Schools Eye Various Ways To Raise Money For Non-Revenue Sports
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Ohio State Holding Auctions To
Benefit School's Non-Revenue Sports |
The Ohio State Univ. (OSU) football team recently auctioned off a chance to serve as “beat reporter for a day” as a way to increase the school’s general athletics fund, according to Tom Reed of the COLUMBUS DISPATCH. OSU Dir of Creative Services Diana Sabau said that money from similar online auctions will be put into the fund, which is used “by all teams -- particularly sports that don’t bring in revenue -- to help cover expenses.” The NCAA has signed off on the practice, and NCAA Associate Dir of Public & Media Relations Stacey Osburn said, “As long as the student athlete’s well-being is protected, we are on board with it.” Reed noted future OSU auctions will include Greg Oden-signed basketballs, artifacts from Ohio Stadium and a blackboard used by late football coach Woody Hayes. Other schools, including Notre Dame, Penn State and USC, also run online auctions, and CSTV and XOS Network will offer over 100 schools the chance to auction items (COLUMBUS DISPATCH, 8/23).
WILL WORK TO PLAY: In N.Y., Teddy Kider in a front-page piece reports many athletes from non-revenue sports work for their school’s football program to generate money for their teams. Utah swimmers “serve as hospitality workers in the suites” for football games, Penn State fencers clean up trash left at Beaver Stadium and Butler softball players work the ticket gates. However, some coaches and administrators “insist that it is unreasonable to ask Division I athletes to participate in small moneymaking projects.” Rutgers men’s soccer coach Bob Reasso said, “You’re not going to ask a major Division I football or basketball athlete to do a car wash. We have the same caliber athletes.” UCLA men’s tennis coach Billy Martin said that his program “could not make any money for the athletic department, but he called some of the small projects ‘high schoolish.’” But Butler AD Barry Collier said, “The reality of where we are today is that we need to find a way to supplement budgets” (N.Y. TIMES, 8/24).
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