SEC Figuring Out What Broyles Knew at Arkansas 50 Years Ago
Despite the feelings in April with half the teams in the Final Four being from the SEC, football is still king.
Basketball is no longer a sport of mild curiosity, though. The reason is something legendary Arkansas athletics director Frank Broyles figured out over 50 years ago.
Broyles discovered it cost just as much money to play games in any sport regardless of wins and losses, it made sense you might as well do what it takes to win. The extra amount of winning will be more than made up in added interest.
Before you knee-jerk, yes the entire economic structure of college athletics was different when Broyles took over AD duties in 1974.
His first major coaching decision within months of assuming the extra duties to go with being the football coach was fire basketball coach Lanny Van Eman. That was due to a lack of wins or interest from fans.
Enter Eddie Sutton from Creighton basically would speak anywhere he was asked. The joke was Sutton couldn’t go to dinner at a restaurant without standing up to make a speech. He would even take 45 minutes to talk with a 16-year-old junior in high school writing a story for a small-town newspaper in southeast Arkansas.
He sold the program all over the state and taught everybody more about basketball than they even knew existed. It helped when the Razorbacks were in the Final Four in 1978 and things haven’t slowed down since.
Nolan Richardson replaced Sutton and expanded the program to heights not seen before, despite a rocky relationship with Broyles. It probably worked because Richardson’s teams won games.
For Broyles, who hated losing more than he loved winning, that was the most important thing. He also discovered a packed Barnhill Arena helped the bottom line a heckuva lot more than playing games in front of a handful of disinterested folks.
The SEC figured that out a decade or so ago. Current Arkansas coach John Calipari remembers 10 years ago when the league struggled to get more than two or three teams in the NCAA Tournament.
This year they put 14 in tournament overall, seven in the Sweet 16 and two in the Final Four. Only bracket strategy by the selection committee may have prevented an All-SEC Final on Monday night.
In the method the SEC uses to split up that revenue, what’s good for the league is good for the Razorbacks at the all-important bottom line. It will be better that the Hogs were part of the tournament all the way to the final 16 teams.
Plus they have one of the biggest names in college basketball and that’s going to bring publicity that’s almost impossible to measure. It will filter to all sports.
As Alabama discovered with Nick Saban as the football coach, winning on the football field also brings new students to the school. That equates to more money for the entire school and money drives everything.
Winning produces more money. That’s why they brought Calipari to town a year ago.
Don’t worry, though, football will still be the king as long as the sport generates more TV money than any other sport. Winning in the other sports just prevents the money drain going elsewhere. It’s why Arkansas wants to be good in every sport.
Just like Broyles learned over 50 years ago.
