….According to numbers compiled by the U.S. Department of Education, 16 men’s basketball programs which qualified for this year’s NCAA tournament turned a profit of at least $4 million during the 2004-05 school year….Yet of those 16 programs which raked in the mega-bucks, only Texas ($6.86 million) and Duke ($5 million) advanced past the first week of this year’s NCAA tournament – and the Longhorns are the only one of those cash cows to move on to the Elite Eight.
For what it’s worth, the University of Wisconsin men’s basketball team turned a profit of $8.11 million – $11.95 million in revenue minus $3.84 million in expenses – a year ago.
….Now that those in the red-sweater crowd have had a week to shake off the ugly way in which the Badgers’ 2005-06 season crashed and burned, should the Badger Nation still have complete confidence in the direction Ryan has his program pointed?