Shaozhuo Cui | Special to The Roanoke Times

A few Highlanders fans cheer on the Radford University women's soccer team as it returns to the field for the second half of its home opener, a 2-2 tie against Evansville, on Aug. 24 at the Dedmon Center. Radford lost to Duke in Friday's first round of the NCAA tournament.

The Roanoke Times | File 2003

Throngs of Radford fans get emotional after the basketball team takes its No. 6 seed into the final of the 2003 Big South Conference tournament. The Highlanders battled from 11 points down to upset No. 2 Liberty on March 7, 2003.

Any time Virginia Tech plays in Lane Stadium, the place is filled with boisterous fans clad in maroon and orange cheering and chanting and rattling their keys.

Players on the field, led by coach Frank Beamer, aim for another victory and a trip to another major bowl game.

It's quite a contrast from two decades ago, when the Hokies nearly took a hard turn away from big-time athletics.

The program was in deep financial trouble and university officials considered sharing a smaller stage with other independent East Coast schools, such as Rutgers University and the University of Delaware.

But Virginia Tech leaders decided that would not be acceptable to alumni -- including many major donors -- and wouldn't necessarily be a good long-term financial option.

So the Hokies made the commitment to build an athletic program that would attract attention.

Now Radford University is making the same kind of calculation.

After years of trailing behind the spending of its Big South competitors, the Highlanders are bumping up their athletics budget and committing to build a Division I collegiate program worthy of the name.

A successful athletic program's benefits go beyond the playing field, proponents say. They see big-time college sports as a powerful promotional machine inviting potential students and donors to look into the classrooms and laboratories beyond the athletic facilities.

"There's not a chemistry page in the newspaper," Tech athletics director Jim Weaver said. "There's not a mechanical engineering page. There's not an architectural page. But there's a sports page."

Excellence in any field can breed improvement in every field, Radford University President Penelope Kyle said.

"We certainly know that these people who do extraordinarily well in any particular program -- whether it's athletics or it's Harvard in academics -- if you find that one peak of excellence," Kyle said, "it brings others to your campus for reasons other than that one peak of excellence."

Still others see big-time sports as a distraction from the university's real mission, drawing donors' dollars away from academics while having no real effect on the quality of students who apply for admission.

"To me, the top priority of a university should be academic programs," said John Duke, a Tech engineering science and mechanics professor for 30 years. "It's my guess that a better student is less likely to take great advantage of the athletic programs."

Both sides agree on at least one thing: It takes a lot of money to run a Division I sports program.

Nearly all schools lose money on athletics

In 2007, Tech athletics reported revenues of $65.6 million. That's larger than the operating budgets of seven of the university's eight colleges.

It's also nearly $10 million more than what the athletics department reported spending. But that margin shrinks to under $4 million when you subtract the money Tech athletics collected in mandatory student fees.

But making money from college athletics remains the exception and not the rule.

Only 17 of the nation's more than 300 Division I college athletic programs made money between 2004 and 2006, according to an NCAA report released in March, after removing revenues for mandatory student fees and state and institutional funding.

The NCAA won't say which schools turned a profit, but 16 of them are, like Tech, in the Football Bowl Subdivision -- schools with football teams eligible for bowl games.

Tech, for all its on-field success, was not among them.

According to a copy of its filing to the NCAA, Tech lost $3.9 million from 2004 to 2006, nearly $15 million better than the median for FBS schools.

Across those three years, Radford lost $16.9 million, about $1 million less than the median for other Division I programs without football, according to the school's filing.

Despite lucrative coaching contracts and new facility construction, Tech athletics was in the black in 2007, by the report's standards.

But the department wasn't always so relatively prosperous.

In 1987, when the athletics budget was about a tenth of what it is now, the department had to borrow $400,000 to make payroll. It took three years to pay that off.

Bill Dooley, the football coach and athletics director, had been paid to leave after the 1986 season. The football team had no conference and generated little money.

Sanctions for NCAA violations dogged the football and basketball teams. Tech administrators decided athletics needed more oversight, so they moved the previously independent program under university control.

In the two decades since, the football team has developed into a national power that generates $40 million annually, and the school boasts nationally prominent basketball, soccer and softball programs.

RU's athletic spending has jumped 23 percent

Just 15 miles from Lane Stadium, Radford University is an athletic world away from Virginia Tech.

Beamer's $2.25 million compensation package would have paid for all of Radford's coaches and most of the athletic support staff in 2007.

The Highlanders' athletic budget jumped 23 percent this fall, to about $8.9 million -- roughly what Tech spent in 1991.

That leaves Radford far behind the top spending schools in its conference, according to Randy Butt, who spent more than 20 years in Virginia Tech athletics before becoming executive associate athletic director at Radford in March 2007.

"It's a tremendous step," Butt said of the budget growth, "but we all understand it's not where we need to be."

Radford is moving from a program that had intercollegiate teams sharing practice space with intramural teams, from student athletes sharing workout space with townspeople, to what Radford athletics director Robert Lineburg calls a true Division I model.

