re: Told Yall We Rich - A&M Revenue Almost $200 M in 14-15.

Nice article, but it would have been better if it was accurate.

The debt TAMU athletics owes the academic side wasn't $16.2 million. It was millions of dollars higher.

For five of the last 10 years (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012) TAMU athletics didn't genrate enough revenue to pay its bills. In the 2006-2009 period, the shortfall was $4 million per year each year. To cover this $16 million shortfall, the the academic side gave an interest free loan to TAMU athletics and then tried to hide that loan from the public and then lied about the matter when news of the loan started to leak to the public. Along with having to borrow millions from the academic side on a regular basis, in 2009 the athletic department was so broke it had to do large scale layoffs. Because TAMU athletics was basically bankrupt in 2009, when The UT Austin AD asked the TAMU AD to partner in what is now LHN, TAMU didn't have any money available to put into the project and therefore TAMU had to reject the invitation to monetize its Tier 3 rights in a manner UT Austin has.

In 2012, because the Big 12 distribution was withheld to pay the exit fee and they didn't receive the SEC distribution until later, TAMU athletics again got a 10 year interest from loan from the academic side, for $5.2 million (this time the loan was actually publicly disclosed). So the debt the athletic department owed wasn't $16.2 million, it was in excess of $21 million. You would think an athletic department that was so unbelievably wealthy would be able to pay back the academic side. Or pay its bills more than half the time during the last decade.


Link to loan and scandal involving the $16.2 million:
LINK

Link to $5.2 million loan:
LINK /

Link to 2009 layoffs:
LINK