Hansen's Sunday Notebook: Arizona Wildcats' profit pales in comparison to Greg Byrne's new gig at Alabama
- Updated
Star sports columnist Greg Hansen offers his opinion on recent sports news.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Greg Byrne begins his employment as Alabama’s athletic director this week, and the first time he cracks the books he will discover that the biggest difference between Tucson and Tuscaloosa is money.
The Crimson Tide has 327 employees, according to its staff directory. Arizona’s staff directory lists 211.
But the Crimson Tide won’t be counting pennies the way Arizona must. Alabama newspapers last week reported that the Crimson Tide had a profit of $18.7 million in 2016.
The U.S. Department of Education reported Arizona’s 2016 athletic profit at $4.1 million.
Last year, according to UA senior associate AD for finance, Ross Cobb, Arizona paid $7.6 million in debt service. The school owes about half of the $72 million spent for the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility and $30 million for phase one of a McKale Center facelift.
Deficit spending is not unusual in the Pac-12; Cal, Oregon State, UCLA, Colorado, Utah and ASU all fight similar budget battles.
The league’s middle class buys on credit more than ever.
Growing debt service hovers over college athletics more than at any time in history. That’s the cost of staying current in the facilities arms race, paying coaches seven-figure salaries and spending close to $8 million a year on travel expenses, as Arizona does.
The Crimson Tide won’t have difficulty paying for a super-sized athletic department staff that includes seven full-time photographers, four full-time flight operations people, including two pilots, and even two full-timers for the Crimson Cabaret Dance Team.
The key to paying bills in Power 5 college sports is media rights (Alabama was paid $42 million last year) and income from donors.
Arizona earns about $25 million a year in media rights, and its donor income is probably a fourth of that at Alabama.
In 2016, the “Tide Pride” program alone raised about $25 million just for priority seating at football games.
Two years ago, Arizona earned a combined $9.6 million in priority seating for football and basketball.
Tucson to Tuscaloosa? Follow the money.
One prediction: When Dave Heeke begins his duty as Arizona’s athletic director, when he studies the books, one of the first urges will be to implement staff layoffs or eliminate a sport or two.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
High school basketball in Tucson, 2016-17, was so good that 14 teams won at least 20 games.
The best of the best: The Gregory School’s boys team was 29-1 entering Saturday’s 1A state championship game, and Pueblo’s girls basketball team finished 26-2, a shade ahead of Pusch Ridge’s 26-3. Here’s one man’s all-city teams:
Boys All-City Fab Five
- Nick Jackson, junior forward, Sunnyside. Jackson averaged a double-double, 18.6 points and 10.1 rebounds, and is being recruited by multiple Division I teams.
- Sam Beskind, junior guard, Catalina Foothills. At 6-foot 3 with a power move to the basket, Beskind was a force behind the Falcons’ 22-win season.
- Cole Gerken, senior guard, Ironwood Ridge. Gerken didn’t play on a good team, but he averaged 16.6 points and plans to play for Brian Peabody at Pima College next year.
- Nick Rosquist, senior guard, The Gregory School. The state’s leading scorer, a versatile shooter, averaged 29 points and led the Hawks to the 1A championship game.
- Majok Deng, sophomore forward, Salpointe Catholic. He is so highly regarded that UCLA assistant coach David Grace stopped to visit Deng on the Bruins’ visit to Tucson.
Girls All-City Fab Five
- Taylor Thompson, senior guard, The Gregory School. Headed to Concordia (Oregon) University, Thompson averaged 26 points for the 21-9 Hawks.
- Jazzy Hughes, senior, Mountain View. The 6-foot wing, who is being recruited JC power Pima College and coach Todd Holthaus, averaged 15 points for the Mountain Lions.
- Araceli Loya, senior forward, Pueblo. Loya averaged 12 points and seven rebounds for the 26-2 Warriors and completed her career with 1,207 points.
- Ilyssa Diamond Galindo, junior guard, Pueblo. The pass-first point guard, daughter of coach Izzy Galindo, averaged 12 points and six assists.
- Alyssa Perez, junior guard, Marana. The Tigers’ emergence as a 22-5 team had a lot to do with Perez’s 16-point scoring average.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Sahuarita High athletic director Chip Stratton has a strong interest in the ongoing Arizona-McNeese State baseball series at Hi Corbett Field.
