The Kansas City Star reported record revenues for both KU and KSU for Fiscal Year ended June 30, 2013.
KU's report shows operating revenue at $93,114,168 and operating expenses at $79,720,036 for operating profit at $13,394,132.
KSU's report shows operating revenue at $70,457,283 and operating expenses at $59,325,573 for operating profit at $11,131,710.
The KU article link at the bottom of this post points out that KU ranked 19th in the country in revenue in FY 2013! It also points out that the Big 12 in 2007 paid KU $8.4 million in television money and this has skyrocketed (to use their term) to $20.8. It was a big jump from the year before when it was $14.1 million. The five year comparison chart in today's newspaper printed article (FY 13, 12, 11, 10 and 2009) of these numbers indicates that KSU's TV revenue has grown form $11 million in 2009 to $21 million in 2013. I am not sure you can find the five year chart online but it is worth a look if you can find it.
I read these two articles and looked at the charts and I can't help but wonder why these Kansas D-1 universities should not be adding wrestling programs at this time. After reading the two articles I researched to see the latest Kansas high school sports participation numbers from the National Federations of State High School (NFHS)for 2012/2013. Wrestling ranked 5th in high school boys participation at 5,156 participants, 8.24% of the total boys participation from all Kansas sports of 62,547.
The ranking were:
1-Football- 16,189 25.88%
2-Track & Field- 9,945 15.90%
3-Basketball- 9,059 14.48%
4-Baseball- 6,143 9.82%
5-Wrestling- 5,156 8.24% 6-Soccer- 4,212 6.73%
7-Cross Country- 3,813 6.10%
8-Golf- 3,097 4.95%
9-Tennis- 2,379 3.80%
10-Swimming & Diving- 1,619 2.59%
11-Bowling- 935 1.49%
This may be the time for us as individuals and as Kansas wrestling organizations to contact our representatives and the KU & KSU Board of Regents to advocate for D-1 wrestling programs at both KU and KSU. I think that both schools could afford to have both men's wrestling and soccer programs along with any additional women programs needed to satisfy Title IX requirements.
[Here is a link to the article on the KU report:
http://www.kansascity.com/2014/03/28/4923010/ku-reports-record-93-million-in.htmlHere is a link to the artilce on the KSU report:
http://www.kansascity.com/2014/03/28/4922892/k-state-shows-athletic-surplus.html
