A lot of times athletic facilities go up and people think we're diverting money from academic funds to pay for this - in fact, I think about 50% of FAU's undergraduate population thinks we got the stadium money from there - but now for the first time we're seeing Athletics pour money back into the university. This article talks about the situation at a few SEC schools that apparently have so much extra money, they can afford to give away millions to other projects. Must be nice.


"About $250 million of the bond money would be spent at UK.

To finance the projects, UK and other universities would rely on agency bonds, which typically are approved for projects that generate their own revenue streams, such as dorms or dining halls. The new twist is that universities have found ways to use agency bonds to pay for some academic buildings, which typically have been paid for out of the state General Fund.

In the case of UK's new $100 million science building, UK Athletics would spend $3 million to $5 million a year to pay down $65 million in debt service for the project. It marks the first time an athletics program has paid for an academic building at a public university in Kentucky, and it displays a degree of support for academics by an athletics department that's rarely seen in the country.

At Louisiana State University, athletics officials recently agreed to transfer $36 million to academic programs during the next five years. The University of Tennessee Athletics Department was giving $6 million a year to academics, but in November officials announced that would stop because of financial problems. UT had to pay $5 million to football coach Derek Dooley after his firing.

"This is a first, and that's a good thing," UK Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart said. "We've always been supportive of academics."

This year, UK Athletics agreed to give $3 million to non-athletic scholarships, up from $1.7 million in previous years. Officials expect that donation to continue."

In my opinion, that's how it should be. There's no reason why coaches need to make more than professors or faculty. I understand that they bring in a lot money, but the amount of money made off of college athletics while many schools struggle to pay for professors, staff, etc. is just plain stupid.

Didn't WVU pay like $20 mil. just to go play in a different conference? They could realistically given everyone of their students a year's worth of tuition and STILL had money leftover.

FAUfasho said

In my opinion, that's how it should be. There's no reason why coaches need to make more than professors or faculty. I understand that they bring in a lot money, but the amount of money made off of college athletics while many schools struggle to pay for professors, staff, etc. is just plain stupid.

Didn't WVU pay like $20 mil. just to go play in a different conference? They could realistically given everyone of their students a year's worth of tuition and STILL had money leftover.

+1