Write On Sports LLC - "It's All About The Money In College Football" by Troy Somero

It's All About The Money In College Football

2006-12-03 16:16:27 | By: Troy Somero

This week the Associate Press reported that Ohio State would only offer 1,100 BCS Championship tickets for sale to the school's student body. While 1,100 tickets might seem like a fair amount to offer, the school has a student body of over 51,181. This means that only 2% of the entire student body will be eligible to buy tickets, keeping in mind that this purchase is actually done through a lottery system and the tickets will cost each lucky student $185 apiece.

In addition, Phoenix University Stadium in Glendale, Arizona – where the game is being played on January 9 – has a capacity of 72,800. Assuming that each school receives the remaining 50% of tickets after the are distributed by the NCAA to various people of importance (who likely will generously fill the association's coffers before, during and after the game), Ohio State and the school that is faces on January 9 will likely receive at least 20,000 tickets each to distribute between the many parties that are obligated to received tickets. This means that only 5% of the tickets that Ohio Statewill have available for the game will be distributed to students.

The question that this begs is, "Who receives the other 19,000-plus tickets that Ohio State will obtain?" According to Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith, the answer to this question is "faculty, staff, trustees, alumni donors, media, boosters and season ticket-holders". While these groups sound like they are in great need of tickets, the fact of the matter is that many of these groups need few, if any, tickets to the game. The marching band is comprised of 227 members . According to the school's website, the total number of faculty and staff members at Ohio State (including administrators and subtracting student employees) is 25,302. The school also has 17 trustees. Assuming that all band members and trusties receive tickets to the game, and assuming that the same percentage of faculty and staff will receive tickets as students (about 500 faculty/staff members in this case), the remaining 18,000-plus tickets, according to the athletic director, will be given to alumni donors, boosters, and the media. Why give so many tickets to these three groups when there are thousands students who currently go to the school yet will not be eligible to buy tickets? The answer is an easy one: it's all about the money.

Like any other school, Ohio State realizes that students have to pay their tuition, whether or not they get tickets to the game. In addition, faculty and staff members likely have no clause in their contracts stating they are required to receive tickets to the BCS Championship, but certain faculty/staff members may be eligible for tickets based on bonuses or rewards for accomplishments at the school. However, alumni have no duties tied to the university. Alums have paid their tuition, graduated, and have grown old while still keeping close to the university. They also donated $100 million to Ohio Stateduring the last academic year. This is why the university needs to give 80-90% of its BCS tickets to alumni. Even though students are paying an average of $17,305 a year for educational and living expenses, students can drop out and do themselves much more harm than the harm that would be done to the school. On the other hand, Ohio State needs to curry favor with alumni to receive donations, because it is a lose-lose situation for the school if it loses alumni support.

This is where the media and the boosters come into play. If the university can please the media and boosters – the two main sources of information about the school and the football program – then these two groups will be more willing to celebrate what Ohio State is and more eager to seek these blessed donations. In fact, boosters are so effective at raising money for the school that they are allowing students who do not win the ticket lottery to have anther opportunity to buy tickets through a university-sponsored tour package costing $2,000. The school supports more students going to the game, but only if the students are willing to lay down one-ninth of their annual tuition payment for a tour to raise even more money for the school.

While it may appears as if I am picking on Ohio State, this is not the case. Rather, this article stood out to me because it is a wonderful example of a major problem in college athletics right now: colleges and universities exploiting athletics for the sake of the all-mighty dollar. Without students there is no university; without the university there is no football or alumni. However, this message becomes lost in the whirlwind of ticket giveaways and the yearly payback to the tune of $100 million.

The mission of college athletics and college education in general is to prepare students to become successful in their lives after college. Over the last twenty-five years, especially since the split between Division I-A and Division I-AA football, football's role in this mission has become confused and misguided. Students are told they have to pay increasing fees for everything from tuition to football tickets, while administrators and trustees fly in private jets to bowl games and spend week after week wining and dining alumni. (A great example of this is my alma-mater, Colgate University, where the major athletics and university administrators flew in a private jet to the Division I-AA Championship in 2003 while students had to pay $40 for a 16-hour bus ride to the game in each direction, as long as their schedule during Finals Week allowed it). Inflation has risen about 3% a year on average over the last decade, while tuition costs have risen more than 6% a year on average.

The problem is the hypocrisy inherent in college athletics. Students, alumni, faculty/staff, and administrators love sports, but each group loves sports for different reasons. Students (former and current) embrace the sentiment of school spirit and the thrill of seeing their classmates on the field. Most staff and faculty members see the powerful ability athletics has to create disciplines and focused students (as can be seen from the fact that college athletes graduate at a higher rate than non-athletes). However, administrators view college sports as a cash cow – the more they can exploit students and alumni for money, the long they keep their jobs and the more vainglorious they become in their roles.

My message for these administrators is simple: remember what life was like as a student. Students do the work and pay the bills – not alumni, not donors and not the media. The sooner administrators reward students for their central role to university life, the better off the state of college athletics will be. Maybe Ohio State could start the good trend by giving a few more tickets to the students, or at least selling them at $185 versus $2,000 in a better example of university camaraderie between administrators and students.

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