(03-14-2009 07:40 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(03-14-2009 07:31 AM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  If everything is as bad as everyone says, then why the hell are we even playing college athletics? I don't mean just Rice, I mean all D1 schools.
I'm serious here. No one spent serious money on sports in the 30's.
Rice won't be the first school to pack it in as far as sports goes, but some school with limited resources will bite the bullet and just say we can't afford to lose 2 million on football this fall and 5 million for the year.
All the doom and gloomers here need to be realistic about this possibliity. D1 athletics in C-USA is on life support.

Good observations.

In particular, if the limits on charitable deductions go through, college athletics may be hardest hit of all. College athletics are probably more dependent on large contributions from wealthy donors (who will be hardest hit by the change) and less on large numbers of $5 and $10 donations than almost any other non-profit activity. Given how divorced from reality much of college athletics has become, this might not be a bad thing.

Actually, all university fundraising is going to get hit hard by this. I'm sure there will still be plenty of loopholes and favorable rulings from the IRS to keep some of the really large stuff alive, but when it comes time for estate planning and everything else, it's going to be tough. It seems like every major research university out there is in the middle or will soon be launching some $500 million or $1 billion (or more) fundraising campaign right now, and I've got to believe these types of changes are going to hit these types of contributions hard.