UH bets big on bid for Big 12
College soon will learn if millions spent will pay off
By Benjamin Wermund and Joseph Duarte
In its quest to build a powerhouse athletics program, the University of Houston has reached something of a make-orbreak moment.
UH is on a short list of colleges to get into the Big 12 Conference, which is at risk of slipping behind the nation’s other elite athletic conferences and is looking to expand from 10 universities. The conference could decide to welcome new members as soon as this month.
For the first time, UH has the support of not only state leaders like Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick but also the University of Texas, which had long been considered a major barrier to UH’s entry into the Big 12. Joining a more elite athletic conference would be a major achievement for UH, one that could bring greater media exposure and higher revenue. Last year, every athletics program in the Big 12 made at least $30 million more than UH. It’s also a costly gamble. UHhas spent more than $21 million in each of the past three years supporting an athletics program that doesn’t make enough money to sustain itself. Last year, UHgave $26 million to its athletics program — the seventh-highest subsidy in the nation, according to an annual analysis of NCAA finances by USA Today. Athletics spending has frustrated some UH faculty and has driven up the cost of attendance. Rising student fees accounted for nearly 20 percent of ath-
letic revenue at UH in 2014.
It’s a practice that UH apparently realizes it cannot keep up. Chancellor Renu Khator wrote as much in an email obtained by the Chronicle. If UH does not get into a major conference soon, “it will be difficult for us to sustain it,” she wrote in 2014 to a UH professor who sent her an article about college athletics spending.
“It’s a big bet, and we’re not a cash-rich school,” Jonathan Snow, the president of UH’s faculty senate, said in a recent interview.
UH officials, including Khator, who is also president of UH’s main campus, and athletics director Hunter Yurachek, have worked aggressively to endear the university to the major athletic conferences, writing emails to leaders of Big 12 universities, visiting their campuses and sending holiday cards to Big 12 and Big Ten college presidents and conference leaders, documents obtained by the Chronicle show.
But getting into so-called Power 5 conferences — the Big 12, ACC, Big Ten, Pac12 and SEC — won’t guarantee the painful flow of funding from academics to athletics will stop, experts said. Only about a third of the universities competing in the Power 5 conferences have athletics programs that make money, said Andrew Zimbalist, a sports economist.
“Athletic departments have this way of spending more money than they bring in,” said Murray Sperber, a University of California-Berkeley professor and an expert in the cost of college athletics.
Why the UT reversal?
The Big 12 announced last month that it plans to “actively evaluate” adding two or four colleges to the conference that now includes Texas, Baylor, Texas Christian University, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa State and West Virginia. Soon after that, major players began lining up in favor of UH gaining entry, including the governor and lieutenant governor, neither of whom responded to a request for comment for this story.
The most surprising supporter, however, is the Texas flagship college in Austin — home to one of the most profitable athletics programs in the nation, which has long sought to keep UH out of the Big 12. Just two months ago, UT was opposed to UH’s entry into the Big 12.
But in July, UT President Gregory Fenves tweeted his support: “UH is a huge asset for Texas.”
There’s a long history of bad blood between UH and UT. Recently, UH called UT’s plan to expand on 300 acres in Houston an “invasion.” UT has long believed that it dominates the college football television market in Houston, while there has been lingering animosity from UH and its fan base after the breakup of the Southwest Conference in the 1990s. Since then, UT also has been unwilling or disinterested in scheduling UH in any of the major collegiate sports.
UT’s sudden support sparked speculation that a back-room deal had been struck — that Houston university officials would drop their opposition to UT’s Houston expansion if UT helped them get into the Big 12. Officials at UT said there’s no such agreement, and UH declined to comment on the matter.
State Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat who has been a vocal critic of UT’s planned Houston expansion, said UH will continue to oppose it. He suggested UT might have been under political pressure to back UH after the governor and lieutenant governor both did.
“I don’t think UT is doing it necessarily out of the goodness of their heart,” Whitmire said. “There is no deal. I cannot emphasize that enough.”
