An update on the budget of Jewell athletics department

William Jewell College is home to 471 athletes. That is 46.2 percent of the total student population.

The coach of each individual program recruits at his or her discretion, choosing the athletes that they think can best contribute to their team.

During the 2014-2015 school year, Jewell spent $67,650 on recruiting.

The College spends a substantial amount of money to attract the best athletes they can, but recruiting may become tricky due to the academic atmosphere.

“Our recruiting and the approaches that our coaches take would not be unlike the recruiting at Stanford,” said athletic director Dr. Darlene Bailey.

According to the Princeton Review, the average high school grade point average (GPA) of an incoming Jewell student is 3.79.  According to PrepScholar, the average GPA of a student is 3.68. The College prides itself on its academic rigor. The Princeton Review gave William Jewell an 88/99 on their Academic Selectivity Rating. When recruiting, coaches have to look for athletes who will not only compete at a high level but will also perform well in the classroom.

“First thing I look at are grades. As you know William Jewell has a great reputation of being an outstanding academic institution and I want to make sure the player would be a good fit academically,” said Paul Worstell, tennis coach.

Larger sports recruit with this same mindset.

”In order to be considered we need to be confident they can be successful academically at Jewell. So you could say we need to fall in love with their transcript first and then explore them athletically. The most important standard we have as a program is that our players graduate,” said head football coach Shaun Weigel.

Athletes produce a large amount of revenue for Jewell. During the 2014-2015 school year, the athletic programs generated a total of $6,957,623. Men’s teams generated $3,893,832. Women’s teams generated $2,206,045. $857,746 of this was not allocated to a gender or sport.

The sports that generated the highest revenues were football and men’s and women’s basketball. Football generated $1,707,397 in revenue. Men’s basketball generated $593,348, and women’s basketball generated $526,515. These three teams combined to generate $2,827,260, making up nearly half of the total revenue generated by the College’s athletics. All other sports combined to generate $3,272,617.

The average individual athlete generated $14,772.02 in total revenue in 2014-2015. This is compared to the average $143.64 that Jewell spends to recruit the average athlete.

Each football player generated $17,602.03 for the school. The men’s basketball team generated $33,057.71 per player, and the women’s basketball team generated $31,395.44 per player.

Although sports generate a fairly large amount of revenue, they also face expenses that nearly match it. All in all, these expenses add up to $6,842,244. The components that contribute the largest amount to the expenses are coaches’ salaries, game-day expenses and athletic scholarships.

Game-day expenses added up to $787,561 in 2014-2015. The most expensive sports to operate were football and baseball. Football operating expenses added up to $142,053. The baseball team’s operating expenses added up to $101,829.

Basketball came in next. Men’s basketball had an operating expense of $3,911 in 2014-2015. Women’s basketball had an operating expense of $3,417.

Golf is one of the most expensive sports at Jewell. Men’s golf has 10 athletes, but the operating expenses per player were $3,485. The women’s golf team has a similar number of athletes at 11, but their expenses were $2,199.

Although football produces the most revenue, its overall total expenses match this at $1,707,397.

The average salary of the head coach of a mean’s team was $46,422. The average salary of a women’s team was $29,921. Assistant coaches for men’s teams made on average $12,493 and for women’s teams, $4,906.

The largest portion of the expenses were athletic scholarships. Athletic scholarships make up 56 percent of the total expense for William Jewell athletics. WJC spent $3,929,528 in athletic scholarships in 2014-2015. The average athlete received $8,342.95 in athletic scholarships. Male athletes received $8,591.89 on average. Female athletes received $7,947.65 on average.

As previously noted, the average athlete in 2014-2015 generated $14,772.02 in revenue in 2014-2015 but received just $8,342.95 in scholarships. This comparison being made, the average athlete at William Jewell College is compensated just 56 percent of the money that he or she creates. On the other hand, when looking at expenses, a different conclusion could be made. The Jewell athletic department’s total expenses fell just short of the total revenue it produced in 2014-2015. After these expenses, the WJC athletic department came away with just $115,379 in profits. The average athlete made $244.97 in profits for WJC and receives a scholarship that is well beyond the profit they produce.

Any information about WJC athletic department’s revenues and expenses can be accessed at http://ope.ed.gov/athletics.

Feature photo by Kyle Rivas.