By
Ryan Finley
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Arizona's basketball team might be in the Final Four, but its basketball program has made it to the financial finals.
An ESPN.com report yesterday said the UA men's basketball team brings in roughly $10 million each year in revenue for the school. That amount falls second in the country behind Kentucky, a program that brings in $11.3 million per year.
The report, which used information from the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act, ranks the Wildcats ahead of Syracuse, North Carolina, Duke, Illinois, Maryland, Ohio State, Connecticut and Indiana, among other schools.
John Perrin, UA's associate athletic director in charge of finances, said the money made by Arizona's two "money" sports - football and basketball - carries the school's other Division I sports.
"Basketball has a huge, positive impact on our entire program," Perrin said. "It generates dollars to the conference. Every time we appear on television, everyone gets a portion. We wouldn't have an athletic department without basketball and football."
The report stated the Wildcats rank No. 1 among Pacific 10 Conference schools in terms of revenue per season, a position that makes sense considering Arizona averaged 14,533 people per game this season in McKale Center.
"Our attendance, overall, is better than any team's in the conference," UA athletic director Jim Livengood said. "Nobody's even close to us. At UCLA, as good as they are, they only averaged 8,000 people this year."
UA, however, will have to split its revenues with the other nine members of the Pac-10. Per conference stipulations, all basketball revenue is split evenly throughout the Pac-10 schools.
Livengood, who held the same position at Washington State prior to coming to Arizona, said he has mixed emotions regarding the revenue-sharing plan.
"(At) the University of Arizona, I'm not crazy about it," he said. "But when I was at Washington State, I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. You take all the basketball monies and put them in one pot. In the old days, schools like UCLA and USC helped us in terms of football (monies)."
In the report, ESPN.com estimated that - based on each school's revenues - players were being underpaid by as much as $560,028 per player per season.
Based on the Web site's calculations - which uses the NBA's revenue sharing system, divides each team's total revenue by the number of players per team and then subtracts each player's tuition from their portion of the proceeds - each Wildcat should make $492, 230 per year.
In the world of collegiate basketball, the richest teams are often the most successful. Of the top-10 richest schools in the country, just one team, the University of Connecticut, failed to make the NCAA Tournament this season.
Moreover, of this year's Final Four teams, only Michigan State brings in fewer than $7 million per season.
"It's a chicken and egg thing," Livengood said. "You need people to believe in the program. At the same time, the product has to be good. (UA head coach) Lute (Olson) has done a great job of producing a quality product year after year."
