It's All About the Benjamins

From The Washington Post - 

How the Missouri football team just took down its university president

An excerpt - 

First, the team is the public face of the student body. Any number of people who live in the state but don't have relatives in the University of Missouri system likely know student-athletes by name. Butler did a good job of making his concerns known, but having students already known and respected by the community make a similar argument lowers the bar for sympathy to the cause.

Second, the team leveraged pressure on an immediate timeline. Next Saturday, the Missouri Tigers are scheduled to play the Brigham Young Cougars. As Saturday neared, the school was under increasing pressure to resolve the dispute as public attention to the conflict continued to grow. Butler's threat was more dire, of course, but its duration was unclear.

Third, the team's protest threatened immediate economic damage to the university. This is perhaps the biggest issue at play. A contract between Missouri and BYU obtained by the Kansas City Star reveals that cancellation on the part of the Tigers would result in a $1 million fine to be paid to BYU within 30 days of the cancellation.

What's particularly interesting is that the $1 million fine is a flat sum set because "actual damages — including those relating to public relations, radio and television broadcasts, lost profits, and other consequential damages — would be difficult or impossible to calculate," in the words of the agreement. Which is almost certainly true.

According to data compiled by USA Today, Missouri's athletic program generated $83.7 million in revenue last year, on $80.2 million in cost — a net of $3.5 million in profit. That's a lot of money — but it's actually fairly low for a public university. Of the 225 Division I schools that have an obligation to release that data, Missouri ranks 32nd in revenue. The top five schools are Oregon, Texas, Michigan, Alabama and Ohio State — which saw a combined $172.3 million in profit on $813 million in revenue.

That's the fourth point: There's huge long-term economic power in college football programs. The Tigers aren't having a great season, at 4-5 after four straight losses. They're still in contention for one of college football's countless bowl games, assuming they close the season strong. If they did make a bowl, the school would get some amount of money as a bonus. Last year, schools that played in even the least-known games got six-figure payouts.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/11/09/missouri-football-players-and-the-untapped-political-power-of-the-college-student-athlete/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Vox%20Sentences%2011.9.15&utm_term=Vox%20Newsletter%20All