Big Red Business: Going to camp with Husker football

School is out, summer is near and the weather is heating up -- all of which means football camp season is underway at Memorial Stadium.

While big turnouts are expected for the 14 sessions, the price of camping, grabbing a camp T-shirt, and the opportunity to shake hands with head coach Scott Frost and receive instruction from the coaching staff doesn’t come cheap.

More than 1,200 athletes were registered to participate in the different football camps over the next three weeks, shelling out anywhere from $75 for a one-day individual camp to $350 per team for the 7-on-7 camp.

A nice financial windfall for Nebraska’s athletic department? A lucrative perk for the coaches?

Those camp dollars add up, but they still don’t move the needle much as far as Nebraska’s athletic program is concerned, observers say. The same for Frost and his coaching staff. If anything, the biggest beneficiaries may be graduate assistants and other support staff who can receive a paycheck well into the summer for camp-related duties.

Generally speaking, football camps at Nebraska and elsewhere generate much less than $1 million in revenue, according to industry sources. In fact, many schools in the Power Five conferences generate less than $300,000 in revenue for all their football camps, experts say.

That’s the top line before all the bills are paid to reimburse the athletic department and university for athletic facility and dormitory usage, and to cover the insurance, the dining hall and staff, coaches and players who are allowed to work.

The camps are set up by the head coach of a particular sport as private businesses and are separate from the athletic department. Most camps are either structured as limited liability corporations or a non-profit. For example, Nebraska’s football camps are owned and operated by BRFS LLC, doing business as Big Red Football School. (The website is huskercamps.com.)

Nebraska’s athletic department declined to comment on camp financials and attendance because the programs are privately owned and operated.

Of course, football athletes aren’t the only ones camping in Lincoln this summer. The women’s volleyball program offers seven camps, with prices ranging from $50 for a serving camp to $325 for a team camp. Men’s and women’s basketball run camps too, as do most of the other athletic programs.

Observers say non-revenue generating sports where coaches are paid less tend to have a greater eye on generating revenue through camps because they depend on the income as part of their total compensation package.

This summer, Frost and his coaching staff are hosting 14 camp sessions through late June. The first camp -- for individual players -- got underway this past Friday.

There are youth camps for kids as young as third graders, team camps, 7-on-7 camps, and specialist camps for kickers, punters and long snappers. A clinic designed just for women costs $60 per participant, and for $145, adults can attend educational Inside Husker Football 101 and 202 camps put on by the coaching staff.

The headliner this summer in Lincoln is the national Pipeline Camp for offensive and defensive linemen, sponsored by Adidas. At least 200 linemen from 19 states have signed up for the June 15 camp, to be held at Memorial Stadium. The cost per camper: $115.

For the price, they’ll get a camp shirt and exposure to not only Nebraska’s coaches, but coaches from other schools including Miami, Kansas, Louisville, Arizona State, Rutgers and Rice.

For many campers, this summer’s experience is mostly about improving techniques and gaining exposure that could mean a college scholarship down the road.

For Frost and his staff, camps are an opportunity to identify future prospects, add extra shine and provide a behind the scenes look at the program and expose campers (and perhaps future Nebraska students) to campus life.

Opinions differ on whether summer camps are really a perk for the head coach and his staff.

True, language in their employment contracts allow coaches and staff to earn income from camps outside of their normal compensation, and the NCAA allows it up to certain limits.

But many coaches don’t view camps as a perk, certainly not in the way it used to be.

“When the camps first started, it was a great opportunity to subsidize coaches’ salaries,” said Tim Cassidy, senior associate athletic director for football at Arizona State University.

“But as camps have proliferated,” he added, the money has become secondary. “Camps have become more of an opportunity to evaluate future prospects. You have some kids who started at age 8 and have been coming to camps for 10 years.”

Cassidy, a former Nebraska football administrator, helped run camps while in Lincoln and at other career stops at Florida, Texas A&M, and now Arizona State.

Most head coaches don’t take the pay, said Cassidy. Instead, he noted, they steer their camp income “ to graduate assistants, secretaries, equipment people and others not making six figures.”

And the assistants? “I don’t know of too many assistants who would rather stay in a dorm and be away from their families during the summer,” he said.

Andy Priestley said he would “struggle” to call hosting camps a perk. He’s the chief executive officer of My Online Camp, which provides marketing, registration, payment services, and other services to sports camps around the country, including Nebraska.

“College coaches have a lot on their plates,” Priestley said. “Their primary objectives are to represent the university in a positive way, and win games. If they do those things, everything else tends to take care of itself” in terms of the financial compensation.

“When we have surveyed our college football coaches, they have consistently stated identifying perspective recruits and community engagement are their primary camp objectives,” Priestley said.

The camp business has become much more specialized, more organized, and more business-like since the days of Bob Devaney and even Tom Osborne.

For one thing, there are more football camps for athletes to choose from to showcase their talents.

There are “mega camps” featuring a large list of participating schools, specialist camps for quarterbacks, kickers, linemen and such, elite skills camps, regional camps such as the Texas Showcase or Best of the Midwest, and community-oriented programs, such as what Nebraska offers for adults with its women’s clinics and football 101 and 202 events.

In addition, companies such as Adidas, Nike and Rivals, are hosting more camps.

All this activity has created a market for companies like My Online Camp.

Founded in 2006, the company works with more than 150 NCAA college football programs across all divisions. Besides Nebraska, clients include Oklahoma, Purdue, Michigan, Iowa State, Auburn, Oregon, and North Dakota State. The company also provides services to Rivals camps.

Many changes in camp structures have been driven by NCAA compliance requirements, such as limiting the number of days schools can host or attend camps in a given year, Priestley said.

The NCAA limits the time for coaches from Football Bowl Subdivision schools to participate in camps and clinics to 10 days in June. Football staff members can attend multiple camps in one day and have it only counted for one camp allotment, according to the NCAA.

Other changes in the camp landscape have been driven by football programs, Priestley said. Many programs now host at least one prospect camp and participate with other schools in mega camps.

The benefits? As Priestley sees it, athletes can showcase their talents in front of numerous college coaches at various levels without having to rack up costly expenses. Schools benefit by seeing many athletes from outside their region at a single event.

The results? Here’s one measurement from powerhouse North Dakota State, national champion from the Football Championship Subdivision level seven of the past eight years. Of its last five recruiting classes, 75 percent of the 129 signees attended Bison football camps. In addition, 73 percent of the players on the 2018 national championship team attended a Bison camp.

Steve Rosen covers the business of sports for HuskerOnline. Questions, comments, story ideas? Reach Steve at sbrosen1030@gmail.com.