We have been saying for quite some time that mediocrity in our football program costs the University money. We made it a key argument in our Dump Karl Dorrell petition to Dan Guerrero that has over 800 signatures (we will send it to him on Monday, so add your name). Now we have proof!!! Hard evidence from the Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education.

It will take weeks to go through all the data to glean from it all the value it has, but we start with this obvious yet eye-opening fact: Hiring Karl Dorrell as head coach of our football team cost the University $2.6 Million in lost football revenues in the first year alone. That is not including revenues from other channels directly related to the success of our football program. Keeping Karl Dorrell for 4 years has cost us far more!

Here is the proof:

UCLA Football Program Revenues For School Calendar Year

99-00 No data. Team finished regular season 4-7 and did not go to a bowl game
00-01 No data. Regular season 6-5, lost bowl
01-02 No data. Regular season 7-4, declined bowl
02-03 $19.88 Million Toledo’s last year. Regular season 7-5, won bowl
03-04 $17.23 Million Karl Dorrell’s 1st year. Regular season 6-6, lost bowl
04-05 $18.48 Million Regular season 6-5, lost bowl

Notice that even after several down years for UCLA football under Toledo we were bringing in close to $20 Million in revenues for just the football program in Toledo’s final, dreadful, year. With Karl Dorrell, the experiment to bring in an unproven coach cost far more money than we saved in giving him a cheap contract (relative to other top Div 1A programs). UCLA lost nearly $2.5 Million in football revenue alone because of Dorrell’s hire in the first year. We may have saved a million or more in salaries that we would have had to pay a better coach, but the revenues would have far exceeded that additional cost.

Though the football program managed to increase its revenues during Dorrell’s second year in 2004-2005, we still came up shorter than during Toledo’s 4th consecutive horrible season. And we are not even talking about down-stream revenues … such as emblematic merchandise, donations, applications to the college, brand value (important for any licensing contracts), etc. etc. Just more proof that Dorrell was a horrible hire.

And if you think college football coaches aren’t worth what they are getting paid check these facts:

Other Quick Notes

• Alabama, in 2004-2005, made $28.87 Million in profit off its football program (off revenues of $43 Million)! They can afford Nick Saban’s $4 Million a year.
• USC can afford to pay Pete Carroll nearly $3 Million a year because in 2004-2005 they made $12.57 Million in profit off revenues of $29.26 Million. In 2003-2004, USC had revenues of $26.24 Million and profit of $10.9 Million. It DOES pay to have a coach that can produce!!

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