Will This Have the NCAA Sweating Just A Bit?

He can coach at Miami!

 

That explains a lot. The courage of his convictions, now that he doesn't have to run for re-election.

 

These tax-free sports programs keep fighting in court to keep their salaries and other normally public documents secret. Tell them they either open the books or start paying taxes, and I think we'd find out Joepa's salary before breakfast.

 

Pennsylvania must be different than my state.

The coaches at the public universities are all state employees (duh). A copy of their contract is available for the asking, even though sometimes you have to file an FOI request (to give the school some cover if the coach complains).

The budget is also readily available from the school (often with an FOI, again for cover) or at the U.S. government site on gender equity reporting. On the web site it's not completely itemized, but spending and revenue for each program is detailed.

Must be some parts of the country take the sunshine laws more seriously than others.

 

Since I work in the industry, I have many thoughts on this issue.

First, student-athletes on scholarship have to pay taxes on the scholarship, so it isn't like everything is exempt.

If the government wants to treat athletics like a business, then let us act accordingly. How many companies would fund a division with between $500,000 to a million a year with practically no revenue coming in from the investment? That's what just about every school does with women's basketball.

How many businesses are told that they have to take on additional debt because the percentage of males-females is not proportionale to the male-female ratio in their area (like athletic departments are required to do -- take on additional women's sports to make sure that the participation numbers are equal to the male-female ratio in the student body.

Contrary to the public belief, most athletic departments lose money. And, if it weren't for money from student fees, then probably 90% of athletic departments would lose big-time amounts of money each year.

I think this will change your view of athletics.

 

Penn State is not a state university in the true sense of the word. It was chartered by the state 150 years ago, but now it receives about 10 percent of its funding (if that) from Harrisburg. That's the argument Graham Spanier and others are making in keeping Paterno's salary on the down low.

 

Whoa now. Those football and basketball players put in as much work during the average week as the normal student. Just because they're at practice and the other guy is at a fast food restaurant doesn't mean those jobs aren't equal. The athlete has landed a gig that requires specialized skills. It pays him for working just like the restaurant pays the normal student.

Yes, athletes have some benefits that the normal students don't in study aides and whatnot. But don't act as if there's this great divide in hours worked between the two. There's not. There would be one between the guy who's on academic scholarship, since he's basically going to class and then home to study, and the athlete, who's going to class then off to practice for two hours, film study and meetings for another two hours and then home to study.

Athletics provides an education for a boatload of kids who would not normally be able to attend college. In addition, those kids have someone standing over them, constantly making sure they're doing what they should be in the classroom and providing them all the help they need.

Yeah, you can look at it as the school only doing that so the kids will remain eligible and the university can rake in the cash, but it's still getting done.