Thursday is National Student Athlete Day, in which schools ask you to help college athletes by donating money to the school, which they will use on facilities and athletic department staff bonuses, because they refuse to allow athletes to be paid.
The irony is as rich as university athletic departments.
The College Football Playoff is excited to get in on the action, too. The Playoff announced “Playoff Premium” packages Thursday that start at $1,899.
While schools try to pretend that everyone is broke, it’s important to remember just how much money is in college sports these days, and how rich these athletic departments actually are.
Because of money from the College Football Playoff and other sources, college athletic departments make more money than ever before. According to economist Ted Tatos, they have brought in $155 billion over the past 13 years, including $17 billion in 2015-16. That’s larger than the GDP of 77 countries, and bigger than the entire economy of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
But because they are non-profits, and because they need to seem broke to keep avoiding paying their labor, they spend everything they make. It’s called the Revenue Theory of Cost: Expenses aren’t necessary beyond needing to match revenue, so colleges’ spending matches revenue almost exactly.
U.S. College Athletic Departments earned $155 Billion over 13 years and spent $149 Billion. Incentive to spend nearly every dollar earned. pic.twitter.com/2JKt36yy0C
— Ted Tatos (@TedTatos) April 2, 2017
So where does that money get hidden? Mostly into inflated salaries for athletic department personnel, or into facilities that are used to recruit athletes rather than to the athletes themselves. Necessities haven’t become more expensive, but people are earning more because there’s nowhere else for the money to go. The money doesn’t fund the existence of non-revenue sports; it funds those sports’ coaches and administrators.
Lots of $ to "prop up" other teams goes to coaches. Example: Kentucky track coach salary increased 298% over 10 years, per Washington Post.
— Jon Solomon (@JonSolomon35) April 4, 2017
Announcing the sale of near-$2,000 ticket packages on National Student Athlete Day when the labor for those games isn’t being fairly compensated seems pretty tone-deaf, but it’s actually quite fitting. Schools hide profits and mislead the public on numbers all while shamelessly spending on themselves.
There’s no better tribute than for that system to be at its most hypocritical on National Student Athlete Day.
True, non-profit status is a joke because they spend it all and like government on waste.
But…
Paying athletes in college is wrong too.
If you want to pay players then go to the NFL, NBA & MLB.
College sports should be focused on academics and student life. You know fellow-students, alums, family.
Return to Amateur level sports.
Yeah coaches should get less than college president and top professors.
Facilities should be for everyone on campus and for student athlete conditioning and health and safety.
No big screen 4K and over indulgent lockers and espresso machines.
IF you want the best play then make the athlete a work study job and end athletic scholarships instead making the athlete get an academic scholarship just like every other student.
The kids that are one and done or two and done should have an opportunity to be a pro athlete as soon as they are physically ready and right out of high school or age 18, whatever works best.
Then College sports will actually be students. School stakeholders will support athletics anyway.
But now how about a 16 team Major College Football National Championship…
google Perfect Playoff Plan 16