After playing for Arizona’s 1986 national championship team, prepared to replace standout Todd Trafton at first base for his two final seasons, Stratton learned that the Wildcats had recruited future MLB standout J.T. Snow, also a first baseman.
In the summer of ’86, while playing in a collegiate league in Virginia, Stratton became acquainted with the McNeese State coaching staff. He then transferred to the Louisiana school and set the school’s single-season home run record, 17, in 1987, and hit .397.
A year later he was the Southland Conference Player of the Year.
Finally, in 2016, Stratton returned to McNeese State to be inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame. Stratton, who has also been athletic director at Rincon/University High, is part of the answer to one of UA baseball’s top trivia questions: Who were the three players named Chip on Arizona’s 1984 baseball team? Future MLB manager Chip Hale, pitcher Chip Dill and of course Chip Stratton.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
The Discovery Channel’s “Mythbusters” series averages about two million viewers per week, and it is in the process of selecting a new host. One of the four potential hosts is Tucsonan Martin Pepper, the 1993 NCAA 100 butterfly swimming champion at Arizona, and a UA Sports Hall of Fame inductee. Pepper, who earned a doctor’s degree at Arizona, has produced and generated science-related shows for the Discovery Channel and History Channel. He began his “training” by filming nature scenes at Gates Pass and Redington Pass, developing them at home into professional-caliber products. On Saturday night, Pepper was featured in the series’ “Finale Show.”
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Arizona’s 2013 Sweet 16 point guard, Mark Lyons, is leading Israel’s EuroLeague in scoring, 23.4 per game, for Hapoel Tel Aviv. His UA teammate, center Kaleb Tarczewski, who turns 24 Sunday, continues to come off the bench for the NBA D League’s Oklahoma City Blue. Tarczewski averages 9.9 points and 7.4 rebounds, playing behind 21-year-old former Kentucky center Dakari Johnson. Another of Lyons’ UA teammates, Brandon Ashley, has been out of basketball this season.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
When former Salpointe Catholic defensive lineman Justin Holt announced he was retiring from football for health reasons last week, without ever playing a down for Arizona, it didn’t mean he’ll lose his scholarship. As with injured UA basketball player Ray Smith, Holt will receive the same benefits, including tuition and meals, as those on the active roster. It is one of the most forward-thinking rules activated by the NCAA in recent years.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
FC Tucson isn’t without strong competition in its move to become the spring training hub for Major League Soccer. After training in Tucson earlier this month, the Seattle Sounders traveled to Charleston, S.C., to play in another spring training setting, for the Carolina Challenge Cup, against the Columbus Crew of the MLS. The doubleheader drew 5,000 in a soccer-specific facility built for a USL team. If the impressive Desert Diamond Cup series in Tucson, created by FC Tucson’s Greg Foster and Jon Pearlman, is to continue with its success in the long term, Tucson must consider building a bigger facility, preferably downtown, which could play host to anything from high school sports and state championships to big-league soccer.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
When Arizona freshman third baseman Nick Quintana was selected the Pac-12 player of the week — he hit .571 with six RBIs in his first college baseball series, against Eastern Kentucky — it stirred memories. Until now, the greatest debut by a first-year UA player was shortstop Eddie Leon of Tucson High. In the first four games of the 1965 season, Leon hit .539 with two doubles, a triple and a home run and had six RBIs. When Terry Francona was a UA freshman in 1978, he went 3 for 4 in the season opener, against Cal-Fullerton. Both Leon and Francona became first-round draft picks.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Arizona’s sizzling 14-0 start to the softball season — not including Saturday’s late game against No. 1 Florida State — mirrors that of the Pac-12’s top teams. No. 5 Oregon opened 12-0 and No. 17 Utah started 11-0. Coach Mike Candrea’s Wildcats will finally play a strong opponent at Hillenbrand Stadium this week, meeting Texas three times from Thursday to Saturday.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
