The College of Charleston basketball team is having an historic season — and not just on the court.
At 21-1, the Cougars are off to one of the best starts in program history; their 20-game winning streak and .955 winning percentage are the best in the nation.
The No. 18 Cougars have been ranked in The Associated Press’ Top 25 poll for a month, the first time that has happened in two decades.
But the basketball court isn’t the only place where the Cougars are thriving this season.
The school’s athletic department is having a record-breaking financial year as well, generating more revenue and taking in more donations than ever before. The Cougars' success on the court has meant a better bottom line — not just for the basketball program, but for the entire athletic department, and for the school itself.
Fans cheer during a game between College of Charleston and William & Mary on Monday, January 16, 2023 at TD Arena. Andrew J. Whitaker/Staff
“Anytime a program has success on the court or on the field, it’s going to generate more interest within the community,” said College of Charleston athletic director Matt Roberts. “That interest and excitement usually translates into more revenue for the program and in turn more people are willing to give to the athletic department and the university as a whole.”
Roberts said that advertising-equivalency dollars can be hard to quantify. But according to the school's media-monitoring software, the ad-equivalency for media coverage related to College of Charleston basketball from Nov. 7 to Jan. 1 was about $254,000.
From Jan. 2 — when the Cougars were ranked in the Top 25 for the first time this season — to now, that number is more than $66 million.
In a typical season, the basketball team will have a couple of sellouts at the 5,100-seat TD Arena. Those games normally come against a Power 5 opponent such as North Carolina or LSU, or on the weekends when families tend to make their way to the Cougars’ downtown facility.
This year, the Cougars already have nine sellouts with more than a month left in the regular season. There are no tickets left for any of the five remaining home games, including CofC’s matchup on Jan. 28 against Hofstra.
Sellouts mean big bucks for the Cougars athletic department. Each home game generates between $45,000 and $50,000 in revenue for the school. With five home games left, the Cougars have already surpassed last year’s tickets sales by $50,000.
“We try to project our budgets off of traditional numbers from previous seasons,” Roberts said. “Since the Hampton game (Dec. 29), we’ve had nine straight sellouts and it hasn’t mattered if the games are on weekdays or weekends. It doesn’t matter who the opponent is either.
“That’s unbudgeted revenue that we didn’t anticipate and that’s not only going to help us reinvest in the arena and the fan experience. It’s also going to be spread around to our other programs as well. It’s going to be a shared success with the entire athletic department.”
‘Our City’
Cougars head coach Pat Kelsey is a one-man marketing machine.
At least once a week, the second-year coach will leave his third floor Meeting Street office and venture over to the Cistern Yard or one of the dorms, encouraging students to show up to a basketball game.
Kelsey’s ‘Our City’ slogan has become a rallying cry for the students and the fan base.
The student body at The College of Charleston is the HEARTBEAT of the Our City movement. pic.twitter.com/lfjtjo53Rc
— Pat Kelsey (@patkelsey) January 17, 2023
“It’s one of the most beautiful campuses in the country and I’m always blown away by it every time I see it,” Kelsey said in one recent post. “This is ridiculous. I just want everyone to know how much I appreciate what you guys are doing. … you are creating one of the best environments in college basketball.”
After every home game, Kelsey will storm into the students' section with his players to celebrate a victory. The Cougars are a perfect 13-0 at TD Arena, which includes a victory over Virginia Tech in ESPN's Charleston Classic, which was broadcast on national TV and played in front of the largest crowd in program history.
“It’s not very often that you have a coach who is involved with the marketing of his program like Pat is,” Roberts said. “He’s doing it without being asked to. He’s proactive. He is selling the program. It’s been a perfect storm of success on the court and with his engagements with the community.”
The games have become so popular that students have started to line up hours before the game and even then hundreds are turned away because tickets have run out.
College of Charleston’s head coach Pat Kelsey walks out of the stands during a game between College of Charleston and William & Mary on Monday, January 16, 2023 at TD Arena. Andrew J. Whitaker/Staff
“It’s a good problem to have,” Roberts said.
