Among the 225 public universities and colleges whose athletic teams participate in Division I sports, from 2005 to 2011, athletic spending per athlete increased at a faster rate than academic spending per student, according to a new database launched last week by the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics college sports reform organization.
Knight Commission officials say the finding and other data highlight evidence that many Division I institutions are supporting athletic programs that will not be sustainable over time. The data are part of the Knight Commission’s Athletic and Academic Spending Database for NCAA Division I, which now makes athletic and academic spending data web-accessible so comparisons can be made within individual and across multiple institutions.
“College athletics has the potential for so much good, but the current trajectory of spending is unsustainable,” said Dr. William E. “Brit” Kirwan, chancellor of the University System of Maryland and co-chairman of the Commission, in a statement.
“We already see levels of spending at some universities that require them to divert substantial resources from their core academic responsibilities,” he continued. “We are hopeful this online database will help university leaders and policymakers develop practices and policies that bring better balance to athletic expenditures within the broader institutional missions.”
The online and interactive database is expected to “provide greater transparency for athletics finances and better measures to compare trends in academic and athletic spending,” according to the Commission. In 2010, the Commission released “Restoring the Balance: Dollars, Values and the Future of College Sports,” a report that recommended solutions for the growing financial challenges confronting college sports and new incentives that reward winning over fulfilling basic educational goals.
The goal of the new database is to allow administrators, policymakers, researchers, taxpayers and others to compare trends in spending on core academic activities with spending on athletics in public Division I institutions. With football playing a significant role in determining Division I spending patterns, football-only spending data are included in the database for analysis. The database, which includes data from several public sources such as NCAA reports, allows users to compare trends and search by institutions, conferences and subdivisions. Private universities are not included in the database.
