Robert Zullo, an assistant professor of sports administration at Mississippi State University, surveyed 117 Division I-A football schools in 2004 about their athletics marketing efforts. Ninety schools completed the surveys, 54 from the so-called major conferences and 36 from other I-A leagues. Here is a summary of the findings:

Schools from the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12,

SEC and Pacific-10
(54 respondents)

• 42 schools used outsourced marketing or a combination of outsourced marketing and in-house marketing.

• 38 chose outsourced marketing because of guaranteed and additional revenue for their athletics department.

• 23 said that more than 70 percent of their marketing dollars were generated by outsourced marketing.

• 34 said their financial guarantee was $3 million or less.

• 26 said their athletics department re-
  ceived more than 15 percent of any revenue generated beyond the guarantee.

• 12 used only in-house marketing.

What do the outsourced companies sell?

Coaches' radio shows (39)

Radio broadcast (38)

Coaches' TV shows (32)

Videoboard advertising (32)

Signage (31)

Print media (31)

Promotions (28)

Internet (22)

Concessions or pouring rights (5)

Schools from the MAC, WAC, Mountain West, Sun Belt and Conference USA

(36 respondents)

• 12 schools used outsourced marketing, or a combination of both outsourced marketing and in-house marketing.

• 9 chose outsourced marketing because of guaranteed or additional revenue for their athletics department.

• 8 said that more than 70 percent of their marketing dollars were generated by outsourced marketing.

• 9 said their financial guarantee from outsourced marketing was $750,000 or less.

• 7 said their athletics department re-ceived more than 11 percent of any revenue generated beyond the guarantee.

• 24 used only in-house marketing.

What do the outsourced companies sell?

Signage (9)

Radio broadcast (8)

Coaches' radio shows (8)

Coaches' TV shows (8)

Videoboard advertising (8)

Print media (6)

Promotions (7)

Internet (6)

Concessions or pouring rights (1)