FRANKFORT — Athletics Director Wood Selig told the Board of Regents on Friday that he was “very pleased” with the football team’s transitional season into the Football Bowl Subdivision, formerly called Division I-A.

“I would say this first year of transition has been extremely successful, and we’ll use this first year as a springboard for success this coming season as well,” he told the board during its meeting.

His presentation pointed out the athletics department’s successes in areas including ticket sales, attendance, media coverage and victories.

While Western was considering the division change in 2006, Selig said the change would come with difficulties.

But in his report to the board Friday, Selig mentioned none.The reason, he said Monday, was because he didn’t know of any.

Selig told the regents the team was transitioning well on the field, placing in the top 1 or 2 percent in most statistical measurements within the Sun Belt Conference.

Selig didn’t say whether the move, at a cost of about $3 million, had been profitable overall.

Such an analysis is difficult to make, given the complex nature of the athletic budget and that some revenues and expenditures continue until the end of the fiscal year on July 1, said Darrell Horn, associate athletics director of business affairs.

“In terms of dollars and cents, we probably did not break even,” Horn said Monday, adding that he didn’t think any sports team earned a profit at Western.

The athletics department is more concerned with its overall budget, into which money from sources such as contracts, NCAA aid and student fees is deposited, Horn said.

Horn said he thought the football program could profit, but that might be in several years.

Dan Fulks, director of Transylvania University’s accounting program and finance researcher for the NCAA, said in October 2007 that Western was unlikely to profit from the division change.

“There are 19 schools in the NCAA that make money,” Fulks said. “I don’t see Western as being number 20.”

Horn said he would have an idea of how the football program did financially in July, after he’s prepared the athletic budgets. He will know more exactly near November, when auditors have returned their analysis.

Those figures won’t include money received through contracts such as that for about $500,000 with Host Communications, a company that handles all advertising and marketing for the athletics department.

On Monday, Selig said he couldn’t gauge the overall financial results, successes or failures, of the division change until 2012 or 2013, when the team has been fully transitioned for a few years.

But Selig did detail some successes to board members:

Season ticket sales were up 500 percent. Single-game ticket sales nearly doubled. Total ticket sales were about $200,000 higher than last season.

Student attendance nearly doubled. Total attendance increased by about 28,000.

The team saw a 73 percent increase in revenue from licensed apparel in the fourth quarter of this fiscal year from the year before, more than $1 million in merchandising sales.

Opportunities for guarantee games – in which I-A elites offer six figures to play lower-level teams such as Western – are increasing, with one scheduled per season for the next few years.

Hilltopper club seats are sold out at $750 each.

The team also finished its 12th consecutive winning season, finishing 7-5, Selig said.

Selig presented preliminary schedules for the next few seasons, which he said might be altered because of television opportunities.

Forrest Roberts, the only remaining regent who voted against the division change, on the grounds that it was partly funded by student activity fees, said the report showed that the change was good for Western’s football program.

Still, she added that “there are probably aspects of the transition that don’t appear in this report that we’ll have to wait for the transition to see if they are ironed out.”

Speaking to Herald reporters on Jan. 17, President Gary Ransdell summarized his opinion of the division move.

“Athletically, we did fine,” Ransdell said. “Financially, we did well.”

Reach at Corey Paul at news@chherald.com.