“There is no correlation between spending more on athletics and winning more . . . [and] increased spending on coaches’ salaries has no significant relationship to success or increased revenue.” Athletics events, where students, faculty, administrators and alumni gather, are the “front porch” for a university. Winning teams don’t engender lasting increases in applications or…
On October 2, 2009, the NCAA reported that spending on academic support for student-athletes remained steady or increased at nearly 92 percent of Division I institutions since 2007, despite the national economic downturn. The study found that most schools experienced between a 1 to 20 percent increase in total spending on academic programs over the…
An article in the New York Times discusses the future direction of the NCAA after the death last month of its president, Myles Brand. The Times focuses on ethical challenges within intercollegiate athletics that result in the tension between athletics and academia: commercialism, escalating salaries, Title IX, and the length of playing seasons. In comparison…
The New York Times recently published an article profiling the NCAA’s increasing openness toward collecting and sharing data from its member institutions in efforts toward academic and financial reform of intercollegiate athletics. The article credits the NCAA’s late president, Myles, Brand, who pushed for better decision-making based on facts and enhanced efforts at data collection.…
The Chronicle of Higher Education reported that fundraising contributions to to college sports programs are increasing at significant rates, particularly as larger shares of overall donations to colleges. According to the Chronicle, the country’s largest athletics departments and booster clubs raised more than $1.2 billion in 2006-2007, with some athletic programs tripling their annual fundraising…
The recent boom in construction of major athletics buildings has had a significant impact on college debt loads, according to an article published on September 28 by the Chronicle of Higher Education. According to the Chronicle, from 2003-2008, the nation’s largest athletic departments raised nearly $4 billion in private donations to finance capital projects. Although…
The Baltimore Sun published a report from the University of Maryland athletic department which includes a scenario of eliminating sports as an option to keep the athletic department financially stable over the next five years. The report, titled “Transforming Maryland Athletics: 2009-14,” offered three significant options for the University to keep the athletic program stable:…
On September 26, 2009, the Christian Science Monitor published an opinion by attorney Benjamin Rosenberg on the values of college sports in higher education. Rosenberg questions higher education’s commitment to academic and intellectual interests when it pays its football and basketball coaches more than any other university employee, including the school president: “Why go to…
The Arizona Republic reported on the status of the Arizona Board of Regents’ review of intercollegiate athletics in Arizona higher education. According to the paper, the purpose of the review of college sports in Arizona is to examine the growth in coaching salaries, how sports programs are funded, and whether opportunities for male and female…
Ernest Calderón, president of the Arizona Board of Regents, recently published a column in the Arizona Daily Star in which he stated that the board will begin an investigation of the role of intercollegiate athletics at its universities. In the column, Calderon states: “…I asked regent and former U.S. Sen. Dennis DeConcini to chair an…