… is where we’ve gotten at a lot of our institutions of higher learning in this country, and it’s a way-strange situation.
Of course we pay much more attention to cheaters staging games in full stadiums. Everyone’s gassing on about the University of North Carolina what a shocker a fine institution bites the dust blahblah… But you could argue that it’s the critical mass of shitkickers like the University of Hawaii and Ball State, with their own scandals, their massive sports budgets, and their microscopic bleacher sections that should draw a bit of attention.
But then Ball State doesn’t even pay attention to itself. It’s in the business of hiding how much it makes students pay to subsidize the empty stadiums.
Even with income from concession sales; NCAA allocations; $1,050,000 in guarantees paid out by Army and Iowa for road football games; private gifts; paid parking; school general funds and other sources, there remains an $11.6 million budget shortfall.
Hidden fees collected from students will make up that deficit, funding 65 percent of the budget adopted this summer by the board of trustees.
UD loves the wizened philosophical approach the Ball State spokesperson takes:
“Human fascination with organized sports reaches back centuries to the days of the Coliseum and the first Olympics,” Ball State spokeswoman Joan Todd said. “It is not a situation we created…”
UD loves that – the profound informed approach, so characteristic of a university setting… It’s like… I don’t know, put pornography in that sentence and it’ll work too – Our university didn’t create the age-old human fascination with pornography, but robbing our students blind in its pursuit is an obvious academic imperative…
As always, though, you have to go to Hawaii for the shittiest shitkicking out there. Truly no one attends their games; every week brings a new coach (hell, a new university president), a new buyout, a new scandal, a bigger deficit. Why aren’t people noticing Hawaii? It’s a far ickier story than UNC, even by university athletics standards.
November 4th, 2014 at 12:09PM
Yes, and now comes week-night football on the ESPN affiliates. Wednesday night, Ball State hosts Northern Illinois with the Golden Stalk of Wheat on the line. You’ll likely see lots of empty seats on national television. The ESPN money, however, isn’t enough to make expenses, thus the activity fees (which are de rigueur all over the Mid-American).
November 4th, 2014 at 1:09PM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aIMgfBZrrZ8
November 4th, 2014 at 2:58PM
Everyone knows Hawaii is hopeless – they’re in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, for starters, and have to have a special NCAA scheduling rule. And the state as a whole is basically Rhode Island with pineapples.
November 4th, 2014 at 3:07PM
Mr Punch: Rhode Island with… LOL.