Are Rising Athletics Allocations Associated with Student Costs: Evidence from Public NCAA Division I Universities

Abstract

Many in the higher education community criticize the millions of dollars in financial allocations given to intercollegiate athletics departments by universities on the premise that when universities have to provide more allocation money to athletics, student costs increase. Evidence supporting this argument, however, is largely anecdotal. This study used fixed effects regression analyses to explore whether year to year changes in university funds allocated to athletics lead to higher student costs. Our findings call into question the argument that rising athletics allocations are a significant direct driver of student costs.

Athletic Success and Donation Intentions: Does Sense of Community Mediate?

“…Because of these enlarged budgets, the majority of FBS athletic departments operate at a deficit and must rely on institutional subsidies to support their programs (Lipford & Slice, 2018;Osborne et al, 2020). One example of these allocated funds are student fees, or "mandatory fees assessed primarily (but not exclusively) to full-time undergraduate students that universities use to support intercollegiate athletics" (Jones & Rudolph, 2020). Student fees are becoming a progressively larger component of athletic department funding.…”