Date of Graduation

8-2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Business Administration

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Finance

Advisor/Mentor

Fogel, Kathy

Committee Member/Reader

Rapert, Molly

Committee Member/Second Reader

Waller, Matthew A.

Committee Member/Third Reader

Adams, Jason

Abstract

This paper will outline the author’s reasoning behind why he believes the University of Missouri should be incorporated in the Southeastern Conference’s West division, as opposed to the East division. The author begins by giving a brief history detailing why the University of Missouri was pressed into making a decision to leave their current conference, the Big 12, and look for new membership. This will then parlay into a discussion of the decision for Missouri’s new conference to place them into the East division, a mistake in the author’s opinion. The original decision to place Missouri in the SEC East was made to appease the tenured members of the conference, and ensure that both scheduling and rivalries were kept in place. However, the author will suggest that cost savings from transportation, division realignment, and reassurance of maintained rivalries will justify that the University of Missouri will be better served in the SEC West division. In order to begin an investigation of transportation costs for the two universities involved in the proposed switch, the author conducted interviews with six different individuals to create an estimate for the cost of transportation. The interviewees included: Colleen Lamond, the Associate Athletic Director of Game Operations at the University of Missouri, Shelly Garcia, Group Charter Manager of Sun Country Airlines, Lisa Lee, the Administrative Support Assistant in charge of flight charters for Auburn University’s football program, Coach Randall Dickey, Director of Operations of Auburn Basketball, Reid Oslin, Director of Sales for Private Jet Group, and General Manager of Sales & Compliance at Adventure Bus Charter & Tours Inc, Pat Dodd. The Author then concludes with the notion that this is a time in which college football programs and conferences in the south have the potential to garner more recognition nationwide than the universities they represent. Therefore, they still must recognize that at its core, it is a business, and earning a profit to benefit your university still remains king.

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