UI Athletics Gets Big Breaks in Financial Crises
By Nick Gier, New West Unfiltered 1-05-09
By Nick Gier
During the last nine seasons, the University of Idaho (UI) football team has lost 82 of 105 games. Even with its winning seasons as members of the Big Sky conference, its "all-time ranking" is 118 out of 125 schools.
Even the hiring of the celebrated Dennis Erickson in 2006 did not do the trick. In fact, after his quick departure after a 4-8 season, the earlier motto "Erickson is Back, Are You?" turned into phrases unprintable for this newspaper.
For the past three seasons the UI men's basketball team has lost 73 of 89 games. Its current NCAA standing is 316th out of 341 colleges and universities.
If any UI academic program had such a poor performance record, it would certainly be eliminated or at least reduced in its mission. But since 1999 state funding for UI athletics went from $1.78 million to $3.04 million, a 71 percent increase. By comparison general education budgets for Idaho higher education have increased only 46 percent during the same period.
Since 1999 private contributions to UI athletics rose 217 percent, indicating the potential for it to wean itself, as any non-academic program should, from its state subsidy.
In 2003 athletics was given a $500,000 "gift" from the president's office, presumably to cover the costs of joining the Western Athletics Conference.
Also in 2003 the basketball coach received a $15,000 pay raise, the second highest in the university. UI athletic director Robert Spear tried to fudge the raise as one based on future performance, but the increment was added to his base salary before the season began.
During the financial crisis of 2004-05 the UI liberal arts college was forced to cut $326,000, but $322,600 was added to the athletics department budget. A faculty committee recommended that then President Tim White reduce the athletic budget by $300,000, but he decided to fire 27 staff employees instead.
In 1987 the State Board of Education reinstituted the policy of general education monies for athletics. The annual subsidy for UI has grown from $665,500 to $3,041,679, a 357 percent increase. The other campuses experienced similar increases. Without this subsidy the Vandals won five Big Sky championships from 1983-87!
While all other UI faculty and staff received little or no raises this year, the athletic director enjoyed an 8 percent raise, and the salary line for football coaches with record losses has also increased 8 percent.
Since 1997 all UI departments have paid an administrative fee on all external funds to the central administration. The fee has now risen to 8 percent, but athletics only pays 3 percent.
For several years after 2001 athletics paid no administrative fee at all, claiming that it had to reach gender equity goals. What is odd about this excuse is that UI athletics has received gender equity money from the Legislature, starting with $115,000 in 1997 and growing to $621,560 this year.
Many other departments could give much better reasons why they too should be exempt from this administrative fee. Auxiliary services and facilities management generate lots of external funds, and they could very well argue that their salaries, 19 percent of which are below the poverty level, should rise before they are required to pay the fee.
The athletic department has also defended its low administrative fee by boasting it returns $2.5 million back to the university in tuition, fees, room and board for scholarship students.
Over half these scholarships, however, are funded by the state. Private scholarship funds for all UI colleges total $4.1 million, so they have yet another good reason to have a lower administrative fee.
If the implication of this claim is that athletics makes money for UI, then this is clearly false. This year the athletics department estimated that it would take in $2.1 million dollars in student fees in addition to the $3 million direct subsidy from the Legislature. Simple arithmetic shows at least a $2.6 million deficit not "profit."
A national study concluded that only nine athletic programs are able to actually return money to their respective academic programs. Contrary to conventional wisdom, winning athletic programs do not increase alumni funding.
As a Vice President at the University of Notre Dame says: "There is no empirical evidence demonstrating a correlation between athletic department achievement and alumni fund-raising success." This is a school that can tell us a lot about academic excellence and winning football teams, at least until the last several years. Studies have shown that alumni give on the basis of consistent academic excellence not inconsistent athletic records.
Winning football teams at Wisconsin, Michigan, UCLA, Texas, and Washington correlate with low rankings of 126, 128, 134, 136, and 144 respectively on a national alumni giving list published by U.S. News & World Report.
Coming from Oregon State, President Tim White once boasted about how much money its winning football team brought in, but in 2005 the OSU athletic department had a $4 million deficit.
The UI faculty senate chair refuses to bring up the administrative fee issue because she did not think it was fair to pick on any one specific unit of the university during bad times. But when one program has been favored over others for years, then an appeal to equitable treatment is the only principled position.
The highest paid official in Idaho is not the governor at $108,727, and not even the Boise State president at $299,416. It is the BSU football coach, whose salary has doubled in the last two years to $806,998.
The BSU win over Oklahoma was the most exciting game I have ever seen, but I was entertained not edified, the principal reason that we have universities. Something is terribly wrong with our priorities at the nation's colleges and universities.
Nick Gier taught philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years. He is also President of the Higher Education Council of the Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFT/AFL-CIO, which has chapters on all six Idaho campuses. [End of article]
Hey Nick! Great to hear that your 'academic' interest is still alive and well despite you no longer being employed by the University of Idaho.
