The N.C. State men’s basketball program is tied for No. 13 in the country. You read that right — it’s just not the No. 13 most people think of when they think about rankings.
That’s because it has nothing to do with the Associated Press or ESPN/USA Today Coaches’ polls. It is the ranking given by Forbes.com writer Peter J. Schwartz as to how valuable the program is compared to those at other universities across the country.
The system used to determine these rankings entails the value of the monetary contributions of the men’s basketball program to the University, to the athletic department, to the team’s conference and to the community through economic impact.
According to this scale, State’s program is worth $13.6 million, which is equal to that of UCLA’s team. The report also said the Wolfpack had expenses of $3.1 million, the least of the report’s 20 highlighted teams, while pulling in a $7.9 million profit a season ago.
North Carolina is listed as the No. 1 most valuable men’s basketball program at $26 million, with Duke a close fifth at $22.6 million.
But Senior Associate Athletics Director David Horning said it’s not an easy financial comparison to make among the schools.
“It doesn’t always compare apples to apples. When you’re comparing Duke’s program, North Carolina’s program, they have [a deal with] Nike, and we don’t have Nike. We have Adidas,” Horning said. “You’re comparing apples and oranges a little bit.”
Horning noted that most of the revenue for the team comes from ticket sales and the ACC’s television package.
Athletics Director Lee Fowler said the arenas teams use also play a big part in the calculations, particularly expenses. He said, for instance, North Carolina owns and operates the Dean E. Smith Center, while N.C. State only pays rent at the RBC Center.
Fowler also indicated the profit figure for men’s basketball can be deceptive when viewed alone.
“Profit’s a dangerous word to use because our whole budget revenue-wise is brought in from men’s basketball and football,” Fowler said. “And we have to support the other 21 sports we have.”
He said Sidney Lowe’s tenure as coach has not done much to affect the sport’s bottom line. That’s because, according to Fowler, the Athletics Department was already regularly selling out ACC games under former coach Herb Sendek, now the head man at Arizona State.
Fowler also suggested most of the tickets are sold for early-season games, but that many of them aren’t used.
He said even the addition of high-profile non-conference games — such as a series with Arizona featuring a 2009-2010 game in Tucson and a 2010-2011 game in Raleigh, as the schools have tentatively agreed to — might not be enough to change the attendance figures.
He cited the fact that the Davidson and Cincinnati games in December drew 14,024 and 14,648 fans, respectively, not many more fans than the 13,793 who attended a Jan. 5 game against much lesser-known Presbyterian College.
“Some of that [playing bigger-name teams] helps a little bit,” Fowler said. “But I still think most of the attendance and people showing up is going to be more after Christmas than before Christmas because of all the things going on around the holidays.”
