days away, Rutgers men's basketball coach Mike Rice was fired after
video surfaced of the coach abusing his players verbally and
physically.
But, says Nick Gillespie, college sports abuses virtually all
students, including ones who never play on a varsity team or buy a
ticket to a game or competition.
The vast majority of colleges—public and private—massively
subsidize varsity sports directly out of mandatory student fees and
other school funds. Despite the ability of top-tier teams to earn a
lot of revenue via television contracts, ticket sales, merchandise
sales, and other activities, most schools still hit up students in
both direct and indirect ways.
Rutgers subsidizes its sports teams with almost $30 million in
student fees and other school funds. This year's Cinderella team in
the NCAA tournament, Wichita State, kicks in over $6.5 million to
its sports teams and its opponent in Saturday's Final Four game,
the University of Louisville, spends $10 million on the same. This
happens despite serious research showing that good sports teams
don't benefit colleges in terms of getting better students or more
alumni dollars.
In an era where tuition keeps increasing, isn't it time to
rethink the millions of dollars students—and taxpayers—shell out
involuntarily on college sports?
