Summit League Men's Basketball budgets.

[kiyoat]

So how do teams in the Summit stack up against each other budget-wise?  And how does the Summit stack up vs other conferences?  Let's look.

There are three articles cited for data:

From 2018:
How much does your school spend on its men’s basketball program?

From 2020:
An Analysis Of College Basketball Return On Investment

Fun with Finances: Basketball Budgets

There is a lot of data to examine, so I'll post a little at a time.  Feel Free to look around yourself....

[kiyoat]

Current Summit League Budgets (2020)

rank	budget (mil)	school
174	2.53	Denver
201	2.25	Kansas City
209	2.18	SDSU
220	2.09	ORU
236	1.94	UND
261	1.72	NDSU
291	1.47	USD
315	1.26	Omaha
320	1.19	WIU

[kiyoat]

Conferences in "tiers" of average school budget:

High Majors (P-6) $8-$12 million
$11.7 ACC
$10.7 SEC
$10.5 Big XII
$10.0 Big East
$9.9 Big 10
$8.5 Pac 12

Mid-Majors (upper tier) $4-$7 million
$6.5 American
$5.0 Atlantic-10
$4.9 WCC
$4.2 MWC

Mid-Majors (middle tier) $2-$3 million
$3.0 C-USA
$2.9 Colonial
$2.9 MVC
$2.6 Big West
$2.5 MAAC
$2.5 WAC
$2.5 MAC
$2.3 Horizon
$2.2 Patriot
$2.1 Sun Belt

Mid-Majors (lower tier) $1.4-$2.0 million
$2.0 A-Sun
$2.0 America East
$1.8 Southern
$1.8 Summit
$1.8 OVC
$1.8 Big Sky
$1.7 NEC
$1.6 Big South
$1.4 Ivy

Low-Majors $1.0-1.3 million
$1.3 Southland
$1.2 MEAC
$1.0 SWAC

[Yote 53]

Curious thing about budgets and financials, just giving an overall budget number does not tell the entire story. I work daily in analyzing budgets and audits, you have to dig deeper to get a true picture of financial reports. I'd be most curious about different aspects of the budget. How much is spent on salaries? How much is spent on operating? How much is spent on facilities? Are the expenses for support personnel inside the AD, the athletic training dept, or maybe the S&C coach paid in part/in whole out of the basketball budget? None at all?

Take USD and UMKC, for example. It says there USD budgeted $1.47 million while UMKC budgeted $2.25 million. How much of that, if any, is budgeted for facilities? USD plays in a brand new arena. UMKC plays in an old auditorium built in the 1930's. Given that, which school is putting more resources towards their basketball program? I would say USD. The chart, however, says UMKC has the 2nd highest budget in the Summit while USD is in the bottom half of the conference.

[kiyoat]

General comment: I think USD's basketball facilities are best-in-conference. Pretty good for a below-average budget. I'd say it's between us and NDSU for doing "more with less".

Another general comment: eventually Denver and Kansas City (and St. Thomas) will make a good hire, and should be major players in MBB in the future with their investment in the sport. Notably, none of them sponsor D-1 football.

edit: St Thomas and Kansas City will need to upgrade facilities first.  Might be a little farther out.  Denver's next hire could make a big difference, though.

[kiyoat]

Here's an average school budget vs average KenPom rank for the 2003-2018 period.  The Summit is the 2nd best "return on investment" conference:

conference	budget rank	KenPom rank
Ivy	29	21
Summit	22	18
Horizon	17	14
WAC	19	16
Big Sky	26	23
OVC	27	24
A-Sun	23	27
Amer. East	21	26
NEC	25	30
Patriot	16	25

Some text from the article:

The Ivy League — which is not participating this season due to COVID-19 concerns — has made the most of its modest budget, ranking 29th in overall expenses but 21st in KenPom conference rank. Despite its strong academic emphasis, the Ivy has consistently produced some of the stronger mid-major programs in the country, recently translating to NCAA Tournament first-round upsets in 2010, 2013, 2014 and 2016.

Despite several realignment moves over the years, the Summit, Horizon and WAC have also made the most of their budgets. The Horizon, most notably, lost membership from Butler, Loyola Chicago and Valparaiso over the past decade but remains dedicated to retaining a strong basketball profile by adding Oakland, Northern Kentucky, IUPUI, Purdue Fort Wayne and Robert Morris.

The WAC, meanwhile, has experienced as much membership change as any conference. However, New Mexico State’s continued dominance and the additions of promising D-I newcomers in Cal Baptist, Dixie State and Tarleton State help the league maximize its returns.

[Yotes]

Apr 13, 2021 13:47:31 GMT -6 kiyoat said:

General comment: I think USD's basketball facilities are best-in-conference. Pretty good for a below-average budget. I'd say it's between us and NDSU for doing "more with less".

Another general comment: eventually Denver and Kansas City (and St. Thomas) will make a good hire, and should be major players in MBB in the future with their investment in the sport. Notably, none of them sponsor D-1 football.

edit: St Thomas and Kansas City will need to upgrade facilities first.  Might be a little farther out.  Denver's next hire could make a big difference, though.

