This article about the University of Colorado destroying its academic mission in pursuit of football money will have you tearing up at the poor little rich boy story that frames the narrative.
Best way to read the piece is to skip over the hard numbers stuff.
Colorado’s athletics department is awash in red ink. It owes the school nearly $30 million in internal loans provided over a series of years to help cover the athletics department’s move from the Big 12 to the Pac-12 and the considerable cost of buying out departed coaches and athletics directors while paying bigger bucks for new ones, among other costs. Plus, [Coach Mike] MacIntyre’s contract specifies other areas in which the school commits to spend even more on football, from facilities to staff to academic support… The average compensation package for major-college coaches is $1.81 million, a rise of about $170,000, or 10%, since last season — and more than 90% since 2006… The department is paying back $21.4 million in internal loans over 10 years at 2% interest, with $3 million in internal payments to be paid this fiscal year, shrinking the balance to $18.4 million.
But with a $7 million deficit last fiscal year and an expected $4 million deficit this fiscal year, [the loans will] stand at $29.4 million at the end of this fiscal year.
Colorado also provides the athletics department with a subsidy of roughly $5.5 million each year under the category of institutional support that does not need to be repaid.
Skip all that and go right for the heart – Coach MacIntyre loves his dad!
November 24th, 2013 at 10:02AM
On the other hand, the coach and the president of the U. Colorado system both have a rich fantasy life. You can’t put a dollar value on that.
November 24th, 2013 at 10:22AM
MattF: Yes, though I’d go beyond rich fantasy life. I think they’ve tipped over into the pornographic.
November 24th, 2013 at 10:50AM
We all have fantasies. But not all of us have worked it so our fantasy life is legitimized by the university, magnified by the mass media, and subsidized by the taxpayer. Is this a form of male privilege?
November 25th, 2013 at 11:01AM
Loans? We don’t do no stinkin’ loans here. Our athletic deficits are dissolved and absolved at the end of every academic year, and the athletic director is admonished to go and sin some more. No penance required. Or rather, penance will be done by the faculty and non-athlete students.