Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds took home the award for Athletic Director of the Year on Wednesday night at the fourth annual Sports Business Awards, presented by the Sports Business Journal and SportsBusiness Daily.
The head Longhorn beat out Bob Bowlsby of Stanford, Tim Curley at Penn State, Chris Del Conte at TCU and Chris Hill at Utah.
From my perspective, there's no doubt Dodds should have taken this one home.
No one in college sports made a bigger impact than Texas in the past year. The Longhorns chose to stay in the Big 12, preventing the creation of the Pac-16 and keeping the Big 12 afloat.
That decision paid off last month when the Big 12 announced a $1.1 billion television deal with Fox Sports for the league's secondary TV rights, a 350 percent rise.
More than anything though, Dodds flexed his program's muscles in the creation of the Longhorn Network, set to launch in August.
Texas' total revenue during the 2009 season was $93 million, $25 million more than the next highest in college football, Ohio State. It's $35 million more than the most in the Big 12.
Of that $93 million, Texas made $68 million in profit, $30 million more than its closest competitor in the Big 12, Oklahoma.
That number is only going to grow after Dodds secured $300 million more over 20 years for the athletic department from ESPN in partnership for the Longhorn Network. That's $15 million more per year for the program.
Additionally, Texas' athletic budget has grown to $137 million from $4.2 million when Dodds took over as athletic director two decades ago.
Dodds took home the award on Wednesday night, and there's no doubt he deserved it after one of the most turbulent but impactful years in college sports, which ended with Texas' athletic program in a better position for success than ever before.