While college tuitions skyrocket, many Division 1 colleges lose millions of dollars on their sports programs, leaving students to shoulder the losses and rack up debt. Brave New Films has the scoop.
Posted by Upworthy on Wednesday, November 4, 2015
Here’s a story on how students often end up subsidizing athletic programs up to $5,700 over 4 years. Obviously, at popular schools the money goes the other way – I can only imagine what Ohio State makes money given how much they make on TV, merchandise, etc. A big issue for me was that a college scholarship is below what players make in junior leagues in other sports around the world, and student athletes at top schools are really just athletes and not much of students.
To me, the system used for minor hockey always made more sense: towns that are a little too small for pro teams, or cities with pro teams that want to fill the stadium more nights of the year, sponsor a junior team in a league with age restrictions. The students are paid, not huge salaries but enough to live on, and then go to college on their own if they don’t get on a pro team. This way they make them sustainable and they don’t have “students” who at the big schools barely study anyways.
Keeping lower level college atheletics is a good idea because they build school pride and help students stay healthy – but I’m looking more at a model similar to the current model for Div III (no scholarships, coaches making an average salary for the town rather than far above the average, etc.).
