As mentioned last week, we are going to try to bring regular features to the site, including Hootie’s Wayback Machine and my look at business and media in the ACC. Another one we’re considering is a regular look at good old-fashioned number crunching involving statistics of UVA and the ACC, examining trends in anything from football stats to school finances.

Our first look will involve the USA Today annual survey of the financials of major college sports programs, which was released earlier in the year. If you haven’t seen it, here’s the link for it.

Through 2017, the state of Texas showed off its wealth once again, as the Unversity Of Texas was No. 1 in revenues with $214,830,647 and Texas A&M was second at $211,960,034. They brought in a lot of money, but they also spent a lot of money. Texas was No. 1 in expenses at $207,022,323 followed by Michigan, Ohio State, Alabama and Texas A&M 5^th at $146,546,229.

UVA was 39^th in revenues at $92,865,175, but had expenses greater than that, coming in 33^rd in expenses at $100,324,517 for a net loss. The overall rankings were made up of 230 public schools in the NCAA’s Division I that have an obligation to release the data, meaning not everyone is included because they did not have to divulge their numbers. Only eight schools from the ACC are in the survey, including Clemson, Florida State, UNC, N.C. State, Louisville, Georgia Tech, UVA and Virginia Tech. Private schools like Duke and Wake Forest, for example, are not included.

The survey includes past results for the 8 ACC schools going back to 2005, the year after the league expanded. In that data, USA Today displayed data along the lines of ticket sales, contributions, rights licensing, student fees, school funds and an “other” category for numbers that are part of the revenue totals but don’t really fit into the earlier mentioned categories.

In overall revenues, the eight schools are ranked in this order: Florida State was at 13, Louisville 22, Clemson 26, North Carolina 35, Virginia 39, Virginia Tech 44, N.C. State 47 and Georgia Tech 51.

After taking the numbers and slicing and dicing them up in pivot tables, the aggregate totals from 2005 to 2017 provided what I thought were some interesting data points. UVA, for example, is No. 1 in contributions and student fees among the 8 schools over the 12 years, and No. 3 during that time period in total revenues. But it’s when you bore down on the contributions year by year, you see a trend that could be of concern for the Wahoos in the future.

UVA for example, may have been No. 1 in contributions over the 12-year period, but in 2017 they dropped to fourth. It’s not that UVA faithful have slowed their giving either; the number given in 2017 is within a few percentage points to what was given in 2005 when the Wahoos pretty much lapped the field for contributions.

Others, however – specifically Florida State, Louisville and Clemson – have seen their giving explode, and not surprisingly, all three have experienced a wave of success with that giving. How one affects the other is kind of like determining which came first, the chicken or the egg; great success inspires more people to give. More giving seems to create more success that makes people want to give.

In 2005, UVA led the 8 ACC schools in the rankings with $27,849,391 in contributions. That was almost 70 percent higher than second-place Florida State’s $16,414,490 and roughly triple Clemson’s $9,377,793. Over the next four years, UVA would either be second or third, then in 2010, 2011 and 2013 the Cavs moved back to No. 1. But in 2016 the Cavaliers would drop to 3^rd and in 2017 drop another notch to No. 4.

Keep in mind that breaking the $30 million barrier in contributions was a rare thing during that time period in the ACC. Before 2016, UVA did it four times and only one other school managed it – Florida State in 2012 – and that was only once. No other ACC school did it.

But then an explosion of cash went a couple of schools’ way. In 2016 Clemson led the way at $35,639,063 followed by Florida State at $32,382,845 (UVA was third at $31,556,907). In 2017, Florida State went over the $40 million mark at $41,504,734, Louisville came close at $39,268,342 and Clemson was third at $33,782,757. UVA was fourth at $26,127,871. Keep in mind, this is just contributions, not revenue from TV, tickets sales, etc. Just pure giving.

While UVA’s giving dropped off slightly in 2017 versus the previous 5 years, historically it wasn’t that much different. It was the giving at Florida State, Louisville and Clemson that picked up dramatically. Virginia’s giving in 2017 is only 6 percent lower than what was contributed in 2005. Florida State’s is up 153 percent. Louisville’s is up 241 percent. Clemson’s is up 260 percent.

Will that trend last? UVa’s will almost certainly bounce back as it’s been higher in 6 of the seven previous years, and at roughly $31 million or more in five of those years. But the bar has been raised. The $30 million level used to put you at the top of the pack. Now it’s been redefined at $40 million or more,

So historically, UVA’s impressive tradition of giving toward sports programs really hasn’t changed. But the trend these statistics seem to be showing is if your giving levels stay the same, you’re falling behind. Other programs are figuring out ways to entice their fans to direct more of their discretionary income to them.

Here, if you’re one who prefers numbers to words, is the data used: