The Bobcat Nation

This article makes some interesting observations, but I think it also makes some assumptions that may or may not be right. Do contributions for athletics crowd out contributions for academics, or can they actually lead to more academic contributions (I can only guess, but I'd love to see that question studied). Also, they ignore the marketing value of college athletics entirely. Yes, schools "lose" money on sports (especially when they county athletes' tuition as a "cost"), but would they be getting more bang from their buck to spend that same amount on TV ads to try to draw students/donors to the school?

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/insi ... on_to.html

The stuff about Boise State was kinda fun, though.

Bay Area Cat wrote:This article makes some interesting observations, but I think it also makes some assumptions that may or may not be right. Do contributions for athletics crowd out contributions for academics, or can they actually lead to more academic contributions (I can only guess, but I'd love to see that question studied). Also, they ignore the marketing value of college athletics entirely. Yes, schools "lose" money on sports (especially when they county athletes' tuition as a "cost"), but would they be getting more bang from their buck to spend that same amount on TV ads to try to draw students/donors to the school?

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/insi ... on_to.html

The stuff about Boise State was kinda fun, though.

http://www.footballfoundation.org/tabid ... -2014.aspx

http://freakonomics.com/2012/07/09/how- ... a-college/

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/10/educa ... d=all&_r=0


I enjoy the back and forth banter between the various and assorted viewpoints as to the viability of football reference the overall college experience. One would be foolhardy, in my opinion, to downplay the importance of football economically to the school.

This article does justice as to what football means to high schools in the South:

http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/high-s ... s-area.ece

The top tier football programs make huge profits on athletics (mostly due to football). The problem is how many programs are we talking about? Of the 125 FBS schools how many make a profit? 20%? Less? If you spend millions on football are you guaranteed to become successful? I see a lot of programs disappearing in the next 10 years. At our level we lost Cal State Northridge from our conference and many wonder if PSU will be next. How much does the athletic program contribute to academics? If little or none then what is the risk of moving back to D!!? What is the potential moving to D1 FBS? I believe MSU spends about $4M per year on football. Do we break even? If we spent $10M per year would we break even? If not why not spend $2M per year? You still have a team and you save money!

Bay Area Cat wrote:This article makes some interesting observations, but I think it also makes some assumptions that may or may not be right. Do contributions for athletics crowd out contributions for academics, or can they actually lead to more academic contributions (I can only guess, but I'd love to see that question studied). Also, they ignore the marketing value of college athletics entirely. Yes, schools "lose" money on sports (especially when they county athletes' tuition as a "cost"), but would they be getting more bang from their buck to spend that same amount on TV ads to try to draw students/donors to the school?

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/insi ... on_to.html

The stuff about Boise State was kinda fun, though.

Oregon recently set a $2 billion fundraising goal for their academic endowment. Basically, if $1 billion is raised, Phil Knight will match that and make it $2 billion. Word is they are halfway there. I do realize that Oregon is unlike pretty much every other college in the country, in that it's a "cool" brand and is enrolling new students in record numbers from out of state due to football. It may not be the best example, but in the case of UO, football has elevated, and will continue to elevate, the academic standing and funding in Eugene.