What Is The Cost Of Bridging The Gap Between College Sports And Higher Education

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Sports and Higher Education Don’t Mix
While college students pile up debt to cope with skyrocketing tuition, and universities are battling immense budget shortfalls; institutions of higher learning continue to invest vast amounts of money on sports programs that in no way relate to their mission to provide an education. Colleges and universities should no longer fund sports programs and put an end to athletic scholarships because they are economically unsustainable, counter to their educational mission statement and inherently unethical as demonstrated by the current state of college athletics.
The cost both financially and morally to universities funding sports programs is steep because, despite popular perception, the majority of college sports programs lose money. On average division I schools spend 8.5 million dollars to cover the gap between athletic programs revenue and budget (Desrochers 10) with costs expected to more than double by 2020 (KCIA 6). Even the …show more content…

Conversely research shows alumni more often than not aren’t influence by sports when donating and those that are often donate to a specific sports program instead of the university general fund (Anderson, 2012). And while applications to a school usually do increase after a major sports accomplishment, the effect rarely lasts more than a year. As for helping the local economies, most revenue created by visitors attending a large sporting event is counteracted by money lost from locals looking to avoid the crowds (Dennis Coates and Craig A. Depken). Furthermore, athletic scholarships and institutional funding is not needed for students and athletes to enjoy the positives that come from watching and cheering sports, the same benefits can be achieved thru non-school funded club and intramural