As an Idahoan coming from a family benefiting from 3 generations of Idaho graduates - I'd ask you to kindly take your comments and opinions and share them with your other transplanted, carpet bagging whiners.
Thankfully - your attempts at dragging Athletic and University tradition down failed. Fortunately, there are many other schools which offer majors providing no economic benefit that would love to hear you continue your incessant whining.
Go somewhere else - you lost the fight and no one of merit wants to hear you anymore.
All of this coming from a philosophy professor is actually pretty funny. I'd bet his students could write paper after mind-numbing paper about the irony of the situation.
Comment By Dan, 1-07-09You really don't get it. Athletics bring in attention to schools that academics can't provide. Have you ever seen a chemistry competition on ESPN on primetime? What about an honor roll on the nightly news? Athletics unite students, boosters, alumni and are the flagship of any non ivy league university. Did you notice how even with these horrible sports teams the athletic department is still turning a profit? Imagine what will happen when they start winning.
By they way, you might want to double check your facts. The basketball team is ranked about 150 spots higher than the 300-something figure you boast, and try looking into the "flutie effect". Nice try, but you would have a better argument about how the philosophy department should be dropped in favor of a more relevant department or *gasp*, athletics.
One of the great things about athletics is that a good coach builds character, good manners, and sportsmanship in his or her players. It's too bad that this does not happen with many fans, such as the rude people we have here.
I've had a fair number of athletes in my classes and one of the first things they learn is that it is a logical fallacy to argue against the person (ad hominem). The only proper logical procedure is to direct your comments to the argument itself. Personal insults don't win an argument; it only reflects poorly on the ones who choose to insult.
The UI Press was eliminated in 2005, the year that athletics received an extra boost of $800,000 and 27 staff were laid off. The administration said that it should be self-supporting (as I say athletics should be) even though it is part of the academic mission of the university. One of its title won a big award and was featured on several national news programs. Our theatre arts and creative writing departments have national reputations with performances around the country.
Dozens of our faculty have international reputations and take the UI name to all corners of the globe. I've honored the UI in Asia and Europe, where they have never heard of the UI Vandals.
Only nine athletic programs in the nation turn a profit. If you look at the athletics budget on the UI website, a quick calculation shows that they took at least $3.2 million more than they gave for FY09.
A specific response to Joe: I've lived in Moscow for 37 years and I love the area and the University. Despite your insults, I'm staying put, and I will continue to criticize an administration that favors one non-academic unit over all all others.
Nick
I have seen way more studies and papers written that substantiate the fact that Successful athletic programs do help with Univ. giving and enrollment. it is no secret that WSU enrollment has been up partly because of MBBall success. What about Gonzaga? or BSU? how can you say the Athletics doesnot play a role in the success of these schools that are right under your nose!!!! If any one at Nortre Dame thinks that they would be half the institution that it si today with out football you are speaKING FROM IGNORANCE. PERIOD
I am a student in a U of I degree program which is up to be cut this April.
I think the commenters are mostly a bunch of WAC-jobs. (haha, get it?)
Of course the Philosophy department doesn't make money. This is a public educational institution. It's not SUPPOSED to be self-sufficient. The University's mission is to educate Idaho's citizens. It's mission is NOT to waste $3 million a year to entertain fat alumni and drunk fratboys. The entertainment of fat alumni and drunk fratboys cannot be fit into any definition of "Public Education."
However, this is fundamentally up to Idaho voters- and I suspect they'd mostly favor cutting U of I academics altogether. We can rename the University the "Amateur Athletics Institution of Idaho."
P.S. I'm sorry to argue ad-hominem against the fat alumnus and drunk fratboy, rather than strike down their fallacious propositions. I'm sure I'd flunk Philosophy, but I get an A in flaming, no?
I am a student in Physics at the Unviersity of Idaho. I will be graduating this Spring. My undergraduate education here as been excellent, with varied research opportunities, an internship with NASA, and competive graduate school applications to schools such as MIT, Caltech, and Stanford. I feel that overall UI and the physics department in particular has given me an excellent education
However, the physics Program at UI is due to be cut this year.
Why do Athletics hold such a holy grail? More than half of the UI students I know rarely or never attend a UI Athletic event, recruiting at UI focuses heavily on academic programs (such as the Honors Program, National Merit Scholars, etc), but considerably less emphasis is placed on Athletic programs.
While I don't have access to accurate numbers, from my experience at UI, I don't think athletics play a major role in student recruitment. To Dan and Carlos, do you have statistical information that links UI's performance with it's athletic program? Also, to Dan, yes, ESPN 2 regularly hosts high school and college academic competitions.
While I realize that many people enjoy and are passionate about the athletic programs, I don't think that these programs should be exempt from equal and fair treatment. From what I understood, all Nick is proposing is a focus on academics in an academic institution and equal treatment of all programs.