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Ohio Football Topic
Topic: Athens News trashes Ohio Athletics and Number Fest
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Bobcatzblitz
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Posted: 5/3/2015 7:54 PM
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Recent issues of this free rough toilet paper have been attacking OU athletics and the hugely popular number Fest thrown by OU Alum Dominic Petrozzi

http://npaper-wehaa.com/athensnews/
Paul Graham
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Posted: 5/3/2015 11:41 PM
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Huh???

I read the article on Petrozzi (The Central Ohio approximation of Jean Ralphio Saperstein)...it was pretty much down the middle. Had lots of quotes from business owners that are behind the fest.

And there was an article about Ryan Taylor playing through mono...not sure what the issue is.
D.A.
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Posted: 5/4/2015 2:20 PM
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From your link I had to go into the archive to find the article you are referencing, but I have to say I find the piece largely factually accurate, if not boring, as it is the same 'ole story. Athletics is 4.1% of the budget, and 2.4% of a student's tuition goes to fund athletics.

Big whoop. Any brand reliant product is going to spend from 3-5% of its annual budget on marketing its brand, and OHIO is choosing to do most of that via ICA. You may not like it if you are a student, as it is an easy and conspicuous target. If the $16MM were instead spent on ads in the Post/News/Messenger/other daily papers in Ohio and nationally, do you suppose there would be as much upheaval from the press on that line item? None of that money would benefit the University in the form of student athlete scholarships/room/board, internships and practical application for Sports Management/PT/Sports Medicine/RTV/HCOM, and the like, but hey, who cares if those programs are some of the strongest in OHIO's portfolio of undergraduate/graduate programs? That would merely be presenting the counterpoint to their point, and that wouldn't make for nearly as salacious an article.

Apparently it continues to be more difficult to the rags in Athens County to actually dig through the remaining 96% of the expenses and 97.6% of the student derived revenues to find inefficiencies and waste, if any are present.

The one thing I will say in intercollegiate athletics defense is that due to NCAA reporting policies, researching the precise spend of athletics is far easier and more transparent than the remainder of University expenditures, which certainly caters to a lazy journalist.
Last Edited: 5/4/2015 2:54:15 PM by D.A.
Deciduous Forest Cat
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Posted: 5/4/2015 3:33 PM
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Gee, so amazing. They re-hashed the same story about student fees that's been shared a hundred times in the last several years. Redundant quotes from all the main players. It's like a bad sitcom in syndication. If they had any actual scruples, they would not run a positive athletic story in the same edition.
The Optimist
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Posted: 5/4/2015 4:04 PM
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Paul Graham wrote:expand_more
Huh???

I read the article on Petrozzi (The Central Ohio approximation of Jean Ralphio Saperstein)...it was pretty much down the middle. Had lots of quotes from business owners that are behind the fest.

And there was an article about Ryan Taylor playing through mono...not sure what the issue is.

A+ reference on Jean Ralphio, but I disagree on the conclusion.

The Athens News is essentially a tabloid. They create stories that will drum up revenue. This is easier and more effective than ever before with social media driving web traffic.
(I'm not saying there is anything wrong with this business model... I think it is brilliant. I just don't think their articles are actually quality journalism.)
Last Edited: 5/4/2015 4:05:16 PM by The Optimist
L.C.
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Posted: 5/4/2015 5:40 PM
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D.A. wrote:expand_more
... If the $16MM were instead spent on ads in the Post/News/Messenger/other daily papers in Ohio and nationally, do you suppose there would be as much upheaval from the press on that line item? ...

If they were to spend it on advertising, most of it would be spent in other cities, and very little of it would go to local papers. By using it to sponsor sports, they actually benefit the local papers far more than an ad campaign would. People do buy newspapers and subscribe to papers, in order to get sports news, though I would think most of that money goes to the Messenger, which has an excellent reporter on the beat.
D.A.
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Posted: 5/4/2015 5:51 PM
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L.C. wrote:expand_more
... If the $16MM were instead spent on ads in the Post/News/Messenger/other daily papers in Ohio and nationally, do you suppose there would be as much upheaval from the press on that line item? ...

If they were to spend it on advertising, most of it would be spent in other cities, and very little of it would go to local papers. By using it to sponsor sports, they actually benefit the local papers far more than an ad campaign would. People do buy newspapers and subscribe to papers, in order to get sports news, though I would think most of that money goes to the Messenger, which has an excellent reporter on the beat.
My local spend comment was tongue in cheek, sorry for being so nuanced! No doubt the spend would be in media other than print as well. And agree completely that they would suffer if ICA went away.
Ohio69
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Posted: 5/4/2015 6:40 PM
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Deciduous Forest Cat wrote:expand_more
Gee, so amazing. They re-hashed the same story about student fees that's been shared a hundred times in the last several years. Redundant quotes from all the main players. It's like a bad sitcom in syndication. If they had any actual scruples, they would not run a positive athletic story in the same edition.
The Anews runs the same stories every year. It is genius.

- Halloween: Awesome. (Guess who sponsors it.)
- Athletics: Costs too much. Get slightly different quote from same faculty.
- Numberfest: Drunken fools tick off same group of locals.
- Faculty no-confidence vote: Get slightly different quote from same faculty.
- Ridges: Get slightly different quote from same faculty and townies that the University needs to spend millions on the dump that is the Ridges.
- Campus Master Plan: Get slightly different quote from City official complaining that they are not in charge of the university's campus master plan.
- Tuition costs too much: Get slightly different quote from irate Student Senate President, who more likely than not then enrolls in Grad School at OU.
- Random City Ordinance: Quote from councilperson sponsor. General disbelief and confusion from citizens (chickens, garbage cans, couches, bike lanes, etc.)
- Black gum stains on uptown sidewalks. (seriously, what is up with that?)


