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Boise State has the most success per dollar

By Damien Alambra
Jake Roth-USA TODAY Sports

This news came out yesterday (and MAD MACGYVER posted it in the FanShots) but I wanted to touch base a little bit on here.

The mothership, SB Nation, came out with a fun chart showing the teams who have the most success per dollar.

chart

Basically telling us what we have known for quite a while: Boise State has been maximizing their wins versus the dollars they have been spending on the football program. And it's not just by a little. The Boise State program is quite a ways in the positive compared to the next closest team (which is Nevada). This has been a tendency for a while.

And that is awesome!

What else can we glean from the list?

Well, Idaho does not have quite the success as the Vandals seem to think they either do, or should. Which also begs the question regarding their status after the last two years in the Sun Belt. If they go independent, will their dollar-efficiency get even worse? How about going to the FCS? Would they be able to win more to justify the spending that they do? If Idaho decides to go the independent route, how much further away from efficiency would they have to fall in order to drop down to FCS? Even Bronco Mendenhall confessed that independence was not feasible for BYU in the longterm. I see nothing that would prove otherwise for the Vandals. Unless they get picked up by an FBS conference, they will ultimately end up in the FCS.

Another note regarding football expenditures and "funny" accounting:

In the 2014 fiscal year, 26 of the 115 schools in our data set (22.6 percent), reported profits of $0, meaning their football-related expenses and revenues were exactly equal. If we are to believe the accounting, about one-fourth of college football programs at the top level neither profit nor lose a single dollar.

So how did Boise State do in this regard?

MAD MACGYVER, again, with the posting: state of Idaho intercollegiate athletics report.

The entire Boise State athletics department had a net revenue of $10,011 (on page Tab 1 BSU page 1). Idaho State: $0 (Tab 1 ISU page 1). And our dear friends up north? Idaho: $0 (Tab 1 UI page 1). Yup. The Vandals broke juuust even with their revenue and expenditures. How convenient.

The Mountain West has two of the most efficient teams in Boise State and Nevada. Then BYU and then Arkansas State. While Harsin's stay at the Red Wolves was quite brief, he helped keep their success relatively high. San Diego State is barely losing money while UNLV is leaking (relatively) like a sieve.

So, all-in-all conclusions?

Sounds about right to me.

Your Turn

What do you think? While I highly doubt that Boise State is innocent of any funny accounting, they are at least showing some sort of profit on the books. And being able to show the fan base, and outsiders, that football at least holds its own, money-wise, is a great bragging point!