Very interesting article about college sports in general posted on Back of the Net. Anyone with lacrosse views?
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Financial troubles across the United States with the increasingly soft economy, a 500-point Dow Jones Industrial average drop impacting investments, and shrinking family bank accounts have helped to increase the focus on the elusive student-athlete scholarship to help fund a four-year college education. Decreasing tax rolls, increasing social program costs, and decreased federal funding have state governments themselves significantly cutting subsidies to various state university systems. In parallel, private universities are struggling to maintain endowments while supporting both their quality of education and quantity of students capable of paying the $40,000 per year bill.
California has been among the hardest hit states with athletic programs being impacted at record rates over the last eighteen months. These articles provide a sampling of the cost-cutting impacting family plans for financing a collegiate education. As you can see, these cuts are now reaching the point of saving $50,000 per fiscal year.
Will this trend continue in full force to the SUNY schools and the East Coast/Region One Universities? This was discussed as early as November 2009 in the
New [lacrosse] Times.
This is a vulnerable time for non-revenue generating sports programs as more universities are closely examining the full cost of operating a Division I or Division II sports program. Remember, this is not just the cost of scholarships which are factored into the overall university discount rate, but also salaries, benefits, and facilities to coaches and support staff.
Colleges across the region, particularly four-year institutions, are struggling to maintain academic standards while also filling freshman classes with enough "paying students" to carry university expenses. When student revenues, state funding, or endowments can no longer cover the bills, programs start getting cut. Athletic scholarships are particularly vulnerable in this situation. Further, when local four-year programs are being undermined by community colleges with a value proposition of saving two years of tuition, someone is going to get squeezed financially.
There are some who would point to the elimination of the Hofstra University Division I football program as the first shoe to drop in our competitive regional market where both private and public universities are forced to make the difficult decisions between sustaining academic growth and investment in athletic programs. In Hofstra's case, academics remain solid while diverting funds to the now celebrated Medical School - however, the athletic scholarship count has radically dropped.
Remember that the game is no longer just a question of how many scholarship positions are funded. Families now find themselves needing to question much more than just whether a program is fully funded. Now, questions about the overall health of all the athletic programs have never been more important.
