A fun fact about the football coach at Eastern Michigan University.
EMU is one of many pathetic Division I schools in these here United States. But even by the standards of that tawdry deluded crew, EMU stands out.
Further facts, from a long article by Pete Bigelow:
The athletic department reported $19.8 million in revenues in 2009. Of that amount, $14.9 million came from direct institutional support and $1.6 million came from student fees.
That $16.5 million represents 83.4 percent of the school’s athletic budget, the highest percentage of direct institutional support any athletic department received among the Mid-American Conference’s 13 member institutions.
Athletes make up 2.5 percent of EMU’s overall student body, but receive more than 20 percent of the university’s financial aid budget. The athletes’ share amounts to approximately $6.7 million.
NCAA rules stipulate a school must average 15,000 fans per home football game to remain in Division I. Eastern Michigan, which averaged 6,401 fans per home game in 2010, uses $150,000 from a distribution contract with Pepsi to purchase tickets from itself at a rate of $3 apiece to remain NCAA compliant.
We buy tickets from ourselves!
Very pomo. Très simulacral. Doesn’t do anything to hide the empty stands, however.
It helps, when trying to understand the Division I losers, to imagine the presidents of these schools as Blanche DuBois, and the big football victory that will turn it all around as Belle Reve.
June 21st, 2011 at 10:17AM
Read down into the article and note: most of Eastern’s enrollment isn’t there for the sports or the parties.
Perhaps one of your readers can explain why Eastern even exists. Michigan is a few miles to the west, and residents of the Detroit metro area also have Wayne State and Oakland and a few feeder campuses of Michigan to choose among, as well as community colleges for each county.
At least Eastern’s sports department hasn’t gone to its nuclear option. Note that the other Mid-American programs also rely heavily on student fees and general fund money to cover sports deficits. The nuclear option would be to tell Northern Illinois or Miami of Ohio or Western Michigan to buy tickets, or else Eastern cancels the game. A forfeit, rather than a win on the field, doesn’t look so good when it comes time to issue bowl bids, and the Mid-American programs live for those odd bowl bids.
June 21st, 2011 at 12:38PM
@Stephen
EMU was founded because in 1849, a few miles was a long way to go. It continues to exist so that middle class students from rural communities don’t have to mix with working class students from Detroit.