Rinse. Repeat.
Last Edited: 5/4/2015 6:41:45 PM by Ohio69
BuddyLee
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Posted: 5/4/2015 7:46 PM
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Ohio69 wrote:expand_more
Gee, so amazing. They re-hashed the same story about student fees that's been shared a hundred times in the last several years. Redundant quotes from all the main players. It's like a bad sitcom in syndication. If they had any actual scruples, they would not run a positive athletic story in the same edition.
The Anews runs the same stories every year. It is genius.

- Halloween: Awesome. (Guess who sponsors it.)
- Athletics: Costs too much. Get slightly different quote from same faculty.
- Numberfest: Drunken fools tick off same group of locals.
- Faculty no-confidence vote: Get slightly different quote from same faculty.
- Ridges: Get slightly different quote from same faculty and townies that the University needs to spend millions on the dump that is the Ridges.
- Campus Master Plan: Get slightly different quote from City official complaining that they are not in charge of the university's campus master plan.
- Tuition costs too much: Get slightly different quote from irate Student Senate President, who more likely than not then enrolls in Grad School at OU.
- Random City Ordinance: Quote from councilperson sponsor. General disbelief and confusion from citizens (chickens, garbage cans, couches, bike lanes, etc.)
- Black gum stains on uptown sidewalks. (seriously, what is up with that?)


Rinse. Repeat.
Funny but kinda true. I never heard about the black gum stain thing before though.
Athens
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Posted: 5/5/2015 12:50 AM
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The numbers in the News are way off. That 27 million figure is a gross budget that includes all revenue, expenses plus ICA. The way they have it stated in the Athens News is that 27 million is covered by 11 million in revenue with the ICA picking up the other 16 million. The operating budget is more in the 13 million ballpark with 6 million in revenue and 7 million ICA money. A while back someone did a research paper on how much ICA per student was being spent on Athletics and the number was around $290 dollars per student a year. The News is saying its costing students $865 a year but that is the whole student fee of which Athletics only takes a portion of. The remainder of the student fee goes for other student programming initiatives. At $290 a year that is about the price of a regular season ticket for basketball and football, which the students attend for free.
SBH
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Posted: 5/5/2015 6:38 AM
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OCF, I believe you are mistaken. The numbers as reported by the A News are correct. But they're not really news. The real news is that we have improved the ratio of student support in recent years, but they chose to ignore that.
Schaus & co. have done a great job of increasing outside financial support. No, we'll never be anywhere near self-sustaining but the effort does deserve some attention.
Flat Tire
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Posted: 5/5/2015 7:54 AM
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Interesting old article from the Cleveland newspaper about the finances of the Ohio schools athletic programs from the 2009-2010 year.
"At Ohio University, the total from students and other public sources was nearly $19 million. Totals ranged from $10 million to $17 million at Ohio's other Mid-American Conference schools."

UC and OSU didn't use student fees, but UC did use state tax money and school support.

Most Ohio schools depend on student fees, other public help for Division I intercollegiate sports


http://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/index.ssf/2011/10/mo...
Last Edited: 5/5/2015 7:59:07 AM by Flat Tire
OhioCatFan
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Posted: 5/5/2015 11:45 AM
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SBH wrote:expand_more
OCF, I believe you are mistaken. The numbers as reported by the A News are correct. But they're not really news. The real news is that we have improved the ratio of student support in recent years, but they chose to ignore that.
Schaus & co. have done a great job of increasing outside financial support. No, we'll never be anywhere near self-sustaining but the effort does deserve some attention.
Hmm . . . I think you meant Uncle Wes. I'm never wrong! ;-) [Except when I am.]
Athens
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Posted: 5/6/2015 1:33 AM
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SBH wrote:expand_more
OCF, I believe you are mistaken. The numbers as reported by the A News are correct. But they're not really news. The real news is that we have improved the ratio of student support in recent years, but they chose to ignore that.
Schaus & co. have done a great job of increasing outside financial support. No, we'll never be anywhere near self-sustaining but the effort does deserve some attention.
The numbers for 2013-14 show 19.8 million in total expenses. Breaking it down by line item $4,076,892 goes to salaries, $523,831 to recruiting, $3,071,984 operating expenses, 7,088,438 in student aid and 5,045,794 in other expenses. Take out the scholarship costs and its $12,718,501 of expenses against $20,492,350 in revenues. The difference is $7,773,849 and that is the revenues in which is slightly larger than the football budget (and football is the origin directly/indirectly of 90% of revenues). The difference between $7,773,849 net revenues and $12,718,501 net costs ($4,944,652) is what the student general fees are required to cover. That is 30.8% the amount of student fees required to cover the athletic expenses as reported in the Athens News, or $262 dollars a year per student to subsidize athletics. This number is down slightly from 4-5 years ago. You can check the numbers from the tool. The 27 million includes over 7 million dollars of non allocated money.

http://ope.ed.gov/athletics/GetOneInstitutionData.aspx
Last Edited: 5/6/2015 1:35:46 AM by Athens
OhioCatFan
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Posted: 5/6/2015 11:05 AM
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Uncle Wes, why don't you write a letter to the editor of the AthensNews with your analysis? It certainly puts a different perspective on things compared to their story.
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