Now teams have priority for practice times and facilities. The baseball and softball teams share a new indoor practice space. The Dedmon Center -- Radford's basketball court, aquatic center and athletic department headquarters -- is undergoing a $15.78 million renovation.

"My vision for our student athletes," Lineburg said, "is to be self-contained in one area where their locker rooms are, where their strength and conditioning is, where their training room is and where their learning enhancement center is."

There are other needs, too.

The Highlanders' men's tennis team has been to the NCAA tournament two years running. Martin Sayer, the team's best player, has gone for three straight years.

But Radford doesn't have an indoor tennis facility. When Radford hosted the Big South tournament a year ago, bad weather forced the Highlanders to call Tech to ask if they could finish the tournament at the Hokies' facility.

Looking for dollars

Throughout Division I, ticket sales and donations make up for more than half the money athletic programs raise. At Tech, football is the big money generator.

Radford is depending on men's basketball, which kicked off its season Friday night at home by beating Brevard 74-55.

Last year, Radford's men's team brought in just $4,541 in ticket sales. The women's team added $1,137. That's less than the Hokies get from one men's basketball game.

Kyle is convinced the big money is in potential donors' pockets.

"We really need to focus on the fundraising," she said. "We need to put a lot of effort into that."

Tech has being doing that for some time.

In 1994, when Lu Merritt became director of development for Tech athletics, the program raised $3.1 million in contributions. That's more than 18 times what Radford athletics collected last year. It's also $20.6 million less than Tech athletics received in 2007.

A Tech football ticket has a face value of $44. But the right to purchase tickets can cost fans thousands of dollars. At Tech and other big-time programs, ticket and parking availability is determined by a point system that measures annual and cumulative donations to athletics. In that way, athletics donations serve as tax-deductible seat licenses.

Across the country, about a quarter of all donations to colleges go to athletics.

In 1994, athletic donations made up about 13 percent of total donations to Tech through its foundation.

But for the past several years, that portion has been about 30 percent -- roughly double what the second-place College of Engineering gets. Academic departments can't offer quite the same perks as athletics.

Merritt said fundraisers work in the "spirit of collegiality" and organize their efforts to avoid battles over donors. But, he admits, "it can get competitive."

"Fundraisers do worry about that," Tech spokesman Larry Hincker said. "And I know that our people have as well. And the notion there is that athletics could suck up money that may be going someplace else.

"Now conversely, we've actually seen people who began as major athletic donors convert to become major donors on the academic side."

Radford almost looks forward to the day when it has such challenges, though Kyle said, "We intend to control that very carefully."

Student fees help pay the tab for sports teams

In some ways, college athletics operate in a financial silo of their own, separate from the academic enterprise.

Funding for Beamer's salary does not come from tax dollars that pay faculty. And ticket sales at Lane Stadium do not help build new residence halls. But cash can leak both ways through that silo's walls.

At Radford, the university is paying for renovations to the Dedmon Center.

At Tech, the athletic department raises money for athletic facilities. When the university uses Lane Stadium or Cassell Coliseum for events such as graduation, the university pays the athletic department. That accounts for the $382,363 in "direct institutional support" Tech athletics received from the university in the 2007 fiscal year.

But the popularity of Tech athletics helps fund scholarships for nonstudent athletes. About 90 percent of Hokie paraphernalia that people buy carry images associated with athletics. Only $378,000 of the $1.7 million in net licensing revenue in 2007-08 went to athletic scholarships. The rest went to other university scholarship programs.

Many of the consumers of that Hokie gear are students. But even those students who don't care about Hokie sports support it. A student could go to Tech for four years without attending a single athletic event but would still pay an annual fee of $232 to contribute to the $6.1 million total in student support for athletics.

That fee is relatively low, thanks to the large student body and the other sources of revenue that pour into athletics. Schools without major revenue-producing programs have to lean more heavily on student athletics fees.

Radford students put $5.78 million into athletics last year. This year, they'll give about $1.6 million more. That's a mandatory $897 athletic fee from each full-time student that goes strictly to intercollegiate sports.

Until last year, Radford's licensing revenue -- about $35,000 -- went to the school's general account. Now it goes to athletics.

Sports are a university's 'front porch' to the world

Weaver, who played and coached football under Joe Paterno at Penn State, said sports have a place in college because they represent "the fiber of the American spirit." But the most common metaphor among athletics boosters seems to be a front porch.

"So many times, the front porch of a university is the athletics program," Lineburg said. "Athletics draws passion among people. And I think that at the end of the day, that athletics is an integral part of the mission of the university and it helps drive admissions and school spirit."

Kyle agrees.

"For programs like our neighbor's, that has created a vast amount of interest in that school that I think is good for academics," she said.

"I think all of these accoutrements, whether it's the fact that we have Greek life at Radford, whether it's a club sport like rugby that takes a national championship, whether it's a strong intramural program -- I think all of that makes a student's life while they're in college. And I think for us to attract the student body that we want to attract and that we want to keep, all those parts need to be working."

