this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2024
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Yeah universities should be about academics. Not sports. In fact, Universities, in my opinion, should just be banned from HAVING sports teams. Do that shit outside of school lmao. You shouldn't be getting ACADEMIC scholarships because you can... "throw ball good".
So before I get into this, know that I'm biased as a colligate sport fan and a former NCAA athlete. But this is a bad take. Sports provide all sorts of benefit both internally and externally for the university. It is true that some athletic budgets are insane, and for what it's worth I agree that the salaries that get paid are insane. But this is simply the price of an arms war. These colleges want the best facilities and coaches. And it's not ~just~ for the dick measuring contest, though make no mistake that is absolutely part of it. But all sorts of studies show that general contributions and academic donations in particular increase with athletic team success, notably championship winning teams. People like to belong to a community, and sports fandom is one of the most tried and true sources of community. Plus the tv contacts for the so called revenue sports would make an oil tycoon blush. The presidents of these schools continue to invest in these programs because they continually prove to be an excellent roi. And I firmly believe that these same presidents know more than either of us about running their universities. And all of that is aside from what these sports provide to the most important stakeholders in a college, it's enrollees. Again recognizing my bias here, but the only reason I made it through school to get my 2 degrees that I use professionally was the sports team I trained with. These teams provide structure to the college life, something that can be hard to maintain as you essentially start a new life. Plus, sport and exercise prove to boost academic performance both on the short and long timescale. Most institutions report higher average GPAs in the athletic department than the general population. Ever notice that elite academic institutions also tend to have elite athletic programs? This isnt always obvious as it's often non revenue sports outside of the state schools that are in the aforementioned dick measuring contest. And even schools that aren't know for athletic or academics will still tend to offer intramural sports as again they are a massive boon for the students but I feel like at this point I'm straying from the original point. All in all these athletic programs are good for both the institution as a whole, and those that study at them.
tl;dr Sports good for college
From my understanding, all that money goes back to the sport's team, not the university. It's a side hussle. If the money went back to the university, it would at least make sense.
It depends on the school.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristidosh/2017/06/12/the-biggest-misconceptions-about-the-finances-of-college-sports/
True, but it's in the minority for the donations:
Is that 1% or 10%? "Many" is a very vague term for financials. Plus, those were the ones polled.
Not to be a stickler, but having some universities do a little isn't much.
Did you forget the first and biggest one?
All those athletic scholarships are paid for by the sports teams. It's free money for the university. And the football team funds all the other sports, so a lot of football money goes to the university as tuition for an out-of-state soccer player or something.
Plus who do you think the sports teams pay rent and facilities fees to? The university who owns their facilities. The teams are non-profit so football has little incentive to save money.
How much are those scholarships worth every year?
Source
If there's an arms race for athletes and the school sports programs pay their tuition through athletic scholarships, then that isn't free money for the school. It's allocated out of an already existing school budget that constantly needs to grow and take from other school expenses to afford elite athletes. The sports teams pay rent to the school out of the same existing budget which is part of the school funding so again, it's money the school already has that has to allocated for upkeep of their facilities. Just like the regular students pay upkeep for the engineering facility, the administration buildings, and the other facilities with their non-scholarship money (meaning it actually came from an external source instead of the school subsidizing).