The importance of the 'Shareholders Society' 💰 Keene's first test and scoring at will
UCF is hoping to capitalize off of its booming alumni base and add a significant amount of cash through passionate donors. How important is it?
Before we jump into it, just wanted to give one more shout out of love to UCF’s Kalia Davis, who pens a very informative and personal newsletter each week. Davis is insightful, thoughtful and authentic, providing a really cool first-person perspective of the team’s season as its ongoing, while also giving his take on the entire sport and the NFL.
Kalia’s an awesome dude, so make sure you subscribe to his “In the Trenches” newsletter, too!
Today’s read is 3.5 minutes ⏲️
Trending in the Kingdom: UCF cashing in on Big 12 💰
UCF announced last week that they’ve opened up a “Big 12 level” of the Shareholders Society, the uber-cool group of donors that have become a major part of the fundraising arm for athletics.
Here’s the scoop: This is a smart move. Fundraising - aka boosters or donors - is critical for any top-tier program and UCF is no different. They’re trying to capitalize on the shift to a Power 5 conference, with the hopes of funds flooding in from a young, energetic and large alumni base that’s shown through every metric that they love their alma mater, and that they’re willing to donate to it.
What is the ‘Shareholder Society’? It’s a major gift program that UCF launched in 2018, under the leadership of Danny White. It requires a minimum pledge of $25,000 over a five-year period - or $5,000 per year - and is primarily used to fund operational needs and capital projects in all sports, not just football.
As an example, the $12 Million Roth Athletics Center at Kenneth G. Dixon Athletics Village was made possible by the support of Shareholders Society donors.
The Big 12 level of the major gift program ups the annual amount to $12,000 over five years, which becomes a $60,000 pledge commitment. It replaces the Preferred Shareholder level, which was $50,000 over five years.
The other, more prestigious giving levels are Legacy Circle ($50K annually) and the Athletic Director’s Circle ($25K annually).
According to UCF, Shareholders receive exclusive and unique engagement opportunities and experiences with University and Athletics leadership and coaches. I know they participate in at least a monthly Zoom call with UCF AD Terry Mohajir.
As of last week, there were around 220 major gift donors. They have a goal of 300 Shareholders by June 30, 2022.
"The growth of our Shareholders Society has been remarkable and continues to help us build championship-caliber facilities, support our exceptional student-athletes throughout their academic, athletics and post athletics career at UCF and deliver enhanced competitive sport operating budgets.” - UCF AD Terry Mohajir
UCF and Mohajir have big plans in the future, including $130 million in renovations to the athletics village and Bounce House Stadium, which we laid out here. Ramping up donations will make these enhancements a reality.
UCF also has to pay an application fee to the Big 12 ($2.5 million) and an exit fee to the AAC (likely around $7-10 million), and this cash will help offset some of those costs.
Shout out: Our friends Matt and Melissa Corey were the first members to join the Big 12 level of the Shareholders Society. The Corey’s, including JB and Jenna, are massive UCF fans and huge supporters of the athletic department. Their commitment to helping UCF grow has been second to none.
UCF has seen a surge in donations over the last decade.
In July of last year, the school said they raised $35.5 million in commitments and $17.4 million in cash gifts during 2020, which is almost six times the total commitment figure from 2012, which was $6.5 million.
But here’s why it’s even more important for the program to attract donations at a consistent and lucrative level, especially in the Big 12: That’s the way of life, and the second-highest source of revenue for major football schools.
Power 5 schools generated more than $2 billion in 2018 via donor contributions, according to data compiled by Bloomberg through the National Collegiate Athletic Association. That trails only media rights and bowl revenue ($2.7 billion) for the most. It’s even ahead of ticket sales ($1.6 billion).
Just how valuable is UCF football? 💵
Luckily, we have some data, thanks to a study conducted by Ryan Brewer, an associate professor of finance at Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus.
Per the Wall Street Journal: “Brewer’s study calculates what a college team would be worth on the open market if it could be bought and sold like a professional sports franchise. Brewer analyzes each program’s revenues and expenses along with cash-flow adjustments, risk assessments and growth projections.”
