National sports business reporter discusses business of college football

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- Sports fans aren't just the average tailgating, face-painting fans anymore! With the hype of fantasy sports and social media, fans are now smarter -- and a sports business reporter says college football is a multi-million dollar business.

Kristi Dosh, known as the "Sports Biz Miss" is a former attorney turned national sports business reporter.

She recently wrote a book called "Saturday Millionaires," which explains the multi-million dollar business behind college football and Dosh decided to come to Wisconsin to promote it.

"The Big Ten is on of the most powerful football conferences. College football fans in Madison are incredible, and hopefully they will want to read the book and learn about the business side of college football," Dosh said.

Dosh spent two years working on the book, and visited college campuses all over the country. She says the point of the book is to share with fans the side of football they don't know.

"Unfortunately I don't think they always get the full story and they draw conclusions from headlines and I was the same way as a fan, and as I learned that some of the headlines were misleading, I wanted to share all those things I have learned," Dosh said.

An example of not getting the full story is hearing of a student-athlete getting a scholarship -- and one thinks he or she is getting a complete full-ride to the university that recruited them. In reality, it may be free for the athlete, but not the athletic department.

"I had no idea that the athletic department writes a check back to the university for the tuition, room and board for the student athletes. I assumed it worked like an academic scholarship where it gets comped by the university. Not only does the department get charged for tuition, room and board, they even get charged for the out-of-state tuition for most schools," Dosh said.

This means that when schools are given millions of dollars for TV deals, that money goes fast since the athletic department has anywhere from 16 to 22 different athletic programs to fund. They also have to pay coaches' salaries and travel fees.

As for whether we will ever see college athletes get paid, Dosh had this to say:

"I don't think student athletes will ever get paid above and beyond cost of attendance and that's what I focused a lot about in the book, the moral debate, and I think we've all heard that," Dosh said.

Dosh has local ties, as her fiance is from Delafield, and they visit the area often.