Robert Malekoff Decries Athletics Spending Surge
Spending on athletics has outpaced funding for academic programs and student services at many universities, faculty member Robert Malekoff writes in a July 2 column in College Sports Business News.
“The biggest scandal in American higher education is not a star quarterback being paid by a booster, the relatively low graduation rates of football and men’s basketball players, and certainly not an historically muddled method of choosing a national football champion,” writes the associate professor and chair of the Department of Sport Studies.
“The real indignity at our ‘big time’ universities is the fact that exorbitant spending increases in college sports dwarf new financial support for overall institutional needs, and that – at many schools – unchecked athletic expenditures come at a time when faculty, class offerings, financial aid, and student services are being severely cut.”
Division I college football recently adopted a four-team playoff that will begin in 2014 and is expected to raise at least $600 million per year.
“Now that the presidents have accommodated powerful coaches and conference commissioners,” Robert asks, “when might they consider standing up for Joe Student?”
