Syracuse Only Loses To Marquette To Keep Them In Business

Marquette, you can make the check out to DOCTOR Daryl Gross and send it to P.O. Box 4444, Syracuse, NY 13210.  Thanks.

It's always fun to analyze the Big East basketball financials, especially when you're rolling in revenue like Syracuse is. Forbes broke down the Big East Conference numbers for the 2009-2010 season and found some noteworthy items.

First, Louisville and Syracuse earned the most revenue among Big East schools by far. 169% and 90% more than the average, respectively. The key, of course, is having massive attendance numbers (Right, Villanova?). Syracuse has the No. 2 attendance in the nation and Louisville's right behind at No. 3.

For those who throw Marquette into the "get them out of here" discussion when re-working Big East Basketball, these numbers might make you stop that. The Eags came in No. 3 in total revenue No. 5 in total profits. The Eagles are also the Big Easy school that relies on their men's basketball team to bring home the bacon. Marquette's team represented 62% of their total men's sports revenue, which is almost 20% more than any other school (Georgetown was No. 2 at 41.3%).

So in essence, Marquette, you owe Syracuse BIG TIME for our letting you beat us twice this year. Especially in the Round of 32. That Sweet Sixteen appearance was a big revenue-generator for you and boosted the profile of your program in ways that will pay off for the next 3-5 years.

Don't forget who got you there, Goldie.

As for Syracuse, the Orange are No. 2 in total profits behind Louisville at $10M. The Orange rely on men's baskeball for 37.1% of men's athletics revenue, though I imagine that number decreases now that the football team is winning games again. In '09-'10, the football program earned just slightly more revenue than the basketball team ($19.1M to $18.3M).

DePaul, Seton Hall and St. John's claimed to have broken even (riiiight) and Notre Dame was the only school to report a loss. Notre Dame's basketball team also only counts as 4.5% of their men's revenue, so, they can afford to take the hit. Schools like Seton Hall and DePaul are counting on basketball for over 30% of men's athletics revenue, so you can imagine how twitchy those ADs are.

Of course, we're working with reported numbers here so take them with a grain of salt. Don't think this is all exacts, but, it does help paint the picture and remind you what drives all the decisions at each school.

H/T: nleary66