I saw the same article that mentioned Wayne State’s football budget is $195,000. I believe it was in on a Crain’s Business web site which won’t allow you to provide a link. But if you Google “wayne state” and “195000”, you’ll find it. For most schools that offer football, the football budget is usually around 30%-50% of the overall athletic budget. If we assume 30% for Wayne State, then their overall athletic budget is in the neighborhood of 195,000/0.3 = $650,000.
How does this compare with other D-II schools? I found this information on Minnesota-Crookston. They are in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC), the same conference as St Cloud State and Minnesota-Duluth, two teams Wayne State has beaten in the playoffs. The link indicates Minnesota-Crookston’s overall athletic budget in 2006 was $1,700,000. The link also mentions that this is the lowest in the NSIC. Finally, the link state’s the average overall budget in the NSIC is $2,600,000.
For another glimpse into D-II athletic budgets, I found this information on North Alabama (Terry Bowden’s school, which is contemplating a move to FCS). This link states that North Alabama’s overall athletic budget will need to increase by $3,000,000 to a total of $7,500,000 for a possible move to FCS. Thus, the current (D-II) budget is $4,500,000.
What does all of this mean? I’d say it’s pretty clear that Winters has been able “do more with less” at WSU. That seems like a pretty attractive quality to have for a prospective head coach at UA.
I’ll throw in this caveat. The $195,000 football budget number for WSU seems low to me. But even if it’s double or triple that, the conclusions remain the same. WSU gets a lot of bang for the buck with Winters.