are you serious ? Akron has a net of $493 million vs YSU's $192 million. And has a great deal of fat to cut if need be. YSU ?
I hope you realize you made mention of each University's net position, which is the non-profits version of retained earnings. That is in no way the net profit, or in the non-profit world, change in net position for the University. All that tells me is that over the history of each University, there were years where they took in more revenue than expenses. If you note in the case of Akron, their "net," as you like to refer to it as, decreased by $14.1 million over the last year as they had that deficit in revenue less expenses. For YSU, it actually increased by $670,000 as the University took in greater revenue over expenses.
When you look deeper into the audited financial statements, you note a long term debt schedule which displays the principal plus interest owed by the University each year for the next X number of years. In the case of Akron, page 25 of the audited statements shows that they will owe $30-31 million
per year in principal plus interest on their long term debt through 2023. Conversely, in the case of YSU, page 40 of the audited statements shows that YSU will owe between $5.3-$5.8 million per year in principal plus interest on their long term debt through 2023. Please do explain to me how having debt payments 5.5 times that of YSU over the next decade is better for Akron? You really have me scratching my head on that one. That is
fat that they simply cannot trim; they must pay it.
Oh, and for the fun of it, you can read about the state of each University's athletic program in these reports. Akron's is on page 73 (of the PDF), while YSU's is on page 75 (of the PDF).
Long story short, it is nice to get big beautiful new buildings, but in the long run, you are certainly going to have to pay the price. In the case of Akron, they are really going to be feeling the effects of this debt for years to come.
