The looming possibility that on June 1 a federal judge in U.S. District Court in Northern California could grant the potentially earth-shattering lawsuit of O'Bannon v. NCAA class-action status has left college athletic administrators concerned.

What started four years ago as a simple, if big-dreaming, lawsuit – former UCLA basketball great Ed O'Bannon suing over the NCAA's continued use of his likeness, long after his 1996 graduation, in a video game – has snowballed into a legal challenge of college sports' entire economic model.

Here on the eve of the 2013 NCAA basketball tournament, there isn't anyone in college athletics that isn't taking it seriously. One day soon, maybe even by 2015, the players themselves could be getting a share of the billion-dollar revenue, a once-unthinkable development.

The O'Bannon side is seeking a 50/50 split. The NCAA wants to keep it 100/0 and has expressed no interest in negotiating. Billions of dollars hang in the balance.

Last week, a cadre of college administrators, including Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany, Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds and Wake Forest president Nathan Hatch, submitted written declarations in an effort to persuade the judge from granting class action. They were mostly filled with gloom-and-doom predictions of what would happen should colleges have to actually share any of the money with current or past players.

Much of the media attention has focused on Delany claiming the Big Ten would never comply and instead would "take steps to downsize the scope, breadth and activities of their athletic programs," he wrote. "Several models exist … such as Division III."

There is zero chance the Big Ten will move to D-III. Ohio State is not going to become Kenyon College. Delany's claim is perhaps his most absurd in a career full of sky-is-falling, pouting proclamations.

Which isn't to say his declaration wasn't revealing. It was. By attempting to employ a scare tactic, Delany – and the others – clearly stated the value their universities place on field hockey, swimming and any other non-revenue sports.

Apparently it's not much.











The University of Texas brought in $150.3 million in total revenue in fiscal 2011, according to Department of Education filings. According to Dodds, "approximately 82 percent of that can be fairly attributed to football, and 15 percent to men's basketball." That's 97 percent of incoming revenue. Yet Dodds testified that expenditures on football [$24.8 million] and basketball [$8.5 million] totaled just $33.3 million. That's just 24.7 percent of UT's $133.7 million in total expenditures.

[The NCAA tournament is almost here, fill out your bracket now!]

Where does the rest of the football and basketball money go?

It pays for the entire department, including construction of opulent facilities, upkeep and debt service. There was a national high $22.2 million spent on coaching salaries in 19 sports and another $27.7 million spent on compensation for athletic department personnel. Seven million went to travel and there were 419 either full or partial scholarships that go mostly to athletes in sports that draw few fans and little revenue.

While the raw numbers are bigger at Texas – as is the rare profit – that's the basic formula. At most schools football and men's basketball picks up the tab for everyone else. And often there isn't any coupon clipping in the tab.

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