Side by side expenses with MSU... also UM's 2014 Ath. budget

[AllWeatherFan]

What is also misleading to the public is pretending that university athletic departments don’t enjoy certain advantages from universities that provide real estate, capital and ongoing operations and maintenance for football stadiums in which football teams play their games.

 

[wbtfg]

Interesting article in today's BDC (http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/montana_state_university/article_145a8c0a-77fd-11e3-be41-001a4bcf887a.html?_dc=308108501136.303" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false

Some of the highlights...

University System staffers emphasized that the amount of “direct state or other government support” Montana provides for athletics is zero. The $21 million for “direct institutional support” is made up mainly of tuition waivers and scholarships, said Mick Robinson, deputy commissioner of higher education. Last year tuition waivers and scholarships totaled nearly $13 million.

Regent Chair Angela McLean said future annual reports on athletics, which generally follow NCAA guidelines, might be explained more clearly to the public with more “user-friendly” language.

Montana State University President Waded Cruzado said while the graduation rate for all MSU students is around 51 percent, for student athletes it's 80 percent.

MSU recently reported that 37 percent of its 383 athletes are in demanding science, technology, engineering or math majors, twice as many as in 2010. Last year, 23 student athletes had perfect 4.0 GPAs, 77 made the dean's list with 3.5 GPAs and 90 had GPAs of 3.0 or better.

 

[PlayerRep]

Interesting article in today's BDC (http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/montana_state_university/article_145a8c0a-77fd-11e3-be41-001a4bcf887a.html?_dc=308108501136.303" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false

Some of the highlights...

University System staffers emphasized that the amount of “direct state or other government support” Montana provides for athletics is zero. The $21 million for “direct institutional support” is made up mainly of tuition waivers and scholarships, said Mick Robinson, deputy commissioner of higher education. Last year tuition waivers and scholarships totaled nearly $13 million.

Regent Chair Angela McLean said future annual reports on athletics, which generally follow NCAA guidelines, might be explained more clearly to the public with more “user-friendly” language.

Montana State University President Waded Cruzado said while the graduation rate for all MSU students is around 51 percent, for student athletes it's 80 percent.

MSU recently reported that 37 percent of its 383 athletes are in demanding science, technology, engineering or math majors, twice as many as in 2010. Last year, 23 student athletes had perfect 4.0 GPAs, 77 made the dean's list with 3.5 GPAs and 90 had GPAs of 3.0 or better.

That was an interesting article. When I looked at it earlier, I had several thoughts. How does $21 million minus $13 million equal "zero"? Who pays for the professors, facilities, etc. to teach the athletes who receive the $13 million (less the scholarship amount) of tuition waivers? Or, is there really such a thing as a free lunch afterall?

Clearly, athletics provide significant tangible and intangible benefits to universitites. But some of this explanation seemed a bit off base.