John Daly played in eight Tucson Opens during his days on the PGA Tour, the last at the 2004 Chrysler Classic of Tucson. He has committed to return to Tucson to play in the March 17-19 Tucson Conquistadores Classic at Omni Tucson National. Daly turned 50 last April and now plays regularly on the Champions Tour. The field for Tucson’s third Champions Tour event is impressive. Top money-winner Fred Couples and the No. 2 money-winner, Bernhard Langer made commitments to play here, as have Steve Stricker, Tom Lehman, Jerry Kelly, Ian Woosnam and David Toms.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Sad news: Tucson High’s 1981 All-City linebacker Osia Lewis has been forced to leave his coaching position at Vanderbilt. Lewis is undergoing chemotherapy treatment for liver cancer. Lewis was a three-year starter at Oregon State and then became a career defensive coach, at Oregon State, Illinois, New Mexico, San Diego State, UTEP and now Vanderbilt. Osia, 54, will serve as the chief consultant to Vandy head coach Derek Mason.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
Three-time Tucson Open champion Phil Mickelson is building his alma mater, ASU, a multi-million golf practice facility at Phoenix Papago Golf Course, which is 11 miles from the Sun Devil campus. He said it will be the best of its kind “in the world.” The Sun Devils are currently ranked No. 4 in women’s golf and No. 28 in men’s golf. Arizona, meanwhile, is ranked No. 17 in women’s golf and No. 75 in the men’s poll. The Wildcats have their own practice facility at Sewailo Golf Course, which is at Casino del Sol. It is 17 miles from Arizona’s campus. Coach Laura Ianello‘s Arizona’s women’s golf team will play host to the Pac-12 championships at Sewailo, a significant advantage. The Pac-12 is loaded: Stanford is currently ranked No. 1, USC is No. 3, ASU is No. 4 and UCLA No. 7.
- Greg Hansen Arizona Daily Star
- Updated
One thing that happens after a rough 3-9 football season and the departure of three Arizona assistant coaches is that the Wildcats lose their hiring leverage.
So far, Rich Rodriguez has hired replacements from Nevada and UTEP, Scott Boone and Theron Aych, respectively, whose previous jobs were at William & Mary and Angelo State.
Meanwhile, Colorado, which won the Pac-12 South title, replaced two assistant coaches and was able to hire from Power 5 schools: Purdue defensive coordinator Ross Els, whose previous job was at Nebraska, and Kentucky defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot, who previously coached at Florida State.
During Arizona’s years as a consistent winner, it was able to hire former UCLA/Alabama assistant Homer Smith, former Michigan assistant Chuck Stobart, ex-Wisconsin assistant Ron McBride and former Texas Tech coach Bill Bedenbaugh.
When RichRod hires a special teams coach, the pedigree of that man will be viewed with unusual interest.
Greg Byrne begins his employment as Alabama’s athletic director this week, and the first time he cracks the books he will discover that the biggest difference between Tucson and Tuscaloosa is money.
The Crimson Tide has 327 employees, according to its staff directory. Arizona’s staff directory lists 211.
But the Crimson Tide won’t be counting pennies the way Arizona must. Alabama newspapers last week reported that the Crimson Tide had a profit of $18.7 million in 2016.
The U.S. Department of Education reported Arizona’s 2016 athletic profit at $4.1 million.
Last year, according to UA senior associate AD for finance, Ross Cobb, Arizona paid $7.6 million in debt service. The school owes about half of the $72 million spent for the Lowell-Stevens Football Facility and $30 million for phase one of a McKale Center facelift.
Deficit spending is not unusual in the Pac-12; Cal, Oregon State, UCLA, Colorado, Utah and ASU all fight similar budget battles.
The league’s middle class buys on credit more than ever.
Growing debt service hovers over college athletics more than at any time in history. That’s the cost of staying current in the facilities arms race, paying coaches seven-figure salaries and spending close to $8 million a year on travel expenses, as Arizona does.
The Crimson Tide won’t have difficulty paying for a super-sized athletic department staff that includes seven full-time photographers, four full-time flight operations people, including two pilots, and even two full-timers for the Crimson Cabaret Dance Team.
The key to paying bills in Power 5 college sports is media rights (Alabama was paid $42 million last year) and income from donors.
Arizona earns about $25 million a year in media rights, and its donor income is probably a fourth of that at Alabama.
In 2016, the “Tide Pride” program alone raised about $25 million just for priority seating at football games.
Two years ago, Arizona earned a combined $9.6 million in priority seating for football and basketball.
Tucson to Tuscaloosa? Follow the money.
One prediction: When Dave Heeke begins his duty as Arizona’s athletic director, when he studies the books, one of the first urges will be to implement staff layoffs or eliminate a sport or two.
High school basketball in Tucson, 2016-17, was so good that 14 teams won at least 20 games.
