"The New Phone Book's Here! The New Phone Book's Here!"

The Jerk is an all-time classic, just like when the Blue Ribbon Tournament Book arrives. Now that I can download it, my wife can not see my pathetic display from the mail box when it would arrive. One of the things that I love best about it is that it displays the annual budget for the schools in the tournament. Let's take a look at the 2006 athletic budgets for the BCS schools:

1. Ohio State - $101,804,848
2. Virginia - $92,655,584
3. Texas - $83,600,248
4. Florida - $78,177,776
5. Michigan State - $66,749,084
6. Tennessee - $66,165,792
7. USC - $65,434,876
8. Wisconsin - $62,875,100
9. Texas A&M - $61,419,536
10. Stanford - $60,661,304
11. Kentucky - $57,137,604
12. Notre Dame - $55,468,396
13. North Carolina - $53,753,892
14. Texas Tech - $53,337,768
15. UCLA - $52,049,868
16. Boston College - $51,766,104
17. Purdue - $50,182,700
18. Duke - $49,802,408
19. Kansas - $47,554,572
20. Maryland - $46,283,648
21. Virginia Tech - $45,196,500
22. Louisville - $45,109,660
23. Oregon - $44,630,104
24. Georgia Tech - $43,317,296
25. Illinois - $41,423,216
26. Vanderbilt - $40,373,884
27. Indiana - $39,451,708
28. Arizona - $38,444,312
29. Washington State - $27,219,522

A couple of things pop out at me:

1. Notre Dame getting into a BCS bowl is huge for them. It accounts for 20% of their athletic budget.
2. How does Virginia not have a big time coach? With that athletic budget, they should have gone to a final 4 or a BCS?
3. Georgia Tech is 7th out of 7 ACC schools in terms of athletic budgets. It's unrealistic that we should contend for national titles with a bottom of the food chain athletic budget. It explains why Dan Radokovich is angling towards PSL's for season ticket holders.