Over the past few months, The Office of Post Secondary Education has been publishing reports of athletics expenses incurred by NCAA programs during 2011-2012 academic year. It's taken some time to gather it, but as of this past week, the most basic financial information for all the programs in the A-10 conference became available. So how did Duquesne stack up?
Expenses for Men's Basketball
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| 1 | Xavier | $4,707,053 |
| 2 | URI | 4,664,098 |
| 3 | Temple | 4,080,845 |
| 4 | Dayton | 3,978,866 |
| 5 | Richmond | 3,971,226 |
| 6 | Duquesne | 3,891,806 |
| 7 | Fordham | 3,346,930 |
| 8 | Umass | 3,245,466 |
| 9 | St Louis | 3,101,169 |
| 10 | St Joes | 3,089,503 |
| 11 | GW | 2,800,069 |
| 12 | Charlotte | 2,559,471 |
| 13 | St Bona | 2,060,910 |
| 14 | Lasalle | 2,046,119 |
Expenses for Women's Basketball
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| 1 | GW | $2,259,399 |
| 2 | Temple | 2,216,341 |
| 3 | Fordham | 2,116,454 |
| 4 | St Joes | 2,058,511 |
| 5 | Xavier | 1,990,868 |
| 6 | Dayton | 1,877,718 |
| 7 | Duquesne | 1,788,358 |
| 8 | Richmond | 1,745,945 |
| 9 | Umass | 1,735,504 |
| 10 | URI | 1,724,050 |
| 11 | Charlotte | 1,493,548 |
| 12 | Lasalle | 1,483,266 |
| 13 | St Louis | 1,468,443 |
| 14 | St Bona | 1,051,861 |
Expenses for all men's sports excluding football and basketball
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| 1 | Umass | $4,140,030 |
| 2 | GW | 3,636,309 |
| 3 | Fordham | 3,249,661 |
| 4 | St Joes | 3,223,506 |
| 5 | Temple | 2,718,564 |
| 6 | Xavier | 2,453,283 |
| 7 | Lasalle | 2,450,959 |
| 8 | URI | 2,388,379 |
| 9 | Charlotte | 2,350,723 |
| 10 | Dayton | 2,149,628 |
| 11 | St Louis | 2,118,317 |
| 12 | Richmond | 1,972,649 |
| 13 | St Bona | 1,514,712 |
| 14 | Duquesne | 1,224,019 |
Expenses for all women's sports excluding basketball
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| 1 | Fordham | $5,760,501 |
| 2 | Temple | 5,705,929 |
| 3 | GW | 5,480,063 |
| 4 | Umass | 5,402,541 |
| 5 | URI | 5,053,762 |
| 6 | Richmond | 4,654,534 |
| 7 | Duquesne | 3,766,057 |
| 8 | Dayton | 3,750,354 |
| 9 | Lasalle | 3,743,403 |
| 10 | St Joes | 3,531,394 |
| 11 | St Louis | 3,213,400 |
| 12 | Xavier | 2,766,484 |
| 13 | Charlotte | 2,651,151 |
| 14 | St Bona | 1,512,330 |
Expenses for Football (NEC)
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| 1 | Monmouth | 2,830,773 |
| 2 | Wagner | 2,482,218 |
| 3 | Bryant | 2,232,225 |
| 4 | Duquesne | 2,197,308 |
| 5 | Robert Morris | 1,976,296 |
| 6 | CCSU | 1,890,549 |
| 7 | Sacred Heart | 1,887,505 |
| 8 | Albany | 1,863,369 |
| 9 | St Francis | 1,773,639 |
In terms of men's basketball expenditures, the Dukes rank 6th and are solidly in the top half of the league. I don't have the exact number but Duquesne men's basketball did not surpass three million dollars last year. Looking at the Dukes increase and at URI's surge to number two in the conference, I would imagine both schools numbers are inflated by their coaching changes and the costs incurred to buy out their old coaches. .
Duquesne's expenses for women's sports are middle of the pack. Spending for miscellaneous women's sports varies widely from the nearly six million spent by Fordham to the one and a half million spent by the Bonnies while less than two million separates the top basketball spender from the bottom. In women's sports, the Dukes are closer to the top than the bottom, but there are a number of schools spending a lot more. Expect our basketball number to rise in the future as Duquesne adds a couple of extra scholarship players beginning next season (and hopefully, Suzie gets a big, fat raise).
Expenses for the men's olympic sports lag noticeably behind the rest of the department's spending. This shouldn't be surprising as resources were reallocated elsewhere when the athletic department cut four sports in 2010. We rank dead last in the conference here.
For those wondering how conference newcomers Butler and VCU stack up to the rest of the A-10, the Bulldogs would rank 6th ahead of Duquesne for men's basketball while VCU would be ranked just behind us in 8th. The Duquesne women's basketball ranking would remain unchanged at 7th as both schools' expenses fall well below ours. I excluded both programs from the full rankings as neither participated in the A-10 during the reporting period.
Cash investments into athletics now may not yield much return for several years to come. The costs of the coaching change may not be realized on the court for several years. It's disappointing to see the athletic department provide the non revenue men's sports a miserly sum to work with, but choices were made and the remaining sports, most importantly men's and women's basketball, seem to be in a financial position where they can succeed. Of course, when I see the second lowest spender in men's hoops winning the conference last year, I know it's not all about the money. Certainly, the Dukes need to get more bang for their buck than they have.
