Why the BOT Doesn't Care.

[GrimReaper]

Reserves? They actually said that? They did try to solicit donations, last I saw they had raised about $8 million over two years - although I expect most of that was more of a reclassification of donations that were coming in to the Athletic Department anyway, and were then "earmarked" for Lasch. Fungability, you know.

Phase I, I believe, the one with the tab of $35mm, to which Ira Lubert kicked in $5mm when it looked like they were coming up short. Believe the $8mm they've raised is toward Phase II which has a tab of $48mm, the remaining $40mm borrowed. As you suggest, hard to keep track of money in the Athletic Departmetn with their shifting definitions.

As a footnote, many overlook the money they've borrowed to cover the revenue shortfall caused by Covid. The last number I heard from Barbour was $25mm. Between the money they've promised to Franklin for his comp and other football program sundries; and interest on the debt, the Athletic Department surplus is getting shaved perilously thin. Better hope that Warren can negotiate a new blockbuster TV deal real quick.

 

[PSUFTG]

Phase I, I believe, the one with the tab of $35mm, to which Ira Lubert kicked in $5mm when it looked like they were coming up short. Believe the $8mm they've raised is toward Phase II which has a tab of $48mm, the remaining $40mm borrowed. As you suggest, hard to keep track of money in the Athletic Departmetn with their shifting definitions.

As a footnote, many overlook the money they've borrowed to cover the revenue shortfall caused by Covid. The last number I heard from Barbour was $25mm. Between the money they've promised to Franklin for his comp and other football program sundries; and interest on the debt, the Athletic Department surplus is getting shaved perilously thin. Better hope that Warren can negotiate a new blockbuster TV deal real quick.

That kind of brings to mind another interesting item. All the Big Ten schools get that huge media contract payout, based on football game broadcasts. I want to say that the football portion of the payout is about $40 million per year per team, but that is just a rough number off the top of my head.
In any event, with 2020's schedule being dropped from 12 games to 9 (granted, the dropped games were all out of conference, so some of them wouldn't have been part of the Big Ten contract) one would think that the networks would have somehow reduced the level of payouts. To date, I have not seen one iota of information with regard to how that was handled. Maybe it is out there, but I haven't seen it. It should be reflected in the various athletic department financial statements for 2020-2021, but I haven't seen any of them published yet. Interesting that the topic, to the best of my knowledge, has never come up in any discussions regarding Penn State athletics finances.