Kelsey has also proven to be a fundraising dynamo. In the past year, Kelsey has raised more than $1 million for the school. CofC's partnership with G3 Marketing, a Cincinnati-based firm, has helped the university with its NIL (name, image and likeness) brand. New NCAA rules under NIL guidelines allow athletes to make money off their name, image and likeness while they are still in school.
It’s what has helped Kelsey land one of the top recruiting classes among mid-major schools for the 2023-24 season.
“Charleston has assembled the best mid-major class in the country to date,” said 24/7 recruiting analyst Adam Finkelstein. “Charleston has what now rates as a historically good recruiting class in the CAA.”
The success on the court has also spilled over to the university as a whole. Fund raising for the school is expected to reach record levels by the end of the current semester.
“The campus has rallied around the College of Charleston’s brand,” said CofC President Andrew Hsu. “We’ve had three record years of fund raising and we are projecting this year to be even better. The whole community has embraced the basketball team. And because of our success in basketball more people are learning about our academic excellence as well.
“Families that didn’t know anything about the College of Charleston are learning about us and more people are willing to contribute to that success and development.”
The university is also expecting a record number of students to apply for admission. More than 22,500 students applied for admission in 2022. That number is expected to be surpassed this year.
“We will be able to recruit better students because of the success of the basketball team,” Hsu said. “It is a positive feedback loop that will continue to feed on each other.”
‘Gonzaga of the East’
When Hsu met with Kelsey during the coach’s job interview in the spring of 2021, the president had a vision for what he thought the program could become.
“I wanted to be the Gonzaga of the East,” Hsu said. “I think we have an opportunity to get there. This is just the beginning and it’s only going to get better and better and bigger and bigger from here.”
Gonzaga, a small private Jesuit school located in Spokane, Wash. with an enrollment of 5,000 students, has been to 22 consecutive NCAA Tournaments, with four Elite Eight appearances and two Final Fours.
College of Charleston is working on a deal to have 10 men's basketball games on regional TV this season. Andrew J. Whitaker/Staff
Many mid-major schools have tried to replicate the Zags' success, but few have succeeded.
“Basketball is one of those unique sports where you can turn a mid-major program into a major program and that’s our goal,” Roberts said. “With the right coach and the right continuity and consistency from the administration and board of trustees it has proven it can be done.”
It also takes money, lots of it.
In 2022, the CofC men’s basketball program generated $3.05 million in total revenue. It also had $3.05 million in expenses, which includes coaches’ salaries, scholarships and travel.
Gonzaga’s basketball budget and revenue makes CofC look like a small, start-up company.
Gonzaga men’s basketball program brought home $14.04 million revenue and paid out $9.8 million in total expenses. So, the program was a moneymaker for the school, bringing about $4.2 million in net profit, according to collegefactual.com.
Virginia Commonwealth, a former CAA member, made $9.08 million in revenue and spent $6.7 million in expenses. The program still made $2.3 million in net profit for the school, according to the same study.
“Those schools had to start somewhere,” Roberts said. “It takes time, you just can’t flip a switch and do it overnight. It takes a community. It takes tremendous consistent support from the coach, the administration, the board of trustees and donors. This is something that has be built over time. There are a lot of programs that catch lightning in a bottle, but the key is can they sustain that success.”
Gonzaga’s budget for their basketball program during their 1998-99 run to the Elite Eight was just over $1 million. The school had only 250 members in their booster organization; now, it has nearly 3,500. CofC’s Cougar Club has about 1,500 active members.
Gonzaga was also able to keep head coach Mark Few, who took over the program in 1999, at the school for more than two decades.
Kelsey is already hot commodity in the coaching carousel. He is rumored to be a candidate at bigger Power 5 schools such as Notre Dame, where head coach Mike Brey is retiring at the end of the season.
Kelsey’s signed a 5-year deal worth a total of $3 million in 2021. He’s getting $600,000 this year, but can earn more with incentives like conference championships and NCAA Tournament appearances.
“I want coaches and administrators that are coveted by others,” Roberts said. “It means you are hiring the right people. If Pat’s name is being mentioned for bigger job, that’s great. It means we’ve done the right thing in hiring him.
“Hopefully, there’s a trust between us. That we’re working together to build something special and can leave a mark and a legacy for decades to come.”
