APRIL 1988 Student Body

U_ THE NATIONAL COLLEGE NEWSPAPER 31

APRIL 1988 * Student Body U. THE NATIONAL COLLEGE NEWSPAPER 31

Graduation for the Middlebury U. (VT) class of 1987.5 took place gowns and skiied a processional run to receive their diplomas at the
without the traditional walk down the aisle to the tune of Pomp and bottom. The ceremony came off with only three wipe-outs and no
ircumstance. Instead, the students donned parkas under their serious injuries. ERIK BORG THE MIDDLEBURY CAMPOS MIDDLEBURY U VT
Football
Continued From Page 25 s
To keep all the sports in business, the
Athletic Department must deal in con-
solidated financial statements. The re-
venue generated by football helps sup-
ort the other teams, Groff said.
} "If we ran this strictly as a business,
we'd eliminate 14 sports," he said.
"There's just no way some of them will
make money. We stretch the dollars,
rimarily from football, to cover our
ther operations."
For non-conference televised games,
he NCAA gets four percent. Of the re-
aining 96 percent, half is given to each
eam. The university's share is divided
half; half goes to the Southwest Con-
.rence, the other half goes to the Athle-
ic Department.
For conference games that are tele-
ised, the NCAA gets four percent. Fif-
een percent of the remainder goes to
ach team, and the rest goes to the
outhwest Conference.
So for non-conference games, Texas A
M receives 24 percent of the contract
evenue. And for conference games,
ey get about 14.4 percent of the
oney.
For example, ESPN paid $590,000 for
he television rights to the A & M-U. of
exas game. The NCAA got $23,600,
he four percent assessment. The
chools each received $84,960, and the
outhwest Conference got $396,480,
roff said.
Bowl games also bring in money,
roff said. The revenue from the Cotton
Fowl game is divided three ways-37.5
percent of the money goes to each team,
and 25 percent goes to the Cotton Bowl.
Of the 37.5 percent share that comes
to A & M, the Athletic Department
keeps about $300,000. After this is de-
ducted, A & M gets 15 percent of the
leftover money. The remainder goes to
the Southwest Conference.
An information sheet published by
he Aggie Club said A & M's share of the
otton Bowl income was about $2.1 mil-
lion. But A & M retained only $604,953
after sending about $1.5 million to the
Southwest Conference.
A & M has lost much of its revenue to
the Southwest Conference, Groff said.
'If we were independent, we would be
about $4.5 million richer. Of course,
we've been successful the past three
years. There have been prior years
hen we would have been hurting if we
adn't had that money from the Confer-
ence."