Athletic Departments Budget Research Paper

Decreasing the Athletic Departments Budget It is without a doubt that college sports have increasingly become one of America’s greatest pastimes. Many students are eager to support their fellow peers and show off their school spirit. However, many don't know that a portion of the hefty tuition they are paying to attend their school is going towards the athletic department. The “fees” part of “tuition and fees” often goes unnoticed by students and their parents, and as the popularity of college athletics increases so does the cost of academics. The fact of the matter is that there are athletic coaches being paid from $360,000 all the way up to $7 million. In spite of this, there are plenty of students who are struggling to sustain themselves

In the same study done by The Huffington Post and The Chronicle of Higher Education, research done on The Ohio State University shows that they do not rely at all on subsidies from the students nor the university to support their athletic budget. Since the Big Ten school with almost 40,000 full-time undergraduate students attracts such a large and supportive crowd, they can comfortably count on outside members to sustain their budget. This includes, but is not limited to, alumni donations, ticket sales and sponsorships (The Huffington Post & Chronicle of Higher Education). The Ohio State University finances their athletic department by relying 36% on ticket sales and 46% on other revenue (The Huffington Post & The Chronicle of Higher Education). This study scored the university a “mostly self-sustaining” school. Even though students who attend this university are most likely paying a very high tuition, none of that money is going towards funding their athletic departments budget. Must be nice to be a

In his article “Pay coaches less and lower tuition”, LZ Granderson addresses the increasing salaries of many football coaches and how that affects the university and the students enrolled in it. This article sheds light onto Mississippi for being known for having a pretty bad education system, very high unemployment rates and a 22% poverty rate ranking it the highest (Granderson). Beside all of this, Mississippi is also a very football driven state and Dan Mullen coach of Mississippi State University can back up that information. He receives a whopping salary of $2.5 million and in December 2010 received a raise of a petty $1 million (Granderson). Often times, the coaches at universities are the highest paid employees in the state according to Dr. Philip L. Yeagle which he brings to attention in his article “The High Cost of College Athletics and Your Tuition”. These coaches, as influential and inspiring as they can be to many student athletes, are not the main reason students attend college in the first place. However, in no way am I belittling the effect that some of these coaches have on some students, they can oftentimes be role models to their athletes. Nevertheless, professors are making thousands on thousands of dollars less than these coaches, and in the long run, they are the ones who are helping