Rutgers football and its broader athletic program “are among the biggest money losers in the nation … and the situation may be getting worse,” according to Jarrett Renshaw of the Newark STAR-LEDGER. An analysis of school records revealed that a shortfall last year “forced the university to divert millions of dollars from student fees, tuition and state tax dollars to cover the $64.2 million it spent to run its 24-sport athletic program.” This new analysis “is the first since the $102 million stadium expansion was completed more than two years ago, and it comes as Rutgers athletics again finds itself at a crossroads.” The documents “depict an athletic program struggling financially under the weight of its own high expectations.” One of the "more surprising findings shows that an increasingly smaller percentage of fans at home games now pay for tickets, because to offset declining attendance, the university hands out fistfuls of complimentary passes to fill seats.” So while the stadium “may look more filled, there is still less revenue for the cash-strapped program.” This year, roughly 59% of football fans “bought a ticket, down from 76 percent in 2009.” Rutgers AD Tim Pernetti said, “I have said from day one that our goal is to raise revenue and decrease the reliance on university subsidies, but it’s not going to happen overnight. Spending is not our problem." The study also shows that Rutgers "spent more on sports last year than most of the 120 college programs” in the FBS, but the school “could not keep pace when it came to generating revenue.” As a result, “42 cents of every dollar Rutgers spent on athletics last year came from student fees, tuition dollars and other nonathletic revenue, among the highest ratios in the nation.” The athletic department “spent $26.8 million more than it generated in revenue last year.” The annual losses, however, “have not deterred spending, which has almost doubled since 2005.” The increase comes “as overall state funding to the university has dropped by $29 million, or 10 percent, over the past three years, forcing officials to freeze salaries, rely more on part-time teachers and even yank faculty office phones.” The disparity has “created tension between faculty and the administration over the university’s priorities.” Pernetti said, "The success of the football team has been the biggest single thing for the university in the last 10 years. We have a world-class faculty, which combined with the sports programs, makes us a force, and people should embrace that" (Newark STAR LEDGER, 12/11).
OCCUPY NCAA: In Boston, Derrick Jackson wrote under the header, “The Money Pit: Most Colleges Are Playing A Losing Game With Athletic Spending.” Univ. of North Carolina President Emeritus and Knight Commissioner on Intercollegiate Athletics co-Founder William Friday said, “We’re trying to superimpose an entertainment enterprise on an academic institution and it just doesn’t fit.” Jackson noted the situation “is so out of control that teams at the highest levels of Division 1 in the NCAA operate as professional franchises.” Ohio Univ. professor of sports administration Dave Ridpath said, “I would love to see 'Occupy NCAA.' Everything about big-time college sports and its wild spending resembles Wall Street. It’s like a housing bubble that has to burst” (BOSTON GLOBE, 12/11).
