Drexel President John Fry's essay in today's WSJ is a thorough looksee at the costs -- not just money -- of bigtime football.
Thought this paragraph was telling, perhaps because it mirrors my concerns that bigtime football is evolving into a semi-pro game:
"The move from student athletics to professional sports leagues could be all but complete if the NCAA’s prohibition against paying players ends. Jeffrey Kessler, an attorney for former Clemson cornerback Martin Jenkins, has filed a lawsuit to strike down “reasonable compensation” limits for players and let a competitive market emerge. But paying players will exacerbate the financial pressure on universities. As Notre Dame president, the Rev. John Jenkins, recently said: a free market that allows players to negotiate a salary would be “Armageddon.”
Here is some of the essay. WSJ is subscription but probably it can be found online somewhere:
"In the past five years public universities have allocated more than $10.3 billion in student fees and other subsidies to prop up sports programs, according to
a November examination by the Huffington Post and the Chronicle of Higher Education. A study released last year by the American Association of University Professors found that athletic spending increased by 25% at public four-year colleges between 2004 and 2011, adjusted for inflation. Funding for instruction and academic support remained nearly flat. The study also found that the median pay for NCAA Division I football head coaches increased 93% between 2006 and 2012. Median pay for professors rose a mere 4%.
In many states the highest-paid state employee is the head coach of the state university football or basketball team. University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban made $7.2 million last year, about 50 times more than the average pay of a full-time professor. But at least his team returned some revenue to the university.
That is unusual: A NCAA study last year found that only 20 of the nearly 130 university athletic programs in the top-flight Football Bowl Subdivision enjoyed a positive operating margin. The average loss was $17.6 million. These athletic programs wouldn’t survive in the private economy and only function by “taxing” the rest of the university.
The mounting sports losses force universities to divert funding from the fundamental task of educating students. Student fees, according to an analysis by USA Today, fund 65% of Old Dominion University’s athletic department budget. That Virginia school shared a conference with the institution of which I am president, Drexel University, but Old Dominion switched to another in 2013, aspiring for a big-time football ..."
Colorado State University sold $239 million in bonds earlier this year to build a football stadium. Jessica Wood, an analyst at Standard & Poor’s
said in April that the new debt would “exert greater pressure on financial resources that we already view as very weak for the rating.” The university hopes the stadium will attract more out-of-state applicants and encourage alumni to attend games."
GO Owls
