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Purdue Athletics Pulls in $3.4 Million in One Day

The Purdue Day of Giving netted Purdue Athletics over $3 million.

By jumboheroes
Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

Yesterday was the annual Purdue Day of Giving. While the University as a whole raised over $18 million in one day the athletic department managed to raise a cool $3.4 million from just 778 donors. That's not a bad haul right there. That's an average donation of over $4,370. That's not a bad chunk of change. These are obviously not your every day donors these are some high roller folks. I don't know about you but I certainly couldn't drop over four grand if someone calls me up on a random day. The question of course that you are asking is what is this money going to be used for? It certainly isn't going to be used for a buyout to a football contract, we know that much. It's my understanding that this money is not earmarked for any particular thing it's just a nice windfall. This leads us to the fun part...SPECULATION! If I'm Morgan Burke and $3.4 million fell into my lap and I'm running the department what am I gonna use it for?

  • Surely this money could be put toward lights on Ross-Ade stadium couldn't it? I'm not a contractor so I don't know what this would cost but I would think that this $3.4 million would be a nice nest egg if not the full amount. I know in previous articles written by Travis he has referenced $2-$3 million dollars.
  • Why not spend the extra cash to shore up the assistant coach salaries for both men's basketball and football? One of the big problems Purdue has had in the past is losing high value assistants to other schools who can offer a pay bump.
  • Get it all in quarters, and build some sort of money bin to roll around/swim in it?
  • Give yourself a $3.4 million raise and put on that golden parachute as you head out the door. Not the best idea I'll admit.
  • Invest the $3.4 million and hope to get a nice return to prevent shortfalls in the future. This isn't the sexy choice but it makes a lot of sense. This would allow Purdue to continue to put money in the reserves in case fundraising dries up in the future. Burke is certainly a conservative fellow with the department cash so it wouldn't surprise me if this is the route that he goes down.
So if this were you, what would you do? Where do you want this new windfall to go? Let us know in the poll or if there's something not mentioned throw it out in the comments.


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