Dive Brief:
- Montana State Sen. Dick Barrett (D) wants legislators to know before they vote on a state budget that the University of Montana system spends $8.5 million each year propping up its athletics program, including $6.3 million that comes directly from the state.
- The Missoulian reports Barrett is making clear the University of Montana is not providing greater subsidies than its peers in the Big Sky Conference, but he says the system could opt out of the “arms race” of athletic spending and “ratchet the whole thing down.”
- Athletic Director Kent Haslam defends the athletic spending by pointing to the money sports fans put into the local economy, the benefits of the stadium for major concerts in the state, and the tuition money that student athletes send directly to the university.
Dive Insight:
The debate over subsidies in college athletics has gotten renewed interest since a sprawling investigation by the Chronicle of Higher Education and the Huffington Post found the schools whose students show the least interest in athletics and those with the most Pell Grant recipients are the ones where students foot the bill for larger subsidies.
Virginia has passed a new law capping the portion of an athletics budget that can be subsidized by student athletic fees. Programs can round out such limited support with private donations and, like in Montana, allocations directly from the state legislature can provide additional funding. With tight budgets across the board, however, many colleges are considering the moral dilemma of subsidizing sports if the subsidy can be seen as a detriment to the core educational mission of the institution.