The Case for Dayton

[ohiohsbball]

Stanford 70, Dayton, 61

NC State 74 Xavier 59- Play in game.

All in good fun!!

[BEX]

We've been there - done that - not once every 30 yrs.

2012 2-1 Defeated Notre Dame in first round, 67-63
Defeated Lehigh in second round, 70-58
Lost to Baylor in regional semifinal, 75-70
2011 0-1 Lost to Marquette in first round, 66-55
2010 2-1 Defeated Minnesota in first round, 65-54
Defeated Pittsburgh in second round, 71-68
Lost to Kansas State in regional semifinal, 101-96
2009 2-1 Defeated Portland State in first round, 77-59
Defeated Wisconsin in second round, 60-49
Lost to Pittsburgh in regional semifinal, 60-55
2008 3-1 Defeated Georgia in first round, 73-61
Defeated Purdue in second round, 85-78
Defeated West Virginia in regional semifinal, 79-75
Lost to UCLA in regional final, 76-57
2007 1-1 Defeated Brigham Young in first round, 79-77
Lost to Ohio State in second round, 78-71
2006 0-1 Lost to Gonzaga in first round, 79-75
2004 3-1 Defeated Louisville in first round, 80-70
Defeated Mississippi State in second round, 89-74
Defeated Texas in regional semifinal, 79-71
Lost to Duke in regional final, 66-63
2003 1-1 Defeated Troy in first round, 71-59
Lost to Maryland in second round, 77-64
2002 1-1 Defeated Hawaii in first round, 70-58
Lost to Oklahoma in second round, 78-65
2001 0-1 Lost to Notre Dame in first round, 83-71

[Schickrateez]

I would like to ask that we please move past this Xavier/Dayton thing. It was one of the big reasons I was so happy about moving to the Big East...no more message board endless arguments between the two fan bases. I know both sides want to take shots, defend their school, or make their case. But, seriously enough. Xavier has been in the Big East for about a year, and I'm willing to bet most of the posters here from the other BE schools are already tired of reading (probably have been for some time). I can't control what anyone does, but I would ask Xavier fans to just stop engaging (or instigating). The reason I say this, is you have nothing to prove to anyone. I think everyone knows that Xavier has had some pretty nice success in the tournament in the past 10-15 years, and Xavier is now in the Big East. Let's focus on our team, our league, etc.

[XU85]

I would like to ask that we please move past this Xavier/Dayton thing. It was one of the big reasons I was so happy about moving to the Big East...no more message board endless arguments between the two fan bases. I know both sides want to take shots, defend their school, or make their case. But, seriously enough. Xavier has been in the Big East for about a year, and I'm willing to bet most of the posters here from the other BE schools are already tired of reading (probably have been for some time). I can't control what anyone does, but I would ask Xavier fans to just stop engaging (or instigating). The reason I say this, is you have nothing to prove to anyone. I think everyone knows that Xavier has had some pretty nice success in the tournament in the past 10-15 years, and Xavier is now in the Big East. Let's focus on our team, our league, etc.

Sounds reasonable enough.

[aughnanure]

I'm legitimately confused why you would even take offense to someone calling themselves THE University of Dayton. Is there another Dayton school you feel Dayton is slighting?

Actually, I thought Dayton was just trolling THE Ohio State University.

[SecureDaBall]

I would like to ask that we please move past this Xavier/Dayton thing. It was one of the big reasons I was so happy about moving to the Big East...no more message board endless arguments between the two fan bases. I know both sides want to take shots, defend their school, or make their case. But, seriously enough. Xavier has been in the Big East for about a year, and I'm willing to bet most of the posters here from the other BE schools are already tired of reading (probably have been for some time). I can't control what anyone does, but I would ask Xavier fans to just stop engaging (or instigating). The reason I say this, is you have nothing to prove to anyone. I think everyone knows that Xavier has had some pretty nice success in the tournament in the past 10-15 years, and Xavier is now in the Big East. Let's focus on our team, our league, etc.

Well said.

As an outside observer of this rivalry, Xavier fans flexing their e-muscles by posting that Xavier will never let Dayton be admitted into the Big East is just as annoying as Dayton fans posting repeatedly the same facts about their team. I am glad Xavier is in the BE. They add alot to the league. Hopefully whoever is added next does the same.

[mtkc12]

This will be my last post on the matter, but I wanted to respond to Schickrateez's note. I agree that this should not a Xavier/Dayton thing. I'd be sick of that too if I were you. Hell, I'm sick of it.