The best of the best: The Gregory School’s boys team was 29-1 entering Saturday’s 1A state championship game, and Pueblo’s girls basketball team finished 26-2, a shade ahead of Pusch Ridge’s 26-3. Here’s one man’s all-city teams:
Boys All-City Fab Five
- Nick Jackson, junior forward, Sunnyside. Jackson averaged a double-double, 18.6 points and 10.1 rebounds, and is being recruited by multiple Division I teams.
- Sam Beskind, junior guard, Catalina Foothills. At 6-foot 3 with a power move to the basket, Beskind was a force behind the Falcons’ 22-win season.
- Cole Gerken, senior guard, Ironwood Ridge. Gerken didn’t play on a good team, but he averaged 16.6 points and plans to play for Brian Peabody at Pima College next year.
- Nick Rosquist, senior guard, The Gregory School. The state’s leading scorer, a versatile shooter, averaged 29 points and led the Hawks to the 1A championship game.
- Majok Deng, sophomore forward, Salpointe Catholic. He is so highly regarded that UCLA assistant coach David Grace stopped to visit Deng on the Bruins’ visit to Tucson.
Girls All-City Fab Five
- Taylor Thompson, senior guard, The Gregory School. Headed to Concordia (Oregon) University, Thompson averaged 26 points for the 21-9 Hawks.
- Jazzy Hughes, senior, Mountain View. The 6-foot wing, who is being recruited JC power Pima College and coach Todd Holthaus, averaged 15 points for the Mountain Lions.
- Araceli Loya, senior forward, Pueblo. Loya averaged 12 points and seven rebounds for the 26-2 Warriors and completed her career with 1,207 points.
- Ilyssa Diamond Galindo, junior guard, Pueblo. The pass-first point guard, daughter of coach Izzy Galindo, averaged 12 points and six assists.
- Alyssa Perez, junior guard, Marana. The Tigers’ emergence as a 22-5 team had a lot to do with Perez’s 16-point scoring average.
Sahuarita High athletic director Chip Stratton has a strong interest in the ongoing Arizona-McNeese State baseball series at Hi Corbett Field.
After playing for Arizona’s 1986 national championship team, prepared to replace standout Todd Trafton at first base for his two final seasons, Stratton learned that the Wildcats had recruited future MLB standout J.T. Snow, also a first baseman.
In the summer of ’86, while playing in a collegiate league in Virginia, Stratton became acquainted with the McNeese State coaching staff. He then transferred to the Louisiana school and set the school’s single-season home run record, 17, in 1987, and hit .397.
A year later he was the Southland Conference Player of the Year.
Finally, in 2016, Stratton returned to McNeese State to be inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame. Stratton, who has also been athletic director at Rincon/University High, is part of the answer to one of UA baseball’s top trivia questions: Who were the three players named Chip on Arizona’s 1984 baseball team? Future MLB manager Chip Hale, pitcher Chip Dill and of course Chip Stratton.
The Discovery Channel’s “Mythbusters” series averages about two million viewers per week, and it is in the process of selecting a new host. One of the four potential hosts is Tucsonan Martin Pepper, the 1993 NCAA 100 butterfly swimming champion at Arizona, and a UA Sports Hall of Fame inductee. Pepper, who earned a doctor’s degree at Arizona, has produced and generated science-related shows for the Discovery Channel and History Channel. He began his “training” by filming nature scenes at Gates Pass and Redington Pass, developing them at home into professional-caliber products. On Saturday night, Pepper was featured in the series’ “Finale Show.”
Arizona’s 2013 Sweet 16 point guard, Mark Lyons, is leading Israel’s EuroLeague in scoring, 23.4 per game, for Hapoel Tel Aviv. His UA teammate, center Kaleb Tarczewski, who turns 24 Sunday, continues to come off the bench for the NBA D League’s Oklahoma City Blue. Tarczewski averages 9.9 points and 7.4 rebounds, playing behind 21-year-old former Kentucky center Dakari Johnson. Another of Lyons’ UA teammates, Brandon Ashley, has been out of basketball this season.
When former Salpointe Catholic defensive lineman Justin Holt announced he was retiring from football for health reasons last week, without ever playing a down for Arizona, it didn’t mean he’ll lose his scholarship. As with injured UA basketball player Ray Smith, Holt will receive the same benefits, including tuition and meals, as those on the active roster. It is one of the most forward-thinking rules activated by the NCAA in recent years.
