Opportunity Cost
Justin W. Brantley • March 23, 2020
The True Cost of Guarantee (Buy) Games
One of the top teams in the country is going to fly us in, pay for our accommodations, give us the opportunity to compete against the best players in the country AND pay us nearly 6 figures. As the saying goes; “If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is!" Everything has a price, and a cost. For Head Coaches at HBCU’s (Historically Black Colleges & Universities) “Guarantee Games” pay a substantial amount of money to the University but often cost them their future! Guarantee (Buy) Games are the lifeblood of Black College Basketball but, ironically, they can kill the promising careers of talented black coaches seeking opportunity and experience. In a culture that provides Black coaches a short leash, has a short memory when it comes to their past accomplishments and gives them a short window to demonstrate results; Black coaches can ill afford to routinely be “win’s for hire!” During the 2019/2020 season these games provided revenue upwards of $6 million dollars to the SWAC & MEAC conferences, but at what cost? In this post, I am going to examine the true cost of buy games and how they further perpetuate the stereotype and stigma of inferiority that plagues Black Head Coaches in NCAA Division 1 Basketball.
Why do we place such a premium and emphasis on the amount of wins on a team/coaches record when they can be bought, sold or manufactured? The majority of casual basketball fans don’t know what Guarantee Games are, or that they even exist. They turn on ESPN’s Sportscenter and see that Mississippi Valley State University lost to the University of Utah by 94 points and say to themselves, “That’s horrible! How can a D1 team lose by that many points?” The thought never crosses their minds that an under-funded, under-manned and under-equipped MVSU squad was paid $98,000 plus travel expenses to show up and play against a PAC 12 Champion hopeful Utah team that was looking to bolster their record and resume. Recruits see the final score with zero context and say; “I don’t know if I want to go there, they almost lost by 100.” Search firms, with often nothing to go off of but win-loss records and statistics indicating margin of loss and victory, say; “I don’t know if he can compete at this level, look at his record!” The optics are that these coaches are not equal to their counterparts at other programs with no mention of the fact that HBCU’s on average are playing 6 “Buy Games” per season. The very same games that provide much needed revenue for these programs are stopping them from getting better recruits to improve their teams and stopping coaches from advancing in their careers beyond Low Major opportunities.
It is routine practice in college basketball for higher-level athletic programs to pay teams from smaller schools to come play them on their campuses. The higher-level team is almost guaranteed a victory, hence the name “Guarantee Game”, and are essentially buying a win. The lower program receives much needed revenue and often sees the game as an opportunity to provide exposure to their players and program. This “routine” however, tends to do more harm than good when it comes to career trajectory for players and coaches alike. For example, Mississippi Valley State University had 6 guarantee games totaling $510,000 this past season. All of these games took place prior to Christmas and they lost each game by an average of just over 37 points. Imagine the mentality and psyche of a Student Athlete going home during Christmas break and hearing from friends and family how “Horrible” their team is. In most cases, their families, high school coaches, and friends don’t realize or care to understand the economics surrounding those blowouts. All they see if the final score. In an era where the easy thing to do is transfer when things aren’t going the way Student Athletes want them, the practice of sacrificing losses to balance the budget can destroy a basketball program and a coach’s career.
“Why would any coach sign up for a job that required them to automatically assume 5+ losses per season?” You may ask. The answer is simple; Opportunity! Coaches all around the country looking to continue to climb the proverbial coaching “ladder” to one day hopefully have a High Major Head Coaching job understand that they must start somewhere. There are amazing Assistant Coaches; especially black ones, whose names surface when jobs come open but rarely get a legitimate look because often times their resume lacks Head Coaching experience. They ask themselves, “How can I get experience if nobody will give me a chance?” Deep down inside, they want the opportunity to have their own program even if that means sacrificing income (a lot of these low major Head Coaching positions pay substantially less than High Major assistant salaries), their coaching record, and in some occasions - their careers.
A lot of low major programs take buy games, but why is it such a big deal for HBCU’s? Well, rising college costs, the student loan crisis and federal budget cuts have hurt higher education nationwide, but none more than HBCU’s where almost 60% of the student body comes from low-income, first-generation households and over 70% have limited financial resources. In the last 25 years, 15 HBCU’s have closed their doors. Public and private HBCU endowments is, on average, 70 percent less than that of non-HBCU’s. In addition, private HBCU’s experienced a 42 percent drop in Federal Funding between 2003 and 2015. These guarantee games are not only welcomed, but are a necessity for a lot of these athletic programs’ operational budgets.
It’s a bold statement for me to make that the practice of sacrificing performance for viability is negatively impacting the career trajectory of Head Coaches at Historically Black Institutions. It’s a direct correlation that I wish I didn’t have to highlight. Unfortunately, it is true! In my research, I was only able to locate one example of a Black HBCU Head Coach who went on to take the same role at a Mid or High Major program; Anthony Evans was hired to lead the Florida International University Panthers in 2013 after 6 successful years at the helm of the Norfolk State program. While analyzing the former head coaches, one thing that stood out to me was their win loss records. They literally jumped off the screen and I’m sure they did the same for Athletic Directors and Search Firms receiving their resume when looking to fill an opening.
How do we fix this? Short of finding millions of dollars each year to donate to HBCU’s, I don’t have an answer. However, I do have some ideas:
- Retired black coaches should mentor, consult and volunteer with HBCU programs to help develop coaching talent and create an HBCU “Coaching Tree.” Structured mentoring, conference calls, in-service training, scheduling assistance, and other programs could contribute to the continued success of young black coaches.
- Black AAU coaches and directors should stop telling their players that “they are better than HBCU’s” based off of record and margin of victory. They need to understand why this is taking place and help their players identify the best fit for them and highlight the fact that with the right mentality and attitude, it’s a major bonus to be able to play that level of competition vs. choosing a low major program that doesn’t provide the same opportunities.
- The creation of an HBCU Athletics Network could potentially generate the revenue that is being sought through buy games. Strategic guarantee game acceptance of 2-4 games per school will allow them to retain the income necessary to fuel the program and the opportunity to play top competition without mortgaging the program and Head Coaches futures. Partnerships with existing platforms like Baller TV or Flo Sports would be ideal. They can sell subscriptions for sports fans around the country to support HBCU athletics and a 50% revenue share could be split evenly amongst each program.
- An increased focus on marketing the programs, players, and coaches could contribute to long term success. If 20% of the money raised from Guarantee Games was dedicated to creating a marketing budget it would be extremely beneficial to promoting young coaching talent and providing exposure to student athletes who have dreams of playing professionally.
I’m sure there are plenty of other things that can be done to enact change. Whatever it is, I hope it happens soon and we are able to see more talented coaches make it to the Mid/High Major ranks who look like the players they are coaching!
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