Dive Brief:
- A look at 201 public universities competing in the NCAA’s Division I shows more than $10.3 billion in student fees have gone to athletic programs in the last five years, and the subsidy is on the rise.
- A joint investigation by The Huffington Post and The Chronicle of Higher Education found a handful of elite programs making so much money on college athletics that they return profits to the university, but five schools in Virginia charged more than $1,500 during the 2014-15 academic year for athletic fees, including the College of William & Mary.
- The 50 schools with the highest subsidies to their athletic programs had a far greater share of Pell Grant recipients, indicating the students who are asked to pay the most have the fewest resources with which to do so.
Dive Insight:
The joint investigation focuses on Georgia State’s football team, which was fielded in 2010 and soon after got an invitation to play in the top-tier of Division I athletics. The team near universally loses, hurting its ability to foster a fan base and, with it, a donor base. While it is no outlier, Georgia State subsidizes 84% of its athletics program, funneling $100 million into its sports teams.
Virginia, meanwhile, created a new law earlier this year that would cap the amount public colleges and universities can charge students in athletics fees by limiting what percentage of the programs can be subsidized by the school. That law will take effect in July 2016.
While the perception is that athletics can foster institutional pride and secure loyal donors, the reality is often that such programs cost a lot, and the costs inevitably end up on the backs of students.