Comments on: ‘Cut the Tiger’s balls off’

By: As Stated Before...

As Stated Before... — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 15:16:21 +0000

If you all are unhappy with the athletic fees, just go to a university that doesn’t have them. There are plenty of liberal arts colleges on the East coast without athletic programs where I’m sure you will all be very happy.

By: Brisket

Brisket — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 02:24:10 +0000

Perhaps I’ve got a bit more experience or perspective than you, being 25 years old and paying my own way through college out of pocket. Enough experience to know that the people at the top are not often very much smarter than the rest of us. They’re just people. They may have access to information that the rest of us don’t, however.

It’s clear that you’re uninformed, and that’s nothing to be ashamed of, but don’t assume that I am as well. Many of the relevant facts to this debate can be found in Towson’s publicized budget, which I read a few weeks ago. The 2012 budget lays out $18 million for sports, more than it sets aside for 6 of the 7 academic colleges on campus. And $14.5 million of this is paid for by student fees; only $2.4 million comes in from ticket sales and donations. The remaining balance is paid for by transfers of other university funds. $8.5 million of the $18m budget goes to payroll for coaching staff, and the highest paid university employee is the basketball coach, who makes $275,000 per year. The Dean of Sciences makes $120,000 less than the basketball coach.

Seeing the above numbers laid out, I think a reasonable person would think “what has the administration been thinking?” We shouldn’t just assume that they’ve got it handled and pay our fees, we should demand to know why we’re paying them when the athletics department clearly provides the school no revenue or promise of future revenue. If athletics can bring in $2.4 million in revenue, Towson should only spend $2.4 million on athletics. Otherwise sports are a drain on the students’ pocketbooks. I don’t see how a student forced to pay that $400 each semester could support Towson athletics.

Reading the numbers from Towson, I thought that our parasitic athletics program was an isolated phenomenon, but reading College Park’s budget leads to the same conclusion. In fact, in College Park’s budget, they cite that 98 of the 122 universities in the NCAA football division are posting fiscal deficits even with assistance from student athletics fees. Look at the public employee salaries in most states and you’ll find that the many of the highest paid employees in the entire state are college football or basketball coaches. This is a widespread problem, and, again, we shouldn’t just assume that somebody real smart will take care of it. If they’ve got a good reason for the proliferation of non-profitable athletics programs, I am waiting to hear it. If they have some reasoning why somebody who tells kids to throw balls around is paid more than the state’s governor or the school’s president then I’d love to hear it.

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 23:53:12 +0000

My argument is that I’m clearly not an expert, we are all just young inexperienced college students who really don’t know anything. Especially when it comes to running schools and athletic programs. Then there are all of the extremely smart people who run the most prestigious universities in the world with all of their knowledge and experience. They seem to think it’s a good idea, and I’d bet they’re all much smarter than you and have much more information about the costs and benefits. I’m not really sure what you’re basing your opinion on besides your extremely uninformed opinion, so I’m just going to agree with them.

By: Brisket

Brisket — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 23:06:55 +0000

I guess it’d be cool if there were a justification for college sports other than “everybody does it.” I guess that colleges have athletics either because of tradition or in the vain hope of someday making money from them. Only a few large schools ever make any money from it. For instance, even College Park requires 20% of its athletics budget to come from student fees. When your only argument in support of something is that it is common, you should perhaps examine your position.

By: Mike

Mike — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 20:11:18 +0000

You guys clearly know more than pretty much every college and university in the world.

By: Brisket

Brisket — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 16:50:02 +0000

The idea that no one should complain or try to change something when it is broken is complacent and pathetic. Maybe if enough people get together and speak out about this, we can reduce or discontinue the fee. In total, students pay $14.5 million in athletics fees per year. That is more than the budget of the entire college of business. By abolishing the fee, Towson could create a model of an economical public university that has a focus on excellence in education and not on “being part of the uproar.”

By: Claude

Claude — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 12:37:23 +0000

No one should be complaining about this, look what athletics has done to Penn State.

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 22:54:24 +0000

Towson makes it clear they charge athletic fees as part of tuition. It’s your money and you chose to come to towson and pay, so stop complaining.

By: It's MY MONEY

It's MY MONEY — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 19:36:06 +0000

Towson sports don’t give this school the attention and status…It’s racist student groups apparently. I never been to a sports event in my life. Stop charging me for it.

By: Thanks for this

Thanks for this — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 18:54:51 +0000

I think college athletics programs should only be allowed if they’re paid for by the students who will be participating in them. I don’t expect an athlete to pay for me to go to school or for my participation in various student organizations so why should athletes expect that others should pay for them to go to school and play with balls?

It just doesn’t make sense for an educational institution to support sports above actual education.