‘Need to get going fast’
UH officials have worked aggressively behind the scenes for at least a year to position the university for this major athletic conference opportunity, according to emails, travel records and other documents obtained by the Chronicle through an open-records request.
Last June, when reports of a possible Big 12 expansion surfaced, Khator wrote to Yurachek, UH’s vice president of intercollegiate athletics: “We need to get going fast.”
UH officials spent weeks drafting and perfecting a brochure, which touted UH’s academic and athletic strengths, to give to officials in the bigger conferences.
Khator conducted inperson meetings with eight of the 10 Big 12 university presidents, and Yurachek met in person or had phone calls with every Big 12 athletic director. Khator and Yurachek conducted an in-person meeting with Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany in Chicago. Yurachek met with Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott in San Francisco.
Khator exchanged at times flattering emails with several university leaders in the Big 12, including Fenves at UT and E. Gordon Gee at West Virginia, who visited UH’s main campus last November.
“Just writing to say hello in case you are in Houston, let me know,” Khator wrote to TCU chancellor Victor Boschini in February. “The football season turned out very interesting for both of us. I loved your game against Baylor particularly. In any event, it would be lovely to see you again.”
In a September 2015 email exchange, Kansas State President Kirk Schulz congratulated Khator on UH’s football win over Louisville.
“A nice statement for your football program,” wrote Schulz, who has since left for Washington State.
Late last year, Khator asked her chief of staff to have UH’s communications team send holiday cards to all of the Big 12 presidents, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby and Big Ten commissioner Delany.
Athletics arms race
Emails show UH-leaders firmly engaged in a competitive arms race among colleges to best position themselves for an invite to the elite athletic conferences. In June 2015, Memphis — another contender for a Big 12 spot — tweeted about a major announcement regarding new football and basketball venues. Yurachek wrote to Khator: “We need to push forward and formally announce a Hofheinz (Pavilion) renovation in the next 3-6 months.” By November, UH announced plans for a $60 million renovation of its basketball arena that is set to begin this spring.
Better stadiums required to play in the best athletic conferences are among the biggest costs to joining them, Zimbalist said. UH’s 2-year-old TDECU football stadium cost more than $126 million and is funded partly by a $45-per-semester student fee. Colleges nationwide, meanwhile, are paying coaches more every year while offering more perks, like cars (UH head football coach Tom Herman’s contract includes two), bo- nuses for winning and big buyouts.
“Basically what happens is when schools in the Power 5 conferences get a lot more money … they find a way to spend it,” Zimbalist said. “They don’t have stockholders looking for profits at the end of the year; they have an athletic director looking for wins.”
UH administrators, like those at nearly every other college in the nation, say a strong athletics program is key to success throughout the university. A winning football team attracts students and keeps alumni coming — and hopefully giving — back to the university. UH boasted a 30-percent jump in applications after the Cougars won the Peach Bowl last year
Multiple studies, however, have questioned the benefits. While applications may see a bump after a big bowl win, that doesn’t mean the academic performance of incoming students will improve. Other studies have cast doubt on whether athletics does much to actually drive donations and athletics programs in some cases have even been shown to “cannibalize” donations from the rest of the university.
Playing in Power 5 conferences is also more expensive. In 2014, UH’s athletics department spent $45.4 million, according to USA Today’s annual accounting of NCAA finances. Kansas State’s athletic program, which spent the least of any public university in the Big 12, spent nearly $22 million more than UH. UT, which spends the most in the Big 12, used $173.2 million on its athletic program.
“Because we are a competitive (football) team, we have no choice currently but to keep becoming better so we could get into the big 5,” Khator wrote in a Dec. 4, 2014, email, responding to an article about colleges in non-elite conferences, like the American Athletic Conference that UH belongs to, pouring more and more money into athletics programs to “preserve the pretense of Division I status.” The conference paid UH just $4.5 million last year.
“I worry about it too,” she wrote. “Unless we make it in the big 5, we will have to face the same dilemma.”