KC might play in a city like the other two you named, but they have yet to show me that they actually care enough to attract a coach who would turn them into players. They've been a subpar team as far back as I can remember.

[hoopsmom]

One thing to consider in budgeting. When Hannah played at New Mexico, they flew to almost every single game. Because of geographical spacing, there is no way that any of the teams can bus to games, with the exception of Las Vegas and Nevada. So every sport, for almost every game, needs to fly. The only time they ever took a bus was to go play nonconference rival New Mexico State or a Texas school.

[kiyoat]

Apr 14, 2021 7:08:22 GMT -6 hoopsmom said:

One thing to consider in budgeting. When Hannah played at New Mexico, they flew to almost every single game. Because of geographical spacing, there is no way that any of the teams can bus to games, with the exception of Las Vegas and Nevada. So every sport, for almost every game, needs to fly. The only time they ever took a bus was to go play nonconference rival New Mexico State or a Texas school.

That's a good point.  Kansas City's MBB budget might be a little lower this season as opposed to when they were in the WAC. (These numbers are from April of 2020).  As Yote 53 said, facility quality isn't really reflected in these numbers, and coaches salaries might give a better picture of who is "investing" in basketball.

Statistics like this still give a picture, just not a high-definition picture.  If someone can find a Summit MBB coaches salary data or article, or some more itemized budget data, feel free to post it here...

[fssd]

www.midmajormadness.com/2019/11/4/20946421/ncaa-basketball-head-coach-contract-salary-database-mid-major-2019-20

It not complete but you may find it helpful.

[Coyote Fan]

The Yotes are paying Todd Lee a competitive salary compared to his peers. He is paid much more than what the North Dakota U's are paying. Denver and ORU are not published but UMKC is really paying alot for their coach at 350K. WIU is only paying 132.5K.

[kiyoat]

Thanks for the link!  It was from November 2019, so it correlates fine with the data on team budgets from April 2020.  Here is the data, combined with coach acheivements: (tried to format it to fit all columns on mobile screen, let me know if I need to fix)

salary	coach	school	%MBB	#sn	plc	ave	reg	SLT	COY
?	Billups	Den	?	5	9	6.6	0	0	0
?	Mills	ORU	?	4	4	4.5	0	1	0
$350,000	Donlon	KC	15.6	1	6	6	0	0	0
$275,000	Hendo	SDSU	12.6	2	1	1	2	1	1
$265,000	Lee	USD	17.7	3	2	3.2	0	0	1
$230,000	Richman	NDSU	13.4	7	3	2.9	2	3	1
$180,353	Hansen	Omaha	14.3	9	8	5.2	0	0	1
$180,000	Sather	UND	9.3	2	5	5.5	0	0	0
$132,500	Wright*	WIU	11.1	5	-	8.5	0	0	0

* I used Coach Wright even though he didn't coach in 2021 (no data on new coach)

%MBB = percent coach salary of MBB budget
#sn = number of seasons in Summit
plc = 2001 conference place
ave = average place
reg = reg season titles
SLT = SLT titles
COY = Coach of the Year awards

[kiyoat]

Some quick comments on this data:

Of the reporting schools, Lee is competitively paid.

Despite the lack of championships, our average finish (3.2) has been very good under Lee, and on-target for his competitive pay IMHO.

Similar to Coach Smith's last two years, we are staying within striking distance of championships in this league. Just need to break through. Recruiting will be key.

[kiyoat]

I'm digging up this old thread from a couple years ago, because a found a recent article on BB coaching salaries (both men's and women's) from USA Today.  It was last updated in mid-March this year (2024)

Mens:
sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries/mens-basketball/coach

Womens:
sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries/womens-basketball/coach

(also has Football)

I'll probably do some data compilation when I have time (not today), but feel free to peruse it and post your own discoveries...

edit: I guess only the top - 86 women's and top- 89 men's salaries are listed.

[kiyoat]

Here are the top 10 paid WBB mid-major coaches:

#46 $632,983 L Fortier --------Gonzaga (WCC)
#60 $444,144 B Brooks -------Belmont (MVC)
#61 $346,500 B Cunningham Mo State (MVC)
#62 $339,500 A Johnston ----SDSU (Summit)
#64 $265,000 K Haynie ------Cent Mich (MAC)
#65 $255,120 K Karius -------USD (Summit)
#66 $250,000 B Burke -------Buffalo (MAC)
#79 -----------A Pohlman -----Drake (MVC)
#80 -----------S Gardner -----Mercer (SoCon)
#81 -----------C Berube ------Princeton (Ivy)

Seems about right.  The top-2 Summit teams paying right in-line with the top-two MAC teams and the top-3 MVC teams.  Gonzaga paying closer to a high-major level.  There are probably a few consistently good mid-majors that are absent from this list.  BYU comes to mind.