UCF, per Brewer’s analysis, was ranked the 65th most valuable college team in the country in 2018, with a value of $68.1 million, down from $82.3 million in 2017, but that was likely due to the coaching change that offseason.
I’d imagine that would be way higher now, following the Big 12 invite.
UCF is the highest grossing Group of 5 school, at $30 million in revenue, but that would rank in the bottom five of the Power 5. Keep in mind, UCF’s revenues will get a bump with likely triple the payout in media rights coming down the pipeline when they leave for the Big 12.
Copy cat 🐱: White, who is now at Tennessee, launched a “Shareholders Society” in Knoxville right after he took over. It’s the same set up, with a minimum gift promise of $25,000 over five years to join the club, and he even alluded to it being a success at “other institutions” he’s been at. I guess DW has some leeway here to steal the idea, because by the end of his run at UCF, annual fundraising had increased from $8 million in 2016 to $35.5 million in commitments in 2020.
Keene’s first crack in Annapolis ☝️
The bye week is behind us and UCF will hit the road to visit Annapolis this weekend against Navy, which means we’ll get the debut of the new QB1: true freshman Mikey Keene.
Fill me in: Keene was named the starter after Dillon Gabriel went down with a broken clavicle, which has him out likely the rest of the regular season. Keene’s had extra time to prepare with the first-team offense. Gus Malzahn likes what he’s seen so far.
“Just the way he's handled himself since Dillon went down, I've been very impressed,” Malzahn said. “I think he can operate our offense. There's nothing like the real thing, though. There will be some learning things. There could be some growing pains, but we've got to be better around him. That's really been our message and our challenge to everybody. Let's help him out. Let's be better from a coaches' standpoint and players' standpoint. Everybody raise their level."
Malzahn also praised how much Keene is “a winner” and that he’ll have to see how he responds to adversity. It’ll help if UCF has its full arsenal of guys around him to assist. In terms of injuries, Malzahn said everyone’s day-to-day, except Gabriel, and will be re-evaluated later on this week. We may get a game-time decision on a few.
Here’s who’s dealing with what:
C Matt Lee - ankle
RB Isaiah Bowser - knee
WR Jaylon Robinson - knee
DL Ricky Barber - knee
DB Corey Thornton - concussion
LB Tatum Bethune - concussion
Here’s the game’s betting lines, per FanDuel:
Moneyline: UCF: (-850) | NAVY: (+540)
Spread: UCF: -15.5 (-112) | NAVY: +15.5 (-108)
Total: 53.5 – Over: (-106) | Under: (-114)
Betting trends:
UCF is 2-0 in two all-time head-to-head matchups against Navy.
The total has hit the over in five of UCF's last six road games.
UCF is 1-4 against the spread (ATS) in its last five games.
Why UCF should win: There’s been so much turmoil at Navy, including the firing and re-hiring of their offensive coordinator, then demoting him. Navy has the nation’s worst scoring offense, at 10 points per game, which doubled from the week prior, but still ranks 130th out of 130 teams. They’re 0-3 for the first time since 2001. Air Force held them to just 68 yards a few weeks back, the fewest yards in a game since 1966. Yeah, it’ll be tough for them to keep pace with UCF’s speed, even if Keene is inexperienced.
Scoring titans head to Tampa ⚽
The War on I-4 gets underway on the pitch tonight as UCF’s men’s soccer team heads to Tampa to face USF - and good luck to the Bulls, because they seem to be scoring at will lately.
The story: The Knights are second in the nation in goals per match, averaging 3 per contest. That’s right behind UNC Greensboro (3.11) for the best in the country.
They’ve won three matches in a row, netting four or more goals in each of those games.
UCF has outscored its opponents 21-12 this season and is averaging 15 shots per game.
This isn’t a new thing either. The Knights were one of the top scoring offenses in 2018 and 2019, ranked in the top 10 in the country in multiple scoring categories, before falling off last season, but it seems like they’re back to their usual ways.
WATCH ▶️: UCF at USF, 7 p.m. tonight on ESPN+