FBS or FCS, You Gotta Spend to Win, But There Are No Guarantees

While millions were watching Ryan Seacrest ring in the new year, the FBS playoff dominated sports coverage this past week. One of the more interesting pieces for athletic department consumption was Kristi Dosh’s review for Forbes of football spending at the four schools participating in last year’s semifinal games (numbers for the 2015 fiscal year are not yet available, hence the discussion of 2014 teams).

Not surprisingly, three of the four semifinalists ranked in the top ten of spending on football expenses, with Oregon being the outlier. However, while big spending seems like it would be correlated with success, this isn’t always the case. Also from Dosh, both Penn State and South Carolina ranked in the top ten in spending, but ended the season unranked in the College Football Playoff in both 2014 and 2015. Extend the scope from the top ten to twenty-five in 2014 spending, and six more teams join the ranks of spending a lot and not being ranked: Arkansas, Texas, Nebraska, Washington, Miami, and Virginia Tech. That must be difficult for these schools’ athletic departments to see.

Well, if the top of the FBS doesn’t provide clarity regarding the need to spend to win, perhaps looking at the elite FCS programs might help. North Dakota State, which is playing for its fifth consecutive FCS national championship, would be a logical place to start. According to the spending database at the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, in 2013 (a national championship winning year) the Bisons spent $46,492 per scholarship football player. That is nearly $7,000 more per player than the FCS national average of $39,596.

In fact, since 2005, of the schools with public information available, only one has won the national championship without spending more than the FCS average per football player. (Richmond and Villanova, winners in 2008 and 2009, respectively, are excepted from this list as their private status allows them not to publish their football expenses).

Year	FCS Natl. Champion	Natl. Champion Per Football Player Spending	FCS Average Per Football Player Spending	Difference
2005	Appalachian State	$25,977	$25,872	+$105
2006	Appalachian State	$31,206	$28,344	+$2,862
2007	Appalachian State	$30,137	$29,643	+$494
2010	Eastern Washington	$29,595	$34,504	-$4,909
2011	North Dakota State	$43,161	$35,910	+$7,251
2012	North Dakota State	$41,626	$37,963	+$3,663
2013	North Dakota State	$46,492	$39,596	+$6,896

The picture, then, of a correlation between spending equaling success seems to be a little bit murky. Schools can throw top-tier levels of money at their football programs and end seasons unranked. On the other hand, schools like Oregon, which ranked just 42^nd in football spending in 2014 and made the national championship game, and Eastern Washington show that value can be had. Despite numbers and results that vary from year to year, it seems safe to say the best an athletic department can do is provide above-average money and hope all other influential factors like sustained team health, scheduling, coaching, and recruiting prove the investment to be a success.