from the public, and will focus attention on MSU's athletic department's financial shortfall and sensitize the public to the red ink. That can affect donations negatively and cause a lot of public criticism of the athletic department.

Yes, there was a $5 million dollar "transposition error" in MSU's published financial statements. You would think that someone would notice reporting something as $7.2 million instead of $2.7 million.