When you received your “Maroon is All That Matters” shirt at State’s first football game, did you stop to consider how 50,000 T-shirts could be paid for? Well, Mississippi State Athletics Director Larry Templeton certainly had to.
“The athletic budget is a self-generated budget,” Templeton said, “meaning, we produce our own revenue.”
The MSU athletics department works on about a $24 million budget. The revenue comes from four individual sources. The first is student fees.
The second is ticket sales, mostly from football and men’s basketball. In the past 17 years, the MSU athletics department has not required any university operating funds to meet its budget demands. Much of this success is due to a recent boom in ticket sales. MSU football and basketball ticket sales reached an all-time during the last 10 years.
The third source of revenue is from the Southeastern Conference. Unlike some conferences, all 12 SEC schools share television, bowl game, BCS and tournament revenue equally.
“Our contracts with the television networks are negotiated as 12 institutions of the SEC,” Templeton said. “It makes no difference whether you’re on TV one time or five times, the revenue distribution is divided equally. That’s what has made the strength of the SEC so strong.”
Templeton went on to say that last year, the SEC divided $100 million. It was the most money the SEC has had.
The fourth source is from private contributions, which works through the Bulldog Club. The Bulldog Club, which generates close to $8 million a year in private contributions, handled much of the financial responsibility for the 50,000 T-shirts.