A Fifty Million Dollar College Scandal

Athletics rises as the core business in higher education, while education becomes little more than a side-lined sideshow.

I heard a report on the radio that made my jaw drop this morning.  Some universities are now paying student-athletes upwards of $50 million. Incredulous, I thought that without a doubt, this is a snapshot of completely misaligned priorities in our society.  It is insulting and I am astounded that more are not protesting this affront to the purpose of higher education!

Meanwhile, in those very same lecture halls and laboratories, students are shelling out tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars just for the privilege of pursuing a degree. In many cases, these same people are funneled into decades of often predatory and crushing debt long before their professional lives begin.

How did we arrive at a place where this feels normal?

When did higher education completely abandon its purpose in favor of becoming an entertainment business that operates as a school on the side?

Imagine if that $50 million was directed where it actually belongs: lowering tuition costs, funding grants for the economically or situationally disadvantaged, supporting essential research, retaining and recruiting academic faculty, as well as modernizing labs and classrooms. 

At a time when national test scores and academic proficiency are in a well-documented slide, our institutions should be doubling down on real education. Instead, tens of millions of dollars are funneled into an athletic arms races while the core academic engine rusts on the sidelines.

When a university’s multi-million-dollar investments favor stadium lights over academic access, the fundamental mission of higher education is lost. Much like professional sports franchises that demand public bond initiatives and taxpayer-funded stadiums while pricing out local fans, universities are running the exact same playbook.

We are quite literally witnessing a system where the tuition paid by thousands of ordinary students subsidizes a landscape designed around elite revenue sports, while those same students are left carrying a financial anchor long after graduation.

If a university can assemble $50 million for athletic talent, it surely has the resources to ensure that an education does not leave its general student body indebted for life. It is long past time that we start demanding academic institutions re-center their true mission: making education accessible, affordable, and valued above all else.

What can be done?

• Vote with your enrollment:  Parents and prospective students should choose institutions that align with these values. Prioritize universities that invest heavily in academic programs, faculty support, and student affordability over those that divert massive resources into hyper-commercialized athletic budgets.
• Pressure campus leadership: Write directly to university boards of trustees, university presidents, and alumni associations. Withhold institutional donations and explicitly cite the hyper-commercialization of athletics and skyrocketing academic tuition as the reason.
• Demand legislative accountability: Contact your federal and state representatives. Demand that any legislative frameworks governing college athletics include strict caps on athletic spending, mandate tuition freezes, and require transparency for how student fee money is allocated toward athletic programs.
• Hit them in the ledger: Boycott the machine. Stop buying game tickets, turn off the television broadcasts, unfollow the team accounts, and refuse to purchase official university merchandise. Until we stop bankrolling their multi-million-dollar athletic arms race, nothing will change.
  

Until the public, alumni, and lawmakers begin to hold these non-profit institutions accountable, they will continue prioritizing stadium lights over classroom access. It is time to demand that higher education return to its actual mandate: delivering accessible, affordable, quality education above all else.

Reach out to your representatives at all levels, if you agree with any part of this.

Give them your opinion.

Expect a response.