EADA (2019)

The 2019 Equity in Athletics Data Analysis (EADA) is out. EADA is the public data that indicates how each school spends their money on sports. The data includes all divisions and all sports but, as always, we’ll focus on DIII volleyball here. The file I downloaded has 414 schools, which is pretty close to what it should be although I’m unsure of what the actual number is of DIII programs playing volleyball in 2019. Mills College is not listed as they are a women’s only institution and only coed schools provide information into the EADA.

Let’s start with Total Expense as it tells us what the school spends on the sport. Now this can include everything related with volleyball, which means that summer camps fall into this category, too. Other items that are more obvious are salaries and travel expenses. Here are the schools that spend the most on their volleyball programs in 2019:

1. Benedictine University $693,456

2. University of Wis.-Oshkosh $457,609

3. Emory University $330,436

4. Colorado College $327,581

5. Millikin College $321,106

Benedictine moves up to the top spot after coming in 3^rd in 2018. They DOUBLED their spending from the previous year! Let me just stop for a second and say that doesn’t seem correct. What I think is happening is that Benedictine has multiple campuses (Isle and Mesa) and I’m assuming both volleyball programs are being rolled up into this one-line item. Looking at the number of participates and it seems to confirm this as it has 34 listed. Oshkosh drops from the top spot even though they increased spending by over $26,000. Emory was 7^th in 2018 but moves up to third this year. Colorado College moves from 6^th to 4^th and Millikin would require extra work by me to figure out where they were in 2018 but since we know they are 5^th in 2019 do we really care? Dropping out of the top 5 from 2018 were Washington-St. Louis (from 2^nd to 6^th), Chicago (from 4^th to 10^th) and New York University (from 5^th to 8^th). To avoid another “Millikin” disaster in 2020, the other schools in the top 10 were Trinity University (7^th) and Cal Lutheran University (9^th). I guess I’ll also note that both Millikin and Cal Lutheran have JV volleyball teams and their expenses are included in one-line item.

The total amount spent on DIII volleyball programs in 2019 across all 414 schools was $45,548,292 or, on average, $110,020 per school. In 2018, for 415 schools, the total was $44,294,011 or $106,733 per school.

Looking at the West Region, here is their Top 10:

1. Colorado College $327,581

2. Trinity University $276,818

3. Cal Lutheran $251,256

4. UC Santa Cruz $214,506

5. Pacific University $207,208

6. UT-Dallas $191,521

7. Mary Hardin-Baylor $189,226

8. Claremont-Mudd-Scripps $186,697

9. Southwestern University $178,378

10. Whitman College $172,238

Colorado College, once again, retains the top spot increasing their spending by over $32,000. The large difference between first and second can be attributed to the large travel expenses the Tigers have to spend being one of only two DIII programs in the state in 2019. Trinity retains the second position after increasing their spending by over $21,000. Cal Lutheran stays in third although their spending increased by less than $2,000. UC Santa Cruz jumps into the 4^th spot after being well down the list in 2018. They increased their spending by over $55,000. Pacific drops a spot down to 5^th in part due to decreasing their spending by around $3,000.

Now for the fun part of the program. Here are the bottom five schools nationally that spend on volleyball in 2019:

1. University of Valley Forge $9,100

2. Lesley University $14,316

3. Centenary University (New Jersey) $14,616

4. Delaware Valley University $17,436

5. Becker College $19,655

Valley Forge, Lesley and Becker are all repeat customers from 2018. As always, it’s worth noting that these numbers include coaching salaries.

For the West Region, here are the bottom five:

1. Whittier College $73,386

2. Louisiana College $89,521

3. Centenary College (LA) $93,835

4. Schreiner University $98,964

5. Howard Payne University $101,481

First off, these are a lot better than in previous years! Our fifth lowest in the region isn’t that far from the average of the nation. Good to see money going into these programs trying to improve the overall quality of the region!

