Mark Canner Post 2 Chronicle of Higher Ed

Mark Canner

The Chronicle of Higher Education


Date: December 2, 1992

Donna A. Lopiano, Colleges Can Achieve Equity in Sports

Article URL: http://lilt.ilstu.edu/gmklass/foi/read2/TitleIXpro.htm

        

The article entitled, “The Chronicle of Higher Education” is an interesting peace that hinges on the idea of an imperfect budget system of college sports. The article references to many key ideas in college sports.

The first key idea is that college football is not that fat cow of production that most people believe it to be.

Rather than believe such inflammatory rhetoric, let's take a clear and rational look at the facts:

•                Fact: At about 93 per cent of all institutions that belong to the National Collegiate Athletic Association, football does not pay for women's sports. It does not even pay for itself.

•                Fact: Among the supposedly lucrative big-time football programs in the NCAA's Division I-A, 45 per cent are running deficits averaging around $638,000 annually.

•                Fact: Ninety-four per cent of Division I-A football programs are running deficits averaging $535,000 per year.

•                Fact: Thirty-four per cent of all Division I-A men's basketball programs run annual deficits averaging $250,000.

•                Fact: Seventy-four per cent of all other Division I men's basketball programs run annual deficits of close to $200,000.

From this we can see that college football will not save all so we can’t continue you to fill so many billions of dollars into football stadium renovations and coaching salaries. The truth is that college football programs for the most part clearly don’t deserve all the money they get but instead it is a factor of competition. The athletic directors don’t feel good about paying the football coach a salary that is five times the size of his own but they need to do this to fulfill the status quo.

         The next key idea referenced in this issue is women’s rights in sports. Although women have gained the power to fight for their rights in the courts system, their voice is still not being heard. The Supreme Court has backed the majority of female athletes who have asked for equal playing fields; unfortunately the schools don’t have the finances to back them up.

         To get the key point of the article it’s that we spent so much on college football programs that the entire system is out of control. Although there is a huge hole in college sports that may not be able to fully alleviate the problem in women’s sports and lower budget teams like water polo. We can start to make a change, which is create a luxury tax on college programs to limit how much they can spend on any team. Although this is not a quick fix it will even things out in the future.