UD‘s blogpal, Gregg Easterbrook (he of the famed Christmas Letter), takes a wide-angle look at university athletics.
[N]early all universities lose money on sports. Recently the NCAA reported that only 14 Football Bowl Subdivision programs clear a profit, while no college or university in the United States has an athletic department that is financially self-sustaining. Nobody in FBS — not Alabama, not Auburn, not Oklahoma, nobody — has an athletic department that pays its own way.
At many colleges and universities, athletic programs cannibalize donations that might have gone to education.
[H]igh coaches’ salaries don’t even result in programs that make money, the way high coaches’ salaries in the NFL result, at least, in profit.
[I]n football, Ohio State has a 1-to-5 ratio of staff to students: while in English, the staff-to-student ratio is 1-to-280. Divide the latter by the former. In staffing terms, Ohio State treats football as 56 times more important than it does English.
The Columbia football coaching staff has 14 people, including a chaired coach — the Patricia and Shepard Alexander Head Coach of Football. Not the football coach, the Head Coach of Football.
It is difficult to believe Auburn really needs an athletic director, an executive associate athletic director, five senior associate athletic directors, four associate athletic directors and a guy with the title senior associate athletic director & CFO.
Well. Auburn. Reason not the need. I got nowhere else to go!
December 7th, 2010 at 5:30PM
At the University of Houston the ratio of coaches to athletes (err, student-athletes) is about 1:9. If the university wanted to have the same ratio of faculty to students it would have to hire approximately 3000 more faculty or get rid of about 29,000 students.
December 7th, 2010 at 5:46PM
Pete: Funny!
December 7th, 2010 at 5:49PM
This most startling fact:
The Columbia football coaching staff has 14 people, including a chaired coach — the Patricia and Shepard Alexander Head Coach of Football.
A freaking ENDOWED CHAIR for the football coach?! Get bent.
December 7th, 2010 at 7:09PM
A J: LOL. I actually looked it up. It’s true!
December 8th, 2010 at 8:29AM
I’ll see your five senior associate athletic directors and raise you two executive associate athletic directors.