Dive Brief:
- A new short by Brave New Films suggests schools with strong football programs have increased the cost of tuition more steeply than peer institutions that don’t invest as much in athletics.
- In the Huffington Post, filmmaker Robert Greenwald writes that 80% of collegiate athletic departments lose $11 million or more every year, and most programs get more than half of their total budgets from student fees.
- The new film questions the funding priorities on college campuses, especially when schools fire faculty and cut academic budgets only to sign expensive contracts with football coaches.
Dive Insight:
Supporters of high-priced athletic programs argue the prestige they bring a college or university outweighs the cost. Strong athletics are a selling point in the admissions process, and they create lifetime fans of alumni. The Ivy League does not refer to the academics of Harvard or Yale, but their athletics programs. But some schools, like Paul Quinn College in Dallas, have decided their football programs are too expensive, choosing to move that money into academics and ride out the opposition from players and fans.