NCAA Athletic Arms Race Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

NCAA Athletic Arms Race - Assignment Example In 2013, the National Collegiate Athletic Association reported that the median operating expenditure for athletics increased 49% between 2010 and 2013. In this regard, the paper would discuss the athletics arms race that various colleges and universities are facing. What the aggravating factors are as well as suggestions on how to address the financial implications of the arms race. Most colleges and universities are spending millions of dollars in athletics due to the increased revenue generated from athletics. For an average athletics program, the highest spending categories include salaries and benefits, tuition-driven-in-aid, facilities maintenance and rental, team travel, recruiting and equipment supplies, fund-raising costs, and game-day expenses. According to Barr and McClellan (2011), athletics expenses are increasing a yearly rate of 7%. The arms race puts universities in the college sports business. There is a growing divide between the haves and the have-nots in college sp orts due to the commercialization of intercollegiate athletics. Since the inception of intercollegiate sports, the disparities between the poor and rich athletics have been a major concern. In the recent years, the gap has widened since large universities are chasing after television deals and corporate sponsorships to finance the new facilities, as well as lure celebrity coaches with multimillion-dollar salaries (Thomas, 2009), Millions of dollars, are being spent in construction. College sports is a carnival of construction (Brown, Raschre, & McEvoy, 2010). Schools are building bigger, nicer, and more state-of-the-art facilities for their teams. For example, Nebraska is finishing up a $63.5 expansion of its Memorial stadium while Wisconsin is renovating its Camp Randall Stadium at $86 million. It is argued that more athletic spending results in more victories thus more revenue. There are various ways of addressing the financial implications of the arms race: Reducing the size of t he travelling squads, reducing salary expenses to athletics’ employees, reducing the number of scholarships and lower tuition, renting the existing facilities to generate revenue other than building new ones, and better transparency and accountability.