The Orlando Sentinel recently reported that the athletic department at the University of Central Florida (UCF) relies on student fees for nearly half of its annual budget. Students at UCF will contribute $16.2 million this year to a $35.5 million athletic operating budget — amounting to 46 percent of the budget. The university raised student…
The Eagle at Bryant/College Station reported that Texas A&M University is expecting to being to receive repayments on a $16 million loan to its athletic department in 2005. According to the report, the athletics department was provided access to that credit for four years and then would have 10 years to repay the money without…
A May 29, 2009 article in the New York Times reported on the decisions at several colleges by students who voted against fee increases to help pay for their schools’ college sports programs. The votes by student bodies at the University of New Orleans, and three state universities in California — Sacramento, Long Beach, and…
The NCAA News provided a status report on May 29, 2009, about the economic dashboard indicators created by the NCAA for college presidents and campus leaders to provide them with a financial profile of their intercollegiate athletics program in relation to peer groups. The dashboard indicators are a graphic comparison of the annual financial picture…
In a May 22 article in the Wichita Eagle, the paper reported that fomer Kansas State University football caoch Ron Prince may be paid an additional $3.2 million on top of a $1.2 million payment to terminate his 2008 contract early after a mediocre three-season record of 17 wins against 20 losses. The paper reported…
In its May 22, 2009 edition, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported on the testimony of John D. Colombo at the May 2009 meeting of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. Colombo, a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law, stated the spending of college athletics can be regulated similar to that of…
The USA Today reported on May 21 about many major intercollegiate athletic conferences are making decisions to reduce conference and institutional expenses, including: cutting traveling costs, adjusting schedules, reducing the number of teams competing in postseaon tournament, and reducing sport staff specialist positions. The article listed recent cost-cutting decisions by the Big Ten Conference, Atlantic…
A May 18 article published in Athletic Management reported on much of the ground covered in the May 12, 2009 meeting of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics. The article led with a discussion of the current economic recession and that runaway costs prior to the recession had a similar affect on the current concerns…
The financial crisis in college sports isn’t attributable only to the ongoing recession, but also to declining athletics revenues unable to keep up with a runaway train of spending. That’s what members of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics heard from scholars and experts on higher education and intercollegiate sports.
In an article published in the New York Times, colleges and universities across the country are slashing millions of dollars from their sports budgets, including the elimination of sports teams. Of the 17,682 teams that competed in the NCAA in 2007-2008, the NCAA expects about 130 teams to be eliminated. The article singled out the…