A recent survey of presidents at leading athletic colleges found that many fear their schools can't afford to compete at the top of the NCAA for much longer. The research was conducted by the Knight Commission, a watchdog group for college athletics, which consulted presidents at 95 of the 120 schools in NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision, a Division I subset. The data showed widening gaps between smaller and bigger schools in the league, as well as between athletic and educational spending at many institutions.
Athletic budgets at FBS schools run from $14 million a year to over $80 million, according to
The Los Angeles Times. Many presidents feel the larger schools are at an advantage, as they make millions in network contracts for the televised Bowl Championship Series. But the Houston Chronicle
says 80 percent of FBS colleges actually lose money on athletics, a number which mostly applies to the league's smaller institutions.
The Knight Commission, current coaches, former coaches, and other groups are all making recommendations for ways that colleges might trim costs, as
reported in The Associated Press. These include decreasing the number of games per season and traveling by bus instead of plane. There's also some debate about whether institutions should stop housing athletes in hotel rooms on nights before games to reduce distractions (i.e. drinking). It seems kind of excessive to me, but it's apparently a tradition among many football teams, which some coaches see as essential to game preparation.
According to the survey, 85 percent of presidents think the league's football and basketball coaches are overpaid—their salaries can run to over $4 million annually. But presidents are afraid to make changes at an individual level, worried it might hinder their ability to compete with other schools.
Some colleges might wind up restructuring their athletics programs from top to bottom. It might seem crazy to imagine a school known for its football or basketball teams to cut their funding, but it's happened before. My old college, Carnegie Mellon University, used to be pretty big into football—it even beat Notre Dame once in 1926, a game which made ESPN's list of top college football upsets. But one of Carnegie Mellon's presidents eventually restricted the football team's access to postseason games, in a push to direct the college's funds and attention towards engineering and other tech-y pursuits. And now it's a Division III school, with some of the best tech programs in the country and a football team most students forget exists.
How do you think FBS colleges can cut costs? Would you be heartbroken if your current/former college downgraded its athletic programs?
Comments (5)
If I found out a place for which I was going deeply in debt to pay for tuition was paying some sports coach 4 million bucks a year, I think I'd shoot myself. Or all of them.
wow. interesting. great blog.
I go to Syracuse University, and sports is a big part of the school. I wouldn't mind them decreasing spending on sports and increasing my aid or putting them into edu programs. Actually my school just built the Carmelo Anthony Basketball Center, probably millions of dollars to build when I think that should instead hired more professors in concentrations and area focuses that we lack, like an East Asian minor/major. I would love that.
Maybe they should force the NFL to kick down the money, seeing as the whole Div-IA system is just a free goddamned farm system for the pros.
I wonder how many people would care beyond those who are in the athletics programs or want to get in via a scholarship for a sports program that is being downgraded. :/