LSU’s Super Regional sweep wasn’t the only reason state college sports fans, and especially administrators, had reason to cheer Sunday.
Fans were understandably fixated on Alex Box Stadium as the Tigers powered past West Virginia and earned a trip to Omaha for the College World Series.
The owners of Rocco’s Pizza and Cantina breathed a sigh of relief and braced for an onslaught of LSU fans who will be determined to again capture the crown – yes, the CWS championship, but also, the Rocco’s CWS Jell-O Shot Challenge title as the boisterous purple and gold crew did two Junes ago, buying a staggering – and that is the right adjective – 68,888 shots that towered over the second-place Wake Forest fan base by 60,000.
Rocco’s cashed $344,000 off the LSU shot tab in 2023. If any of the 11 other Division I athletic programs in Louisiana could stage a festive fundraiser that netted anything close to that figure, their athletic directors would be thrilled.
Without question, they were Sunday evening. Grambling’s Trayvean Scott, Ryan Ivey of Louisiana Tech, Northwestern’s Kevin Bostian and John Hartwell of ULM breathed a sigh of relief and if so inclined, raised a glass to Rep. Neil Riser for his House Bill 639 that got overwhelming support on both sides of the state legislature.
Sunday, the Senate followed a 74-15 vote in the House with a 35-3 endorsement that sent the bill to the desk of Gov. Jeff Landry. Although it is saddled with amendments, it is expected to get his signature.
That will result in an annual boost of nearly $2 million for all 11 Division I athletic departments in Louisiana. That’s a blip on the financial chart for Scott Woodward at LSU, where the athletic budget is well over $200 million. But for Scott, Ivey, Bostian, Hartwell and their colleagues at McNeese, UL Lafayette, Nicholls, Southern, Southeastern and UNO, a couple million is much more than a band-aid as they all try to cope with the unfolding financial pressures of the just-confirmed federal court settlement that ushers in revenue sharing with student-athletes (believe it or not, they are still students) and the back payments of over $300,000 annually from the proletariat athletic programs to compensate the prime time players from 2016-21 for the NIL money they didn’t get – because NIL didn’t exist then.
Fair? Not hardly. Grambling, NSU, Tech and ULM will pony up for the next 10 years to provide NIL back pay to the elite college football and basketball players, Joe Burrow (he didn’t ask for this) and the like. The reality is the second-tier schools will come up with the toll it takes to be around the high end Power 4 neighborhood of Division I.
One of Northwestern’s Southland Conference peers, Houston Christian (the artist long known as Houston Baptist), had the temerity to challenge this absurd model. A federal judge quickly told HCU, sure, you don’t have to pay up – unless you want to stay Division I. Pay to swim with the big sharks.
The rich get richer.
At least with Riser’s HB639, which raises the tax rate on sports gambling in Louisiana from 15 percent to 21.5, a quarter of the additional revenue generated will be directed to the SPORT (Supporting Programs, Opportunities, Resources and Teams) Fund that will funnel to the state’s D1 public athletic departments.
That will more than offset the annual hit to satisfy the feds, and theoretically allow the ADs to provide more student support services for their Bulldogs, Tigers, Demons, Warhawks and their peers. At least, it will reduce the belt tightening that would result in cutbacks from the already modest ways they have to conduct their daily business – in fundamental aspects like team travel, equipment, gear, academic support and sports medicine services.
The gaming industry is not pleased, but it is relieved. The proposed tax rate was reduced from 32.5 percent during this spring’s legislative session.
So instead of a 17.5 percent hike, the hit is modest. It won’t deter anybody from placing a legal sports bet. It will bolster the budgets for athletics at Grambling, Northwestern, Tech and ULM.
And nobody will suffer a hangover like many visitors to Rocco’s are about to endure.
Contact Doug at sbjdoug@gmail.com