Athletic Budgets...Story in Plain Dealer

[jacojdm]

There's a real interesting story and graphic in today's PD.
Just to show the difference between the haves and have nots: We take in $2.3 million for a $4.7 million football budget. Texas spends $14 million of the $53 it rakes in.

Here's the story...

And here's the chart.

[Warthog]

I didn't read the story, but did look at the chart. I am wondering about some of the data. They list BG as having only 14,730 Undergrads, but have Toledo with 17,789. Do we seriously have 7,000 grad students? The Blade just ran a story on Wednesday about enrollments for 2006. BG's 2006 enrollment is 21,132 students and UT's is only 19,374. Those numbers are way different then in that chart. Maybe Transfer can shed some light on these numbers?

[svillefalcon]

Thanks for the post jacojdm.

[Schadenfreude]

They list BG as having only 14,730 Undergrads, but have Toledo with 17,789.

The numbers all seem low.

I wonder if they are counting full time students, rather than FTE.

That's a fascinating chart.

Smurk would be interested to know that our athletic department receives less of an overall fee subsidy than any other Ohio MAC program.

This is what really jumped out though: Toledo's football program generated $1.4 million in revenue and we generated $2.3 million.

I suppose that could be our football team playing for bigger guarantees. Still -- that's a real shocking number.

[SmurK]

Those poor students. On this chart alone, I see $63.1 million billed to students for programs that have nothing to do with their education. Well, except for their debt education.

[Tricky_Falcon]

Those poor students. On this chart alone, I see $63.1 million billed to students for programs that have nothing to do with their education. Well, except for their debt education.

You should write a column.

[Falcon30]

Those poor students. On this chart alone, I see $63.1 million billed to students for programs that have nothing to do with their education. Well, except for their debt education.

That is moot - I paid for so many things I didn't use. They were for the betterment of the university. I still do, they are called taxes. I have paid for roads on which I have never driven! The travesty! The injustice! My fees paid for improvements I never saw on my time on campus! The horror!

Besides, BG Football has been an important part of my education as a music ed major. I also used the entertainment services of my 'free' admission all the time. I won't get into the worth of being connected to so many old friends and new falcon friends through athletics.

Yeah - "nothing" to do with their education.

[BGDrew]

Those poor students. On this chart alone, I see $63.1 million billed to students for programs that have nothing to do with their education. Well, except for their debt education.

The University gives the BG News money to operate. In my opinion, that's a waste of my money and should be cut.

[Falcon30]

Those poor students. On this chart alone, I see $63.1 million billed to students for programs that have nothing to do with their education. Well, except for their debt education.

The University gives the BG News money to operate. In my opinion, that's a waste of my money and should be cut.

It has nothing to do with so many students' education. Those poor students.

[Schadenfreude]

The University gives the BG News money to operate. In my opinion, that's a waste of my money and should be cut.

Actually it doesn't directly. (There is an administrator, part of whom's job description includes student newspaper advisor, but that's not out of the general fee).

WFAL, WBGU, BG24 all get a little money from the general fee.

Bonds for the student recreation center were paid out of the general fee.

UAO gets its money from the general fee.

Campus would be a pretty boring place without the general fee.

[Falcon30]

The University gives the BG News money to operate. In my opinion, that's a waste of my money and should be cut.

Actually it doesn't directly. (There is an administrator, part of whom's job description includes student newspaper advisor, but that's not out of the general fee).

WFAL, WBGU, BG24 all get a little money from the general fee.

Bonds for the student recreation center were paid out of the general fee.

UAO gets its money from the general fee.

Campus would be a pretty boring place without the general fee.

But....but....those things aren't education!

[SmurK]

Falcon30: The roads you never drive on are probably used to deliver the goods you buy everyday. The vast majority of the taxes you pay go towards programs that benefit us all. And, you have a say in how those taxes are spent. Students are being taxed without representation or consultation. If they want to go to BGSU or almost any other major public university in the state, they must pay $250 a semester for an athletics arms race with no conceivable end. This is just not fair, especially when you consider that if you simultaneously cut the $200,000+ salaries and the scholarships of all the teams in the league in half or more, the competition will be exactly the same (but the students will be billed much, much less). If the students joined together on this issue, the NCAA would probably listen and set a maximum for these salaries and scholarships that are robbing America's future of the money they don't have!

And as for the educational benefit from athletics, well, that is obvious. I am here to go to school and I am paying $250 a semester to give 460 students the chance to participate in 18 sports at a cost of more than $30,000 an athlete. Most of the students that pay this money don't know it and don't care about athletics. They just want to get an education.

Now, if that money was spent on, say, a new masters program or a phd program, the result would be dramatic new oppurtunities for education in Ohio. We would get more funding from the state because the state share of instruction formula is somewhat based on degree programs. And, in case you didn't realize, if the $8,000,000 will bill to students was put in to an endowment, just for ONE YEAR, off the interest (we'll say 3.5%) from that 8 mil we would be able to give 140 students a year a new $2000 instrument. Or we could fly those 140 students to some far off distant land to learn from a culture that respects education over the failure of its own economy (by stealing from the poor to fuel an athletics arms race the poor doesn't care about).

Last but not least, you just read this. You probably learned some things. This post is a direct extension from my columns. I would not be a member of this web site if it weren't for my columns. WBGU, WFAL, BG24, The BG News, UAO, and nearly all the other student organizations have all encouraged the original thought of thousands of students on a daily basis for less than a penny a student. My columns ALONE have forced thousands to sit and think about this issue (a spending issue similar to ones they will experience all there lives). The intercollegite athletics program requires $30,000 a student for what I do everyday for free.

It's time we had more athletes, more teams, higher enrollment, more donations, better education and less billing of students that have no money to give.

Lower the spending NOW.

[Jacobs4Heisman]

Once again -- how?