Good article here, although some MAC schools were not mentioned. UT is the least subsidized school and the most responsible with the amount of money they are asking students to spend. The schools that are probably going to see cuts & soon include Akron, EMU and NIU. Akron and EMU just spend way too much student fees on athletics. NIU spends less but the subsidy is still high and there is a major budget mess in Illinois brewing and cuts are already being considered at NIU.

http://www.bcsn.tv/news_article/show/656160

(06-05-2016 08:25 AM)Stpetebeachrocketfan Wrote:  Good article here, although some MAC schools were not mentioned. UT is the least subsidized school and the most responsible with the amount of money they are asking students to spend. The schools that are probably going to see cuts & soon include Akron, EMU and NIU. Akron and EMU just spend way too much student fees on athletics. NIU spends less but the subsidy is still high and there is a major budget mess in Illinois brewing and cuts are already being considered at NIU.

http://www.bcsn.tv/news_article/show/656160

Asked how much athletics played a part in choosing a MAC school, 73 percent of respondents said it was unimportant or extremely unimportant.

I love UT sports, but administrators saying that having DI sports is helping any MAC school academically, in terms of raising enrollment or any other type of prestige is a complete fabrication. If it were true, attendance for most MAC sporting events wouldn't be so awful.

(06-05-2016 09:31 AM)DetroitRocket Wrote:  

(06-05-2016 08:25 AM)Stpetebeachrocketfan Wrote:  Good article here, although some MAC schools were not mentioned. UT is the least subsidized school and the most responsible with the amount of money they are asking students to spend. The schools that are probably going to see cuts & soon include Akron, EMU and NIU. Akron and EMU just spend way too much student fees on athletics. NIU spends less but the subsidy is still high and there is a major budget mess in Illinois brewing and cuts are already being considered at NIU.

http://www.bcsn.tv/news_article/show/656160

Asked how much athletics played a part in choosing a MAC school, 73 percent of respondents said it was unimportant or extremely unimportant.

I love UT sports, but administrators saying that having DI sports is helping any MAC school academically, in terms of raising enrollment or any other type of prestige is a complete fabrication. If it were true, attendance for most MAC sporting events wouldn't be so awful.

It isn't about getting students to attend because of the athletic programs. Few students will do that anywhere I suspect, even at the "big name schools". Its about getting name recognition out across the country outside of Lucas county.

Having worked for 30ish years with highly educated people from all across the country, I can tell you that the majority of them had never heard of UT, or thought it was a small local school or a community college. Of those that did know, many, many did so because of the athletic programs. You can't attract the best students or compete for grant money if no one has heard of you. The athletic programs help that name recognition significantly.

Of course, that kind of thing is really hard to quantify, so who knows, maybe nothing would change if athletics were eliminated entirely. But, historically, UT was just a commuter school, with many (most?) people choosing it by default, because they couldn't afford to, or didn't want to, leave town for school. That type of student, in general, doesn't form a life-long attachment to the school, and doesn't become a donor. I would guess that using advertising to get the same level of name recognition across the entire country would cost at least as much, if not more as funding the athletic program.

But again, that's just my opinion.

I think athletics are currently graduating some great future leaders.
Hope UT continues the trend.

UT hopefully is graduating some great leaders not involved in athletics and would continue to do so if DI athletics was not part of the equation. Many of the recognized best academic schools in the country do not have big athletic programs nor even big name recognition (Harvey Mudd anyone). Academics will gets its own recognition by the quality of people it produces, regardless existence of a deficit running athletic program. Major athletic programs that run deficits only have worth to a University, in my opinion, as they are used to improve the academic programs. If they're not leveraged for that use, they are under utilized or wrongly placed.

If UT or any university is surviving because of deficit athletic program, then it has bigger fish to fry that it's not getting anywhere near the grease.

Just FYI if anyone wants to look at more numbers. We took the USA Today data on the G5 schools and have total revenue, Institutional support (school, government, and student money), percent of budget subsidized and number of self-generated dollars.
The Rockets were 29th in total revenue, 25th least subsidized, 25th in total self-generated dollars.
http://www.scout.com/college/arkansas-st...et-numbers

So on a scale of EMU to ten, we're what?