Kyle points to a George Mason University study about the school's appearance in the Final Four of the 2006 NCAA men's basketball tournament.

Applications at GMU increased 22 percent the following year. Out-of-state applications went up 40 percent. Athletic fundraising rose 52 percent the year after the Final Four run.

Chalking up school success to the Vick Effect

Some university studies claim there's a "Flutie Effect."

Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie beat Miami with a Hail Mary pass as time expired in a nationally televised game in 1984. The next year, applications at BC went up 12 percent.

At Tech, the Flutie phenomenon might be more properly called the Vick Effect.

In 1999, quarterback Michael Vick led the Hokies to an undefeated regular season. Applications increased 14 percent the following fall.

Norrine Bailey-Spencer, Tech's recently retired director of undergraduate admissions, acknowledges that success in athletics has increased Tech's profile, but she isn't convinced of a connection with applications.

"We've all taken Stats 101," she said. "Coincidence is not the same as causality."

If it were, Marcus Vick's nationally televised and endlessly replayed intentional stomp on a fallen Louisville Cardinal in 2006 could be credited with the record number of applications Tech received the following spring.

And Michael Vick's pleading guilty to charges related to dog fighting last year could account for this year's record number of applications.

Both are highly unlikely.

Appalachian State University pulled off perhaps the biggest upset in college football history last fall when it defeated traditional powerhouse University of Michigan on Michigan's home field.

Applications were up nearly 17 percent this year, but Jane Nicholson, the university's news director, said she doesn't think it's because of the game. Western Carolina University had a big increase, too, Nicholson said, and the Catamounts didn't have a similar gridiron success.

The University of North Carolina's general administration had forecast a significant rise in college applications all across North Carolina and predict increased applications all the way through 2017.

The UNC seers aren't foretelling statewide athletic success. They're expecting more students to graduate from North Carolina's high schools.

Nevertheless, in a market where schools are constantly looking to separate themselves, many have decided that sports are a wise investment. If athletics doesn't generate bottom-line profit, there's always the hope that one magical play or season will create a boon for image, student recruitment and alumni giving.

But athletic success is a relative concept.

There can only be 25 top-25 teams. So if a newcomer breaks into that group through lucrative contracts for coaches or new facilities, other schools follow that lead. And once a school starts down that path with a major investment, it's difficult to go back.

"The problem, I think, with being successful in college athletics, is if you start to be unsuccessful," said Duke, the Tech professor.

"If so much of what you do and what you are depends on that ... if you're starting to count on that for your luster, if you start to not be successful, what seems to happen is people start to get desperate."

Sharing the wealth

Only two of Tech’s 21 intercollegiate teams — football and men’s basketball — made a profit in the 2006-07 fiscal year. Football netted $14.3 million after expenses, and men’s basketball netted $3.8 million. Those profits, along with mandatory student athletics fees, provide support to nonrevenue sports, which lost a combined $3.9 million.

Salaries

An NCAA report on revenues and expenditures of athletics departments from 2004 to 2006 shows that coaches’ salaries are a major cost driver in college athletics. In 2006 the median salary for men’s basketball coaches at Football Bowl Subdivision schools was $611,900. The median salary for a head football coach at those schools in 2006 was $855,500.

According to a Chronicle of Higher Education survey of 182 presidents at public research universities and public university systems, the median salary in 2006-07 was $397,349.

The following is a comparison of 2007-08 salaries at Virginia Tech and Radford University:

Charles Steger, Tech president: $719,892 (includes car allowance, $220,000 deferred compensation and $22,852 performance bonus) Penelope Kyle, RU president: $359,256 (includes $55,000 deferred compensation and $13,957 performance bonus) Both university presidents are also provided a house. Kyle is also provided a car.

Frank Beamer, Tech head football coach: $2.25 million (includes performance bonuses and $115,000 in compensation from Nike USA, Inc. and International Sports Properties)

Seth Greenberg, Tech men’s head basketball coach: 2008 salary: $890,070 (does not include potential performance bonuses)

Brad Greenberg, RU men’s basketball coach: $173,000 (includes $10,000 vehicle allowance and one-time $10,000 signing bonus)

Mark McNamee, Tech provost: $327,937

Wil Stanton, RU provost: $208,000 (The board of visitors voted Stanton a 20 percent pay increase in September, raising his salary to $249,600.)

Jim Weaver, Tech athletics director: $345,211

Robert Lineburg, RU athletics director: $156,000

Membership privileges

More than 11,000 people gave $23.7 million to the Virginia Tech Athletic Fund last year. Donors receive rewards for their tax-deductible donations based on the amount they give, such as rights to tickets to games and parking privileges. Donations to the fund, also know as the Hokie Club, grew from $2.9 million in 1990 to $10 million in 2000.

Radford University is still organizing its athletic foundation — it didn’t have one until May 2007. In the past, one fundraiser with the Radford University Foundation, Tom Lillard, was charged with generating money for Highlander sports. Lillard, a former Radford University student, athlete and coach, left this summer for Virginia Tech. Last year, Radford sports received $168,154 in donations.