The Rising Costs of Intercollegiate Athletics

            Intercollegiate athletics was historically a man’s game and it costs money to play. The two big sports in intercollegiate athletics are men’s football and basketball (Bok, 2003). These sports compel institutions to develop winning teams by hiring the best coaches, recruiting stellar collegiate athletes, building outstanding practice and game facilities, providing scholarships, traveling to away games and hosting booster events (Bok, 2003). Alumni, boosters, and supporters expect and even demand winning teams. Often institutions begin to search for the winning combination that may include, building better facilities, firing a current coach and hiring a more well-known coach, hosting better booster events, etc. All of these actions require funds. Not many athletic departments are profitable or generate enough revenue to cover their costs, and thus the institution must pay for these expenditures (Bok, 2003).

Further, around 1979 women’s sports were added to National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I sports. In an important case involving Brown University, the university had to comply with gender equity in their athletic programs (Cohen v. Brown University, 1997). This was important because schools now had to show that they were in compliance with gender equity requirements of Title IX. Schools had to demonstrate that  (1) they provided opportunities for women that were “substantially proportionate” to enrollment, (2) they had a “history and continuing practice” of developing sports of interest to women, and (3) they were meeting the “interests and abilities” of female athletes (Anderson, Cheslock & Ehrenberg, 2006, p. 228). Institutions were now compelled to ensure that they were meeting these three elements to remain in compliance with Title IX. It cost money to remain in compliance.

            All these factors contributed to cost disease (Archibald and Feldman, 2011). While athletics plays an important role in the complete college experience most schools cannot generate the additional revenue necessary to cover the rising costs. Division 1-A schools have the opportunity to generate additional revenues through participation in bowl events and championship games (Anderson, Cheslock & Ehrenberg, 2006). However, institutions not in Division I sports do not have the same opportunities to generate additional revenue and they must continue to provide the funds necessary to fill the revenue gap. Moreover, even with bowl opportunities many Division I-A athletic departments require the institution to cover funding gaps.

One way institutions fill the gap is through increased student tuition and fees. Many institutions charge students an athletic fee whether students attend games or participate in sports or not. Others charge seat fees where patrons who buy tickets to certain high profile events, such as basketball games, pay an additional fee per ticket. Still other institutions establish marketing relationships where they receive funding from external sources, such as media rights and naming rights. All these actions serve to fill the revenue gap from rising costs however they only mask the overall problem and do not completely close the funding gap.

Intercollegiate athletics and particularly men’s football and basketball have become like semi-pro teams providing entertainment for fans using student athletes. Suggestions of ways to cut costs and reduce cost disease include (1) enforcing NCAA rules regarding recruitment of student athletics; (2) adding a salary cap on coach’s salaries; (3) utilizing sponsors and/or donors to provide funding for new facilities; (4) requiring athletic departments to work within a balanced budget; and (4) keeping Division I sports, particularly football and basketball, in perspective with the institutional goals of educating students.

References

Anderson, D.J., Cheslock, J.J., and Ehrenberg, R.G. (2006). Gender Equity in Intercollegiate Athletics: Determinants of Title IX Compliance. The Journal of Higher Education, 77(2), 225-250.

Archibald, R. B. and Feldman, D. H. (2011). Why does college cost so much? New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Bok, D. (2003). Universities in the Marketplace: The Commercialization of Higher Education. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Cohen v. Brown University, 101 F. 3d 155 (1st Cir. 1996), cert. denied, 117 S. Ct. 1469 (1997).