My points are about the future of the conference--and how the members need to respond to the changing dynamics of college basketball. The Big East cannot stand idle right now--or do so at your own risk.

Dmac80 (a Providence fan, I might add) started a conversation about the ACC going to Barclay's in 2017 and 2018. He hit that nail on the head. This should scare all of you to death. Step back for a minute and think about what % of the New York locals are going to head to Brooklyn instead of MSG for college basketball in March of those two years. It will be a novelty, it will be Coach K and Carolina Blue and the Fighting Irish...but most of all, it will be Syracuse. And after those two years, you may have a big fat issue on your hands. The contrast between those two tournaments (attendance, excitement, the overall feeling of being "big time"--as well as how it's covered by ESPN) will provide a stark contrast--so you had better start to think hard and fast about how to improve the conference's relevance between now and then or that will deal this league a serious blow.

I'm writing all of this information because I clearly believe the Big East is the best option for Dayton--and that the final chapters to a 25 year conference evolution are upon us. It's pick your partners now and forever hold your peace. And I hope that Dayton ends up with Seton Hall, Providence, St. John's, Georgetown, Villanova, Butler, Xavier DePaul, Marquette, and Creighton. Those are great schools and great partners for the long haul--for basketball, but for lots of other reasons as well (detailed previously).

You have the nucleus to a relevant and unique conference, but you need to adapt to a rapidly changing landscape. In addition to the ACC announcement, the conference just had a poor inaugural performance in the NCAA and have lost one of its signature coaches. None of these are fatal, but you need to start responding to this changing environment. The FBS conferences all want you to fail. You, collectively, need to figure out how to react to these changing dynamics and establish a sustainable strategy that will allow you to prevail.

Good luck and Godspeed!

[SecureDaBall]

This should scare all of you to death.

And the Oscar for dramatic performance on a college sports message board goes to.....

We are posting our opinions on college students playing a kids game. Let's get some perspective.

[BEX]

Dayton should stay in the a-10. It's their best chance for success with all the better teams moving on. I'm done.

[HoosierPal]

Article on Dayton from Bloomberg today:



Dayton Basketball Enters Round of 16 Beating UConn in Revenue


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Dayton Basketball Enters Round of 16 Beating UConn in Revenue

2014-03-27 14:44:49.919 GMT



By Eben Novy-Williams

March 27 (Bloomberg) -- The University of Dayton’s basketball team is flying high on the court and off, competing with -- and out earning -- powerhouses with bigger athletic programs.

Even though it spends less on its program than any of the 15 other schools remaining in college basketball’s national tournament, Dayton ranks eighth in profit, according to data schools submit to the U.S. Department of Education. The Flyers face Stanford to open the Round of 16 tonight in Memphis.

Athletic Director Tim Wabler credits the school’s fans -- who contribute $3.3 million annually in required season ticket donations and have kept the program’s attendance among the country’s Top 30 for the past 17 years. Dayton, a Catholic university with an undergraduate enrollment of 8,000, brings in 84 percent more men’s basketball revenue than three-time tournament champion University of Connecticut, with about half the expenses.

“Flyers fans have really always been there for this team,” Wabler said in a telephone interview. “In a lot of ways, with this year’s success they are being rewarded for their longstanding support.”

A No. 11 seed in the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament, Dayton advanced to the Round of 16 with upsets of sixth-seed Ohio State and third-seeded Syracuse, earning congratulations on Twitter from U.S. President Barack Obama. After the second win, university president Dan Curran crowd-surfed through a mob celebrating in Dayton, and fans gathered the following morning at 3:30 a.m. to welcome the team bus when it returned to campus.


Basketball Revenue


Dayton’s basketball team generated $11.3 million in revenue in fiscal 2013, against $3.9 million in expenses, according to the documents on the Equity in Athletics Data Analysis website.

The program has returned $2.72 in revenue for every dollar it spent on men’s basketball over the past five years, trailing only Ohio State, Arizona, North Carolina and Louisville in college basketball’s top division.

Andrew Zimbalist, a sports economist who wrote the book “Unpaid Professionals: Commercialism and Conflict in Big-Time College Sports,” said Dayton’s location in the central U.S. -- what Wabler called “basketball country” -- marketing and avid fans boost revenue. He also said the school’s lack of top- division football may help. “It concentrates attention and energy on basketball,” Zimbalist said in a telephone interview.

