The pervasiveness of student athletic fees

CrimsonEyeshade

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Nov 6, 2007
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Very good read from the Washington Post on the money collected from students from athletic department.

As the story points out, we are one of the schools who either dropped the fee or never had one to begin with. Auburn, on the other hand, is on the other end of the economic spectrum. The difference in athletic revenue between two state schools is staggering.

Enjoy.
 

B1GTide

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Apr 13, 2012
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It is a draw to many schools, so why not? Where it is not a draw I question the existence of the programs altogether.
 

KrAzY3

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Jan 18, 2006
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It is a draw to many schools, so why not? Where it is not a draw I question the existence of the programs altogether.
I can tell you this, I damn sure don't go to South Alabama because of their football team. While I admire the idea that perhaps I should boycott on that basis, I don't have that many local options.

Yes, I question the existence of their program, repeatedly, and loudly. They try to distribute the bill in such a way that no one feels the pain, but almost everyone pays.

Students pay, ok that's somewhat voluntary but there's no check box on whether or not I want to give my money to the football team. Then the city and states often pay, once again that's not usually something voters have direct say in (no referendum). Then... once you consider that the university/students gets federal aid, truth is some of this money indirectly comes from the federal government as well.

The problem? The majority of the funds should come directly from the fans (if they have any at all...). There's little accountability. Within this state there are three football programs that lose millions every single year. A big chunk of that comes from people that have no interest in said football teams, and it keeps happening year after year because people with enough power have the means to reach into the pockets of others to get what they want. How many people not wearing a football uniform go to UAB, Troy, or South Alabama because of the football team?

These people with influence at universities get to play owners of a sports program, without actually paying the bill of owning a sports franchise. I'm not going to go all the way out on a limb and say they should make it 100% self-sustaining, but it shouldn't be along the lines of get 20 million, lose 10 million, and then ask the city to build you a stadium because like, you have a lot of fans just dying to go to your games.
 
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B1GTide

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Apr 13, 2012
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I can tell you this, I damn sure don't go to South Alabama because of their football team. While I admire the idea that perhaps I should boycott on that basis, I don't have that many local options.

Yes, I question the existence of their program, repeatedly, and loudly. They try to distribute the bill in such a way that no one feels the pain, but almost everyone pays.
I am paying for one son in college with a second coming in a couple of years. I get it. But this is not something that amounts to enough $$ for me to care. You want to complain about something - complain about the cost of text books "required" for most of these courses.
 

cuda.1973

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Dec 6, 2009
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Back in the 60s, at the dump I did my undergrad work at, we were charged $8/semester, which allowed us to attend any game, any sport, for free. (As bad as their teams were, they should have paid us to show up.)

Second semester, the student gubbament decided to raise it to $20/semester.

The students rioted. For two reasons.

$12/semester may not have sounded like much, but to us poor blue-collar kids, who were the first generation to attend college, it sounded like a lot. And we were a large segment of student population.

The other was the increase went solely to some "public interest research group", which was just an excuse to funnel money to a political movement that was even more unpopular.

The student gubbament could not understand why the peasants were upset. So began my career in student gubbament, and 3 years fighting their version of "the machine". But, once again, I digress.
 

Crimson1967

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Nov 22, 2011
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I am paying for one son in college with a second coming in a couple of years. I get it. But this is not something that amounts to enough $$ for me to care. You want to complain about something - complain about the cost of text books "required" for most of these courses.
You mean the books which sometimes aren't even used in class? I once took a history class where the professor made us buy a book. He came out and said it was written by a friend of his and said he was a lousy writer. (He was right, the book did suck).

So the guy made us buy a book he admitted wasn't very good just to help out his buddy?
 
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