Advertisement
football Edit

CliffsNotes version of Purdue's Plan 2020 recap

Purdue released a status report on its athletic department on Wednesday, outlining positive results by several of its 20 sports teams while also illustrating concerning financial numbers.

Following is a CliffsNotes version …

• Purdue highlighted five of its programs that finished in the top-25 at their NCAA championships or in a final poll in the 2015-16 season: Men's indoor track and field (13th), men's outdoor track and field (15th), women's swimming and diving (23rd), men's basketball (12th in poll) and volleyball (17th, poll).

But quoting from the PurdueSports.com release, “We cannot overlook the elephant in the room: Football. While we continue our steadfast belief in and support of Darrell Hazell, the fact is we are in a results-oriented organization, and we need to win ... for financial reasons as well as for department, campus and alumni morale. We are confident that the changes made to the coaching staff combined with an improving roster will result in more success and demonstrate a solid foundation has been laid during the first three years from which Purdue again can compete for a championship.”

The Boilermakers ranked 45th in Directors Cup points, putting them in the 87th percentile. When adjusted to include only the 20 sports at Purdue, the program moved up to 38th.

Purdue’s rank is better than six in the Big Ten: Northwestern (50), Michigan State (53), Illinois (54), Iowa (62), Maryland (59) and Rutgers (83).

Purdue wants to see football revenues increase, so it doesn't have to dip into its cash reserves. (Tom Campbell)
Advertisement

Graduating and leading

• Purdue’s four-year graduation rate is 84 percent, close to its 85 percent goal. And athletes have better than a 3.0 GPA for 15th straight semester, higher than the general student population streak that has gone on for much of athletic director Morgan Burke's tenure.

• Purdue’s Wooden Leadership Council probably has been one of its best programs, at least in terms of building students into more than athletes.

(If you’re one who considers more than wins/loses important).

One point that stood out was the implementation of a bystander intervention training program, particularly in light of incidents that have happened at other schools recently.

Purdue says the program is used “in order to educate about what consent means and create a culture that makes sexual assault unacceptable: ‘Boilers STANDUP.’”

Seven of 18 programs have completed the training, with the rest expected to do so.

Financial information

Purdue’s not where it wants to be in terms of cash reserves, especially after depleting another $6-million last fiscal year — below the projection of 8.6-million — to lower its total to $17-million.

That’s low.

The report indicates that Purdue’s reserves should be at $32 million on the low end and 50 on the high.

Purdue also said it is forecasting a net operating income of $4.3 million for the 2015-16 fiscal year, $800,000 better than budgeted, although final numbers aren’t yet available, But the reason the department has had to dip in to reserves to pay off debt is due to $10.5 million in annual debt service payment for Ross-Ade, the Mackey Complex (which include baseball's Alexander Field) and the softball stadium.

Purdue annually updates its 10-year financial projection. Following are notes:

- Due to decreasing ticket sales, Purdue lowered its projection of football revenue by $12.7 million.

Our note here: As of Monday, season football tickets sales were 17,368, which according to ticket manager Brian Fordyce is about 1,500 (eight percent) behind last year’s pace for the same date.

Last year, Purdue sold about 2,000 additional season tickets from Aug. 1 to Aug. 21 with the influx of students, etc. If that happens again in 2016, the total number could reach 20,000.

- Purdue will lose $1.2 million because of non-guarantee money for an extra conference home game every other year. Purdue doesn’t get or pay out a certain amount for Big Ten games, so it’ll have less non-conference guarantee money every other year.

- Purdue is facing decreasing funds to support scholarships of $18 million over the next 10 years.

- Premium Seating for Mackey is expected to increase by $1.7 million over the next decade. Purdue says “We anticipate an upward trend with the team's performance, recent recruits and the reseating of the arena.”

- Television money is expected to increase “significantly” over 10 years, but the release doesn’t specify an amount. However, it is thought that the total TV compensation (from BTN, ESPN, etc.) should reach around $51 million with the new contract, up from $34-million last season.

Despite the TV revenue, Purdue still projects that it will “continue to eat into its reserves,” but does say that it is dependent on the TV negotiations, football revenue and the Football Master Plan.

Facility highlights

• Ackerman-Allen Golf Course completion

• Start of $65-million football performance complex

• New LED lighting in five competition/practice facilities, including Mackey, Cardinal, Holloway, Mollenkopf and Lambert.

• Concrete project at Ross-Ade, which cost $2.8-million and was required for safety reasons.

JPC update

Purdue says the John Purdue Club had its most productive year of fundraising in its 50-plus years of existence, much of which can be attributed to the “Ever True” campaign.

As of July 1, the net was nearly $37-million, with more than $22-million coming from the campaign, money that’s pledged toward the Football Master Plan (the performance complex, stadium upgrades, etc.)

An additional $5.25 million, Purdue says, was donated for miscellaneous gifts to the golf course, soccer facilities, Mackey Arena Lights Campaign and scholarship endowments were raised this fiscal year.

JPC membership is at 6,415, per the release, up 151 from this point last year. By comparison, it was at about 9,500 in 2005 and 8,400 in 2014.

Football Master Plan

Only the first two phases — of five — have completion dates. The football performance complex is scheduled to be opened in August, 2017, about a year from now. And the Mollenkopf/Brees retrofit, making better use of the areas that football will vacate, should be complete in early 2018.

But the rest of the plan does not have dates. That includes Phase 3A (the next step), which would upgrade sound, new video/ribbon boards, and install lights. Phase 5, a “multi-use complex” in the south end zone, is likely years away.

In conclusion 

Purdue says ...

“To remain self-sufficient, which only 12 schools have managed to do (according to USA Today), will require a commitment to allow Intercollegiate Athletics to keep sufficient NCAA and Big Ten distributions revenue to compete with its peers. The NCAA Dashboard Indicators show we are in the bottom quartile of total revenue against our peer group even if you adjust for sport sponsorship, and yet we are still self-sufficient.”

Membership Information: Sign up for GoldandBlack.com now | Why join? | Questions?

Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2016. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited.

Advertisement