The Dayton basketball team accounted for about half of the athletic department’s $23 million revenue in fiscal 2013. The football team, which competes in the Football Championship Subdivision, brought in $197,346 in revenue against $1 million in expenses. The department as a whole broke even.


Fan Support


Flyers coach Archie Miller, who this week received a contract extension through 2019, said after the team’s victory over Syracuse that the support of the Dayton athletic department and its fans matched the country’s most prominent programs.

“If you’re a player at our place, you experience the same stuff that you can experience at a Syracuse in terms of the way they’re cared about and treated,” said Miller, 35.

Dayton requires a donation to the basketball program from anyone buying one of the roughly 6,000 season tickets in the lower portion of University of Dayton Arena. The donations amount to $3.3 million in annual revenue, according to Wabler. Combine that with the roughly $3.5 million the program receives from ticket sales, and fans getting in the door account for more than half the program’s revenue total. “The real key for us is that there’s such a demand for arena seating that it gave us that opportunity,” Wabler said.


Corporate Sponsorships


The program also receives more than $2 million in annual corporate sponsorships at the 13,455-seat arena, according to Wabler. The school owns the arena, which includes eight suites and lounges.

Defending NCAA champion Louisville, which faces Kentucky tomorrow, had $42.4 million in revenue in 2013, $16.4 million more than the next closest program. A majority of that revenue comes from ticket sales at the KFC Yum! Center and donations which, like Dayton, includes requirements tied to its 71 suites and premium seating.

“So Dayton’s $11 million in revenue is certainly healthy, but it doesn’t make them an outlier in terms of the best basketball schools in the country,” said Zimbalist, who cautioned that the education department’s data doesn’t have a standard accounting system.

Dayton, which plays in the Atlantic 10 Conference, has reached the NCAA tournament finals once, in 1967, when it lost to UCLA. The team last reached the Round of 16 in 1984.


Traveling Fans



Outside of Dayton, Flyers fans have a reputation among invitational tournaments as a passionate group that follows the team to away games. Dayton played in the Maui Invitational last November, and will travel to the Puerto Rico Tip-Off next season.

“The Dayton fans were out in full force, dressed in red and blue, they had painted faces and oversized photo faces of players and coach Miller, and that may be the first time we’ve ever seen that in Maui,” said Tom Valdiserri, executive vice president at KemperLesnik, which manages the Maui Invitational. “If you had to describe their fans I would use words like classy, passionate, proud and enthusiastic.”

They’ve shown the passion digitally as well. According to data gathered by social media analytics company Simply Measured Inc., the Flyers have 59,788 mentions on Twitter since the brackets were announced, 72 percent more than the next closest tournament team (Kentucky at 34,715).

Dayton’s arena has hosted the NCAA tournament’s four-game opening round for each of the past four years. The athletic department rents the venue to the NCAA and receives about $100,000 annually for it, according to athletics spokesman Doug Hauschild. That total is not counted in the school’s basketball revenue.


Refurbished Facilities


That’s just one example of how the basketball fans are helping other parts of the Dayton program. Wabler said that since the mid-1990s every one of the athletic department’s competition and practice facilities are either new or completely renovated -- a total cost of more than $35 million funded by donors and basketball success.

Dayton at 75/1 has the longest title odds of the remaining 16 tournament teams, according to Bovada.lv. Wabler said four more Flyers wins, culminating in a national championship in Arlington, Texas, on April 7 would probably mean more financial stability for years to come. “For men’s basketball and the rest of our programs,” he said.



*T



Men’s Basketball Finances For Round of 16 Teams (From U.S.

Department of Education website, fiscal year ended June 2013)



Program Basketball Expenses Basketball Revenue

Dayton $3.98 million $11.30 million

Florida $8.22 million $13.39 million

UCLA $12.72 million $12.37 million

Virginia $6.56 million $7.66 million

Arizona $7.81 million $24.94 million

Wisconsin $6.52 million $19.23 million

Kentucky $13.67 million $23.20 million

Louisville $15.65 million $42.40 million

UConn $7.29 million $6.15 million

Tennessee $4.86 million $13.32 million

Michigan $6.49 million $14.80 million

Iowa State $5.29 million $8.61 million

San Diego St. $5.61 million $6.50 million

Baylor $7.25 million $7.49 million

Michigan St. $9.45 million $18.50 million

Stanford $4.36 million $5.41 million

Total $125.75 million $235.26 million