At Western Kentucky University (WKU), the most recent member of the NCAA’s Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), a keen eye on the bottom line is impacting its decision making. A recent article by the WKU Herald looked at how high salaries demanded by football coaches affects the institution’s hiring decisions. It noted the recent…
Outside the Lines (Sundays, 9 a.m. ET, ESPN) will present five pieces over four weeks starting on Sunday, Dec. 13 examining several hot-button issues facing college sports. A companion series on ESPN.com, including a database showing how much money flows into each of the 120 bowl-eligible college athletic departments and how it is spent, will…
A discussion on December 9 at the annual Street & Smith’s Sports Business Daily IMG Intercollegiate Athletics Forum featured a discussion about the financial pressures facing college sports, addressing the recent Knight Commission survey of presidents at major college football institutions which found that athletic costs are unsustainable. The panel discussion, titled “Chancellors and Presidents:…
On December 3, Hostra University announced it will discontinue its intercollegiate football program because of the significant cost to the institution to compete in the sport. “As we continue to improve our academic programs and reputation, and plan the University’s future, we have to consider the investment we make in all of the University’s programs,”…
Orin Starn, a professor of cultural anthropology, questions whether his institution, Duke University, should continue to subsidize its athletics program. In an opinion published in the Durham Herald-Sun, Starn points to Duke’s $10 million subsidy to its athletics program last year and questions the expense when liberal arts programs are in the midst of having…
As reported in Politics Daily, on November 5 at the University of California Berkeley (UC), the Academic Senate voted to recommend to UC Chancellor Robert Birgeneau to not continue subsidizing the athletics program, to end the athletic department’s deficit spending, and to include coaches in the full furlough program facing UC Berkeley professors and staff.…
On December 3, the Arizona Board of Regents held a meeting at which the future of intercollegiate athletics in the state of Arizona was discussed. Welch Suggs, a consultant to the Knight Commission, made a presentation of College Sports 101 and the recent Presidential Survey on the Cost and Financing of Intercollegiate Athletics. Among the…
An opnion by Gilbert Gaul, published in the editorial section of the November 28, 2009, editon of the New York Times, pointed to the concern over escalating costs of intercollegiate athletics and the recent report from the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics of the unsustainable spending on football and basketball coaches at NCAA Division I…
On November 23, 2009, Northeastern University made a decision to discontinue its Division I football program. In a statement from the University, “it was determined that elevating and sustaining a competitive Division 1 football program would require additional multi-million dollar investments on an ongoing basis. A broad consensus developed behind discontinuing football and focusing future…
On November 24, the Columbia Free Times published an article that discussed the escalating cost of college athletics, particularly coaching salaries of head football and men’s basketball coaches at major Division I institutions. The article referred to the Presidential Survey report released in October by the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics which found that most…