Dr. Lovell was talking about the program last week in Los Angeles. He really likes the program and mentioned that the new facility being built will include Lacrosse.
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Just on the men's side, MU's lacrosse team has 46 athletes , but only 12.6 scholarships. Tuition plus room & board is about $47,000 this year at MU. So, if lacrosse is fully funded (which I don't believe it is), the 12.6 scholarships would cost MU $592,200 including room & board (this cost is merely the "on paper" cost. But for R & B, we all know that the scholarships are merely monies MU "pays" itself. Having 12.6 extra bodies on campus actually costs the school virtually nothing). Tuition at MU is $35,480. So, for the 33.4 paying students that are at MU for lacrosse, MU receives $1,185,032 in tuition payments in real cash (I excluded room and board from the non-scholarship numbers since I am assuming that all r & b monies are spent on r & b). According to the department of education, MU spent $760,995 on men's lacrosse last year, total, versus $10.5 million on men's hoops. I don't know if the lacrosse number includes scholarships, but I would not doubt it. If it doesn't, worst case scenario is that MU lost around $168,163 "on paper" by offering lacrosse. However, since most sports at MU are not fully funded, it would not surprise me if the $760,995 number includes scholarship expenses. So, in that case, MU actually earns just over $400,000 "on paper" by having lacrosse. Further, as described above, the incremental cost of having 12.6 extra students on campus is virtually nothing. So, the tuition costs of $447,000 attributable to the 12.6 lacrosse players scholarships are just imaginary. Hence, you are actually looking at a profit closer to $1 million. Not bad.
Lacrosse is a relatively cheap sport. I would guess travel would be the most expensive cost. Coaches salaries are low. In view of the numbers described above, I would guess lacrosse has been a highly lucrative addition to the athletic department.
As a side note, MU has 7 coaches for its men's team who were paid a combined, $2.265 million last year. That included Buzz, who probably received $1.8 million from MU. So, the average head coaching salary at MU is less than $100,000 for each men's sport.
Excellent analysis.
Over on Scoop, someone mentioned that coaches at even the highest level programs make more of their money through camps. And they can do that almost anywhere, and since Amplo has no real competition locally, it is likely pretty lucrative for him. They also mentioned that is likely why Denver's head coach moved from power house Princeton to a start up program.
A year ago at a B&G brunch, Cords said lacrosse was fully funded. I think track & field lags. Things could have changed in a year but the new AD and President seem to know how to fundraise versus complain.