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College sports spending per student far surpasses academic spending

by MSR News Online
February 5, 2014
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Division I college sports spending has reached out-of-sight proportions while academic spending remains stagnant, according to a new Knight Commission college sports database. A close look at the numbers raises questions about who or what is being subsidized by athletic cash-cows like football.

Launched in December, the database “compares trends in spending on core academic activities with spending on athletics in public Division I institutions” over a seven-year period (2005-11). Athletic spending per player “grew at a faster rate [as much as 12 times faster] than academic spending per student” at only three percent.

The Knight database showed the University of Minnesota’s instructional spending per full-time student grew 13 percent from $18,266 in 2005 to $20,688 in 2011, but athletic spending per player rose 78 percent from over $61,000 in 2005 to almost $110,000 in 2011. Meanwhile, U of M football spending per player in 2005 was just under $90,000 in 2005 and almost $200,000 in 2011 — a whopping 122 percent increase in seven years.

School alum Archie Givens told the MSR, “It’s an expensive proposition…to be a competitive football team in the country.” Then what about that “schools are all about education” rhetoric?

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“I think in terms of what [football] brings to the university, and what it represents to the state in terms of pride and the competitiveness, influence, and national recruiting of non-student athletes to come to the university, I think it can be argued that it is well spent,” surmises Givens.

In reality, most if not all Division I schools spend more on football: The Big Ten median academic spending per student in 2010 was $19,225, but it was six times more (over $116,000) per athlete in 2010. By comparison, the Southeastern Conference (SEC) has the highest median spending on sports (nearly $164,000 per student-athlete), over 12 times more than the $13,390 spent per student by their conference schools.

And then factor in the television money paid to the top five conferences by ESPN, CBS, Fox and BTN, an estimated $1 billion guaranteed annually and over $19.3 million annually going to each Big Ten school, including the U of M.

The MSR received upon request from U of M school officials their 2012 and 2013 revenue and expense reports. We examined football and five other sports: men’s basketball and men’s hockey; women’s hockey and basketball, and volleyball. (Spoiler alert: Gopher football brings in more money and spends more money than do any of the other five sports — and in some cases as much as the five other sports combined.)

For simplicity purposes, we rounded off the following figures to even thousands of dollars:

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2012 revenues: Football, $32.9 million; men’s basketball, $16.1 million; men’s hockey, $7 million; women’s hockey, $1 million; women’s basketball, $612,000; volleyball, $242,000

2012 expenses: Football, $16.1 million; men’s basketball, $5 million; women’s basketball, $2.5 million; men’s hockey, $2.1 million; women’s hockey, $1.1 million; volleyball, $1 million

2013 revenues: Football, $36 million; men’s basketball, $14 million; men’s hockey, $5.9 million; women’s basketball and women’s hockey, $619,000 each; volleyball, $161,000

2013 expenses: Football, $20.8 million; men’s basketball, $6.5 million; women’s basketball, $2.5 million; men’s hockey, $2.3 million; women’s hockey, $1.33 million; volleyball, $1.31 million

Does this mean that today’s big-time institutions for higher learning are actually athletic cash cows, with football as the fat cats? Apparently so based on these numbers.

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This shows that college sports, including our beloved Gophers, really is big business, with football acting like Godzilla as it out-generates and out-spends everyone in its athletic wake.

“I don’t think it’s out of line with other Big Ten or major football systems,” concludes Givens.

 

Next: Seems like everybody but the players get paid.  

For more analysis on college athletic spending, read “Another View Extra” on this week’s MSR website.

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Charles Hallman welcomes reader responses to challman@spokesman-recorder.com. 

 
To see more stories by Charles Hallman stories click HERE

 

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