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Out of curiousity, I went out to the Dept. of Education Equity in Athletics web site and collected the 2004-05 academic year enrollment and and budget (expenses) information for the ten Missouri Valley schools and the ten (with IPFW, NDSU, and SDSU) Mid-Continent schools:
Two things of note:
1) the full-time undergraduate enrollments of the schools of each conference are almost identical.
2) the Missouri Valley however spends an average of just over 4 million dollars more per institution on their athletic programs than the Mid-Continent schools do. The average Missouri Valley program spends a bit over 10 million, where the average Mid-Con program spends a bit over 6 million.
Of course, there are five scholarship football programs in the Valley (plus one non-scholarship program) and only three in the Mid-Con, so that skews things a little bit. Also NDSU's and SDSU's budgets are still ramping up with the transition from D-II to D-I.
Something to chew on.
It seems to me that a good five-year target for SDSU's athletic budget total would be somewhere between 12 to 15 million, in order to have a program that's competitive with those in the Valley, and be nationally competitive within Division I.
| MVC School | full time | athletic | MidCon School | full time | athletic | |
| MVC School | undergrad enroll | expenditures | MidCon School | undergrad enroll | expenditures | |
| Bradley | 4,995 | 8,820,074 | Centenary | 904 | 4,690,030 | |
| Creighton | 3,545 | 9,515,208 | IPFW | 6,625 | 3,545,299 | |
| Drake | 5,221 | 9,459,800 | IUPUI | 29,953 | 3,775,144 | |
| Evansville | 2,612 | 7,368,844 | North Dakota State | 10,549 | 7,668,848 | |
| Illinois State | 16,593 | 9,514,664 | Oakland | 9,278 | 5,695,346 | |
| Indiana State | 7,756 | 8,113,944 | Oral Roberts | 3,153 | 7,153,752 | |
| Missouri State | 12,740 | 11,928,300 | South Dakota State | 7,690 | 6,547,381 | |
| Northern Iowa | 13,235 | 13,714,936 | Southern Utah | 6,351 | 4,317,587 | |
| Southern Illinois | 15,060 | 10,898,047 | UMKC | 5,389 | 10,629,306 | |
| Wichita State | 7,217 | 12,146,325 | Western Illinois | 9,789 | 7,150,821 | |
| TOTALS | 88,974 | 101,480,142 | TOTALS | 89,681 | 61,173,514 |
1) the full-time undergraduate enrollments of the schools of each conference are almost identical.
2) the Missouri Valley however spends an average of just over 4 million dollars more per institution on their athletic programs than the Mid-Continent schools do. The average Missouri Valley program spends a bit over 10 million, where the average Mid-Con program spends a bit over 6 million.
Of course, there are five scholarship football programs in the Valley (plus one non-scholarship program) and only three in the Mid-Con, so that skews things a little bit. Also NDSU's and SDSU's budgets are still ramping up with the transition from D-II to D-I.
Something to chew on.
It seems to me that a good five-year target for SDSU's athletic budget total would be somewhere between 12 to 15 million, in order to have a program that's competitive with those in the Valley, and be nationally competitive within Division I.