Personally, I think forcing the students to fund cost-inefficient athletic departments is a travesty, and if I had an option to vote down fee increases when I was in school, would have enthusiastically done so.
In late April, students rebuffed the financially troubled athletic department at the University of New Orleans. They voted against a fee increase to help pay for varsity sports, leaving the university to consider dropping baseball, basketball and every other sport.
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Since March, students at three California universities — Sacramento State, Long Beach State and Cal State Fullerton — have also voted down fee increases to help pay for athletics. Last year, students at Fresno State voted against a rise in athletic fees, but the university’s president imposed a modified increase anyway. As athletic costs rise at a rate that the N.C.A.A. warns cannot be sustained, and as states continue to reduce spending on higher education, many athletic departments are seeking income beyond ticket sales, booster donations and television revenue to help stem the flow of red ink.
[Click to continue reading As Costs of College Sports Rise, Students Balk at Paying Tab – NYTimes.com]
In an ideal world, the NCAA would drop the joke of student-athletes, and just pay them a living wage. A large percentage of the student-athlete is not interested in taking classes, and just clutter up enrollment. Perhaps tuition could be a benefit, but not be required. Broadcast rights to sporting events of large universities brings in tons and tons of loot, spread that money around. And the smaller schools that have to raise fees to compete with the larger universities? If their sport program can’t support itself, disband it! Hire more professors instead of blowing cash on coaches and “state of the art” training facilities for an elite few. There is no reason that athletic costs should continue to rise at an unsustainable rate.