Although the season might be over for the Syracuse University men’s basketball team, the year has been a great success financially speaking.

Syracuse was ranked the ninth most valuable college basketball team in the country out of 20 teams, according to a March 17 Forbes article.

“Four trips to (or past) the Sweet 16 in the last five years helped the team generate over $4 million in conference payouts last year,” according to the article. “As a private school, Syracuse spends more on basketball scholarships than any other team on our list not named Duke.”

SU has a total team value of $21 million, according to the article. This represents a one-year increase of 10 percent. In terms of profit, the school raked in around $12.3 million.

Between July 1, 2012 and June 30, 2013, SU’s men’s basketball team had a total revenue of $26,039,030, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Postsecondary Education. The team also spent $13,788,271 during that year.

Joe Giansante, the chief of communications for SU’s athletic department, said in a March 18 Post-Standard article that he believes that the ranking is low.

“We are clearly in the top five,” Giansante said. “To me, there’s a group that shares the same qualities. There’s North Carolina, Kentucky, Kansas, Syracuse and Louisville. All have great traditions and fans. All have huge arenas that seat 20,000-plus. Because of that, they have more top-end ticket pricing, as well as average pricing. I don’t know in what order those five would fall, but to me it’s those five.”

Rick Burton, a professor of sport management in the David B. Falk School of Sport and Human Dynamics, said he thinks the ranking is “spot on.”

“They don’t usually put something out there that is assumed,” he said. “If that ranking is correct, however, I’m a little bit surprised, as we did set the attendance record for this year.”

John Wolohan, a professor of sport management, said he thought the 2013–14 basketball season would have been more successful, especially with SU’s move to the Atlantic Coast Conference.

“I haven’t looked at the numbers, but people are definitely more excited about joining the (ACC), so that brings new teams in that people want to see, like Duke,” he said.

Forbes’ methodology for calculating overall scores and ranks of a basketball team’s value involves a weighted system that considers how much money teams generate for their athletic departments, universities and fellow conference members, according to the article.

“Athletic value is team profit directed toward other sports programs, university value is team income that goes back toward academic programming and conference value measures the money generated for fellow conference members from NCAA Tournament Play,” according to the article.

SU students have responded positively to the ranking despite the early exit from the NCAA tournament Saturday.

“I really am happy to see we are that high on the list of schools, especially because we are ahead of schools like Duke,” said Sam Yusim, a freshman sport management major. “Kids love to come play here for Coach Boeheim and the program clearly has the allure to bring in top players.”

For each home basketball game at SU, the school generates around $614,000 — fifth only to Louisville, North Carolina, Arizona and Ohio State, according to a Nov. 1 ESPN article.

The move to the ACC may also generate more money for SU — the former Big East Conference bought in a total income of $94 million for 2013, according to a Jan. 16, 2013 Forbes article. In that same period of time, the ACC raked in more than double with $293 million.

Published on March 25, 2014 at 12:39 am