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Commodore Notebook – August 23 8/23/2006 Commodore Notebook Shaping the Commodores’ Future The University’s Shape the Future Campaign is running well ahead of schedule. The focal point of the fund-raising effort is endowment giving and that stretches over to athletics, where Commodore development officers Jeff Ulmer and Lucy Jones are coordinating an effort to build our athletics endowment. A robust endowment will allow us to perpetually defray some future expenses and allow us to grow our program by becoming more able to invest in difference-making resources instead of just striving to pay current bills. One of the most critical components to our plan is to financially place Vanderbilt athletics on even footing with our peer institutions, quite a challenge when you consider the cost of our full scholarship this year is about $45,000, more than quadruple any other school in the Southeastern Conference. For instance, in an Olympic sport that the NCAA allows six full scholarships be granted, it will cost Vanderbilt roughly $270,000 in scholarships alone. Any other SEC school need only invest, say, $45,000-$50,000. See the challenge? Imagine the disparity in football where there are 85 grants-in-aid! Stanford has won the national all-sports trophy 12 years in a row and its endowment of over $375 million is a major reason. It is generating millions and millions of dollars annually — and forever — so that the Cardinal can move forward in other avenues. Ohio State Cracks Century Income Barrier As another measure of how far today’s dollar goes, a news item recently came across my desk that was cause for a double-take. Ohio State University just became the first collegiate athletics program to generate over $100 million of revenue in a single year. It is safe to say this is significantly more than the Vanderbilts of the world are taking in. The Buckeyes have their huge stadium, $58 per game football tickets, bowl payout and a large alumni base donating big dollars for the right to buy two tickets. They have also been a perennial national contender. It was just a matter of time before some state school giant was bound to hit the $100 million mark. Texas is about one year away from it and others can’t be far behind. It was interesting to me that OSU managed to net just over $2 million profit from that $100 total. It is every expensive to compete at the Division-I level. Wear it and Win Promotion If you wear your Vanderbilt t-shirt to the mall or grocery store, you might just become an instant winner. Members of the marketing staff are carrying coupons that they are awarding to people they see wearing Vanderbilt merchandise. These coupons are for a buy one-get one free ticket to our Tennessee State game September 23. Soccer in Top 25 Vanderbilt women’s soccer is rated anywhere from No. 19 to twenty-fifth in four pre-season polls. The Commodores open their season Friday at home against Colorado. Tyler Griffin, our Athlete of the Year last year, was chosen as one of the nation’s Elite 12 players by Soccer Buzz Magazine. Commodore Call-In Starts August 28 Commodore Call-In with Bobby Johnson comes on 104.5 The Zone starting August 28. The show is broadcast each week from Commodore Sports Bar & Grille at 7 p.m. For more information about the show, visit this link. |
