Kent State University announced on Monday, January 19, that it was entering into a $35,000 contract to assess their athletics department. According to the report filed by Rick Armon for the Akron Beach Journal on Tuesday, one of the objectives of this study (already underway and being conducted by Collegiate Sports Associates, a consultancy based in West End, North Carolina.
This is the first university participating in NCAA Division I FBS competition to publicly announce an athletics assessment since UAB’s announcement discontinuing their football, bowling, and rifle teams in early December. One of the major issues being considered is the effect of the cost-of-living adjustment voted on during the NCAA convention last week; it would lead to Kent State having to spend an additional $1.1 million a year if no changes were made to the department (as reported by the Beach Journal and the Miami Herald).
Using the methodology employed in creating our database yesterday, we’ve collected the following data about Kent State:
Total Revenue – Athletics (2013): $26,557,674
Total Expenses – Athletics (2013): $27,116,813
Athletics Subsidy (2013): $20,558,816
% of athletic budget = subsidy (2013): 77.41
% of overall general budget from state appropriation: 25.9%
Change in % from 1987-2012: -22.7%
If Kent State were in Conference USA, it would have the second highest athletics budget subsidy of any member school, with only FIU (at 77.54%) being higher. It is not, however, the highest in its conference, the Mid-American Conference; it is second. That honor belongs to Eastern Michigan, at 80.46%.
As we watched events unfold alongside students on Tuesday, much of the focus on UAB president Ray Watts’s announcement about the discontinuation of the football, bowling, and rifle teams has focused on UAB being the first NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) school to do so since 1995. It’s important, but it’s necessary to look at the bigger picture in Division I in order to see a larger trend and to find a possible solution.
