Can college athletics continue to spend like this?

[Cheesesteak]

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2016/04/17/ncaa-football-basketball-power-five-revenue-expenses/83035862/

"Zimbalist says this kind of spending is not sustainable, and he thinks litigation of some stripe — courts deciding players can be paid beyond their scholarships, for instance — could cause the bubble to burst."

[footballdad]

“I’ve heard that now for the last 20 years and I don’t want to be skeptical and say nothing like that could happen that would ever change the direction of intercollegiate sports,” Schulz says. But he compares it to predictions of a bubble in higher education where prospective students would one day decide that degrees for ever-higher tuition just aren’t worth it anymore.

And guess what? We all have record numbers of people who want to come and pay these tuition rates and get these degrees from our institutions,” Schulz says. “So I’m a little skeptical about the gloom and doom of a bubble that’s going to burst and everything is going to go south.”

[03Mustang]

Easy to get cheap debt to pay for the rapidly growing tuition. Take that away and it all changes. Same is true for many other elements of our economy.

Major changes to the student loan industry would be the black swan event college athletics fears the most... With major changes to TV contracts being a close second.

[footballdad]

Easy to get cheap debt to pay for the rapidly growing tuition. Take that away and it all changes. Same is true for many other elements of our economy.

Major changes to the student loan industry would be the black swan event college athletics fears the most... With major changes to TV contracts being a close second.

20 Trillion is right around the corner, so as long as the Govt is involved, the easy money will continue to flow to students.

It's all a fugazzi, faguzzi, it's a whazzie, it's a whoozie, it's fairy dust

[Oldmins]

The "easy money" keeps flowing to students, but is there someone in our universities who reminds the students that the"easy money" that flows in, in the form of loans, one day has to "flow out" again? A very large number of 25-35 year olds right now are discovering that those great big loans have to be paid off, and there's no getting around it.

[smusic 00]

Bernie will make it go away.

[One Trick Pony]

250k is real money to those who must generate it on return

[orguy]

The "easy money" keeps flowing to students, but is there someone in our universities who reminds the students that the"easy money" that flows in, in the form of loans, one day has to "flow out" again? A very large number of 25-35 year olds right now are discovering that those great big loans have to be paid off, and there's no getting around it.

Is it any easier now than it was in previous generations?

[Mexmustang]

Maybe it was easier. I earned my tuition and most of my R&B by working 32 hours, TTS and taking 18 hours MWF. In graduate school I was a co-op student, working a semester, going to school a semester, then again. I graduated a semester late and of course used the summer sessions.

It's not just fashionable to work parttime or in the summers, despite, a school week that is now MTWT, but maybe the jobs are no longer there.

I believe that the real issue is that the cost of college has risen much faster than wages. So what I did may no long be possible. For instance, I was always able to earn enough in the summer to pay the fall semester's tuition, fees and books at SMU. I can't imagine a summer job paying that much today.

Finally, people are beginning to challenge the budgets of universities, including the tenure system of professors. This is the charge given to the new president of UT. SMU's costs are far higher than any university in Texas, including the out of state tuition and fees at our public universities, making us a leading target.

[SoCal_Pony]

20 Trillion is right around the corner, so as long as the Govt is involved, the easy money will continue to flow to students.

It's all a fugazzi, faguzzi, it's a whazzie, it's a whoozie, it's fairy dust

That is a complete BS number.

Back in 2011, when the official US debt number was 9.1T, Bill Gross of PIMCO stated it was actually $75T when you included unfunded SS, Medicare and Medicaid.

Back in 2012, former longtime Newport Beach Congressman and SEC chairman Christopher Cox stated the true US debt was $88T when you included unfunded SS, Medicare and Medicaid.

More recently some analysts say the true US debt now exceeds $200T. If this number is accurate, that would mean every man, woman and child in America would owe some $650,000 per person.

Over half of American adults have less than $1,000 in their savings accounts.

America and the world are screwed.

[leopold]

Back to the topic at hand.

According to the numbers put out by USA Today, public FBS schools lost north of a Billion dollars on athletics over the course of the 2014-2015 school year, and considering that a substantial portion of the revenue coming in from college athletics is donations the 'business model' most people are looking to to save college sports hasn't been there inherently.
But the guy from KSU is right - all you have to do is look at LSU. Due to budget shortfalls the state of Louisiana was talking about shutting down the college system this year. People didn't fully get it until the governor came out and pointed out there might not be a football season next year. Point being: people, not only in that state but in others as well, would be fine using the state to subsidize college athletics.

One possible solution: Combine men's and women's sports.

Women now are in combat MOS's across the military and are soon going to be seen even in special operations. It's stupid that an 18 year old girl who can take Iwo Jima shouldn't have to hit off the same golf tees as an 28 year old boy. Combining the genders could immediately cut the costs in half, end Title IX issues, end space and scheduling conflicts, and refocus fundraising efforts. Frankly, that issue may be past due, based on some books I've read. It could very well happen anyway with the right lawsuit - a male athlete who wasn't good enough to earn a scholarship in his sport with men's team but looked at women getting a scholarship, and tens of thousands of dollars worth of education for free, and decided that wasn't fair and sues.

[whitwiki]

Pretty sure that would completely eliminate 90% of female scholarships. Very few men would be left out. So your issue would remain the same, just in reverse.

[mtrout]

That's the exact opposite of title 9. Maybe in bizzaro world...

[leopold]

No, it's not.

Title IX isn't necessarily about athletics; it's about all of education - sports just so happen to be where much of the focus has been, probably because a few decades ago they were the most egregious violators, with the overwhelming majority of money and emphasis put on men's sports. But the whole point is about equal access and support in education, not equal results. For example, women have surpassed men in numbers and percentages across the spectrum of enrollment.

Frankly,I'd argue women women would do a little better than most people would believe, even though it would most probably still favor men. I'd say it would end up probably being about 70/30 or so, but, still, it would favor men. But it would be fair by all legal accounts, and the funding issues would clear up.

[smustatesman]

If the NCAA did create a combined co-ed athletic structure. The most important question to answer is what bathroom do they all use ?