Second off, come on Whittier! You decreased over $10,000 from 2018! You actually made money on the volleyball program with your revenues almost $7,000 more than your expenses. No one makes money on their volleyball program. The next closest California program to you is Occidental and they spent around $52,000 more than you. I know not all colleges are created equally and I truly complain only because I love.

Louisiana College moved from 4^th worst to 2^nd although they increased spending by $4,000. Centenary wasn’t on this list in 2018 and has to be a little surprised to find themselves on it in 2019. Schreiner moves from worst down to 4^th worst. They increased spending by around $45,000! Props! Howard Payne increased spending by around $13,000 and has to be surprised it still kept them in the 5^th worst position. Sul Ross State drops from the list last year after a significant increase in spending. There is a lot that goes into these numbers and I don’t pretend to know everything but I’m just going to stay happy that these numbers went up almost (Whittier!?!?!) across the board. Since a NWC school didn’t make this list, I’ll just mention that Lewis & Clark is the lowest spender in that conference at $116,104.

Next, we’ll look at Operating Expenses. This is the cost to play matches and includes travel. This is a subset of the total expenses we discussed above. Looking nationally, we had some strange results in 2019. Benedictine leads the way but, again, I think we’ve established this is for two teams. They are about $50,000 more than the next team on the list. Emory is second and it’s normal to find teams that play in the UAA with high operating (travel) expenses. Colorado College is third and then we have (surprise) Western New England University in fourth. They did travel to New York that year so I guess it was first class the entire way! Obviously, they had some other big operating expense but I’m at a loss of what it was. In fifth was another UAA team in NYU. Not to continue too much down the list but we had Simpson College in 6^th as that was the year they took part in the tournament in Hawaii. Webster University was 7^th and that’s another head scratcher. The range in operating expense from 2^nd to 5^th is $133,569 to $120,581. There’s a bit of a drop-off to Simpson in 6^th. Looking at just the West Region, we have:

1. Colorado College $132,782

2. UC Santa Cruz $92,436

3. Trinity University $89,065

4. Mary Hardin-Baylor $75,848

5. Pacific University $70,999

Both Colorado College and UC Santa Cruz sort of exist in their own DIII islands, which require a lot of travel. Trinity would have seen an increase in expenses due to their trip to the Elite 8. Pacific was also part of the Hawaii Tournament in 2019. I always like to see higher operating expenses because at some level it means teams are traveling. If you can remember back to 2019, one of the selection problems we hit was Chapman. They were an NCAA Tournament team if you saw them play, but the selection criteria gave a different answer. Their operating expense in 2019 was $25,230, and, you guessed it, they didn’t travel. Their 2020 schedule was much better but then Covid hit. I’m really hoping they go all out in 2021 as they have a couple of 4^th year players that need a real chance at the tournament.

If you want another example of how unfair the selection criteria can be because it doesn’t take into account the difficulty (cost) of scheduling in the West Region, look no further than Babson College and their 2019 operating expense of $24,886. Now they won their conference but they would have been a slam dunk at-large team because the selection criteria demanded it. They simply can just stay home and play teams that help with the criteria where a team like Chapman cannot.

I talked about Whittier making money off their volleyball program so let’s take a look nationally and the programs that were able to pull this off. I usually shake my head after I’m done with this exercise and after seeing that Emory leads the way with a profit of $200,829, that will continue. Geneva College has a profit of $87,626, UC Santa Cruz a profit of $58,979, Wis.-Platteville a profit of $51,518 and Whitman College a profit of $45,692. On the flip side, New Jersey City University reports a loss of $114,279. The 2019 national champions (Johns Hopkins) reported a loss of $69,908.

In the end, I have no clue how much these books are cooked but those are the 2019 numbers. If you are interested in your school, you can go to the main site (embedded link provided above) and check it out. I still think the numbers are valuable from a recruiting standpoint to see if the school is as serious about volleyball as your potential student-athlete is about the sport.