FC Tucson isn’t without strong competition in its move to become the spring training hub for Major League Soccer. After training in Tucson earlier this month, the Seattle Sounders traveled to Charleston, S.C., to play in another spring training setting, for the Carolina Challenge Cup, against the Columbus Crew of the MLS. The doubleheader drew 5,000 in a soccer-specific facility built for a USL team. If the impressive Desert Diamond Cup series in Tucson, created by FC Tucson’s Greg Foster and Jon Pearlman, is to continue with its success in the long term, Tucson must consider building a bigger facility, preferably downtown, which could play host to anything from high school sports and state championships to big-league soccer.
When Arizona freshman third baseman Nick Quintana was selected the Pac-12 player of the week — he hit .571 with six RBIs in his first college baseball series, against Eastern Kentucky — it stirred memories. Until now, the greatest debut by a first-year UA player was shortstop Eddie Leon of Tucson High. In the first four games of the 1965 season, Leon hit .539 with two doubles, a triple and a home run and had six RBIs. When Terry Francona was a UA freshman in 1978, he went 3 for 4 in the season opener, against Cal-Fullerton. Both Leon and Francona became first-round draft picks.
Arizona’s sizzling 14-0 start to the softball season — not including Saturday’s late game against No. 1 Florida State — mirrors that of the Pac-12’s top teams. No. 5 Oregon opened 12-0 and No. 17 Utah started 11-0. Coach Mike Candrea’s Wildcats will finally play a strong opponent at Hillenbrand Stadium this week, meeting Texas three times from Thursday to Saturday.
John Daly played in eight Tucson Opens during his days on the PGA Tour, the last at the 2004 Chrysler Classic of Tucson. He has committed to return to Tucson to play in the March 17-19 Tucson Conquistadores Classic at Omni Tucson National. Daly turned 50 last April and now plays regularly on the Champions Tour. The field for Tucson’s third Champions Tour event is impressive. Top money-winner Fred Couples and the No. 2 money-winner, Bernhard Langer made commitments to play here, as have Steve Stricker, Tom Lehman, Jerry Kelly, Ian Woosnam and David Toms.
Sad news: Tucson High’s 1981 All-City linebacker Osia Lewis has been forced to leave his coaching position at Vanderbilt. Lewis is undergoing chemotherapy treatment for liver cancer. Lewis was a three-year starter at Oregon State and then became a career defensive coach, at Oregon State, Illinois, New Mexico, San Diego State, UTEP and now Vanderbilt. Osia, 54, will serve as the chief consultant to Vandy head coach Derek Mason.
Three-time Tucson Open champion Phil Mickelson is building his alma mater, ASU, a multi-million golf practice facility at Phoenix Papago Golf Course, which is 11 miles from the Sun Devil campus. He said it will be the best of its kind “in the world.” The Sun Devils are currently ranked No. 4 in women’s golf and No. 28 in men’s golf. Arizona, meanwhile, is ranked No. 17 in women’s golf and No. 75 in the men’s poll. The Wildcats have their own practice facility at Sewailo Golf Course, which is at Casino del Sol. It is 17 miles from Arizona’s campus. Coach Laura Ianello‘s Arizona’s women’s golf team will play host to the Pac-12 championships at Sewailo, a significant advantage. The Pac-12 is loaded: Stanford is currently ranked No. 1, USC is No. 3, ASU is No. 4 and UCLA No. 7.
One thing that happens after a rough 3-9 football season and the departure of three Arizona assistant coaches is that the Wildcats lose their hiring leverage.
So far, Rich Rodriguez has hired replacements from Nevada and UTEP, Scott Boone and Theron Aych, respectively, whose previous jobs were at William & Mary and Angelo State.
Meanwhile, Colorado, which won the Pac-12 South title, replaced two assistant coaches and was able to hire from Power 5 schools: Purdue defensive coordinator Ross Els, whose previous job was at Nebraska, and Kentucky defensive coordinator D.J. Eliot, who previously coached at Florida State.
During Arizona’s years as a consistent winner, it was able to hire former UCLA/Alabama assistant Homer Smith, former Michigan assistant Chuck Stobart, ex-Wisconsin assistant Ron McBride and former Texas Tech coach Bill Bedenbaugh.
When RichRod hires a special teams coach, the pedigree of that man will be viewed with unusual interest.
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