Are the Missouri Tigers adequately girded for costly new world of college sports?
A day of opportunity approaches for Missouri athletics.
On Sunday, coming off a resounding comeback victory over California, the Tigers will play host to top-ranked Kansas in men’s hoops. Also, Mizzou will learn its bowl destination and game-day opponent as the college football postseason takes shape.
Now, how to take advantage and build on these occasions? And, to be blunt about it, as far as athletic director Laird Veatch is concerned, cash in?
Some eight months on the job as the Tigers’ fourth athletic director in less than a decade, Veatch oversees an athletic enterprise that seeks to compete at the highest levels. That’s true of every Southeastern Conference program.
What makes the task especially challenging for Missouri is the Tigers operate with a budget that ranks near the bottom of the SEC. According to data reported by USA Today, Missouri ranked 11th of 14 in total revenue in 2023. Add the figures for Texas and Oklahoma, then in the Big 12, and the Tigers drop to 13th of 16.
And with the greatest financial demands in history facing college sports, the task of funding athletics is about to become more difficult.
“No question we’ve go through an amazing amount of change in the last few years,” Veatch said in an interview with The Star. ”And what’s about to happen will pale in comparison to what is about to happen. It’s a whole other level of evolution in our model.”
As a result of a settlement of an antitrust lawsuit between the NCAA and power conferences, schools are facing financial challenges on several major fronts: Universities will be on the hook for $2.8 billion in back pay to former athletes distributed over a 10-year period.
A direct revenue-sharing arrangement from school to athlete will cost each member institution an estimated $20 million to $22 million annually. That’s expected to begin next July.
Also, as part of new policy, scholarship caps will be removed and replaced by formal scholarship limitations. This will allow schools to offer full scholarships to an entire roster. Football’s scholarship limit will increase from 85 to 105, men’s basketball from 13 to 15, baseball from 11.7 to 34, women’s volleyball from 12 to 18.
Schools won’t be required to offer scholarships to their entire rosters, but competitive programs will look to become more fully funded.
This comes on heels of an already seismic recent change in college sports: athletes’ ability to cash in on their name, image and likeness. It’s not uncommon for a high-profile college athlete to earn a six-figure annual income, or decide to transfer — or remain in school instead of filing for the NFL or NBA draft — in order to land a better financial deal.
Laird said Missouri is in position to take advantage of the changes.
“I do believe genuinely it’s an opportunity for Mizzou, in part because we’re in the SEC. and because of our momentum right now,” Veatch said. “Things are pretty good at Mizzou. We’re winning.”
The Tigers football team will take a 9-3 record into the postseason and has a chance at consecutive double-digit victory seasons for only the third time in school history. The year they finished tied for fourth in the ultra-competitive 16-team SEC.
Football games have produced 12 consecutive sellouts at Memorial Stadium, dating to last season. Ticket prices have remained stable over that span, too.
But that’s about to change.
“We have to be willing to ask more of our fan base,” Veatch said. ”We’ve been very public about the need to increase in particular, football ticket prices, but also evolve our fund raising model and how we approach things overall.”
Veatch, like many in his profession, has experienced confusion and frustration from fans about where to direct donations. These days, there are many buckets to fill.
“It’s one of our biggest challenges,” he said. “It’s difficult even for our fund raising staff to articulate that to our donors and prospects. I’ve also found many of our biggest and best donors don’t know exactly what they’re giving, where it’s going or what they’ve done over their whole lifetime.
“We’re working toward a more simplified structure. We’ve got to find a way to streamline that and make it easier and clearer for our folks to understand.”
The objective doesn’t change. Veatch seeks to keep Missouri’s teams in a position to win. Because of sweeping changes in colleges athletes, doing so is going to cost more than ever.
“We have really good alignment with our leadership,” Veatch said. “If we continue to take that attitude and approach of being innovative, being on the front line of this new world and invest, we have a chance to continue to elevate.”
This story was originally published December 5, 2024 at 12:12 PM.