A friend who has lived here longer than most of us have been alive describes the state of Hawaii and the University of Hawaii as "dueling hypocrisies," entities that are supposed to work together to benefit the tax payers who fund them but instead mire themselves in empty rhetoric, gridlock politics and endless finger-pointing.

The UH athletic department is perfect by no means, but it is stuck in the middle, financially dependent on upper campus and the Legislature.

Those who say the athletic department should be "run like a business" obviously don’t have enough familiarity with Title IX, which, while designed to guarantee equal opportunity for student-athletes, also puts an incredible strain on the overall revenue-resources equation. Although the Rainbow Wahine volleyball team is a moneymaker that meets financial goals every year, until the day women’s football is as popular as men’s, there will be no such thing as gender equity when it comes to the overall sports bottom line.

Speaking of football, it is no coincidence that the only two fiscal years in recent history where the UH athletic department finished in the black were 2007-08 and 2010-11; those were the years Hawaii was a Western Athletic Conference champion or co-champion in football. Of course, 2008 included a major bump from UH’s participation in the Sugar Bowl.

That era also often gave UH conference payouts that included bonuses derived from Boise State making it to a BCS game, as well as March Madness hoops money, sometimes from two fellow conference members making it to the tournament.

You probably never thought you’d wistfully look back on the good, old WAC days, did you?

People forget that even at its worst, football isn’t "losing money." What’s happening is it isn’t generating what it needs to help pay for other non-revenue-producing sports.

While, indeed, a good share of UH’s financial woes stem from lower football attendance — which you would expect for a team that won one game last year and three the year before — another problem is how the money that even this losing team brings in is counted.

It doesn’t take an accountant to see that not crediting UH for funds generated at Aloha Stadium during Rainbow Warrior football games from concessions and marketing, and forcing it to buy parking to re-sell, is unfair if the athletic department is going to be held accountable for red ink. Relief from stadium expenses in itself would account for $500,000 per year, a good start on that possible $2 million shortfall in the books.

The pushback from the stadium board will be that it is also tasked to perform as a business. But really? I think of it as a place where football games are played. Is it UH’s fault that the stadium is empty most nights?

K. Mark Takai and Donna Mercado Kim, politicians with their eyes on Congress, grandstanded with proposals for a $10 million UH sports cure-all from general funds and outrage against raising student fees, respectively. I actually agree with Kim but don’t recall hearing anything from her four years ago when the fees were originally put into place; UH is a much easier target now.

An eight-figure band-aid for UH sports is a joke when there are much more important priorities also grossly underfunded. Raising student fees is not the answer, either; it shouldn’t even be part of it. The first step should be proper financial crediting for UH athletics for what its football team generates at Aloha Stadium.

It is an example of what can be fixed — unlike much of the rest of UH sports finances, which are controlled by outside forces, such as a football conference that siphons travel subsidies and a basketball conference that brings in sparse NCAA Tournament money.

Reach Dave Reardon at dreardon@staradvertiser.com or 529-4783. Read his blog at staradvertiser.com/quickreads.