BCS leagues expanding - yeah?

Miscalculation? Doesn’t Arizona have some Econ students who can review the books?

 

I suspect at least some of it has to do with projections re: how many incoming students (especially out-of-state-ers) given merit-based aid will ultimately lose that aid (by not performing well enough). Err just a little here and there and that starts adding up to a serious chunk of change.

The U of Alabama is (or at least was when I was paying attention) notorious for luring out-of-state-ers in with generous merit-based waivers of out-of-state tuition ... but you had to maintain some ridiculously high GPA to keep the waivers. Hardly any of 'em maintained such a GPA, but a goodly portion stuck around anyway. Cha ching!

 

You don't get clicks by claiming the English, history and philosophy departments are the source of the problem.

 

Oh on certain corners of the web you absolutely do.

 

They still do this. Add that two thirds of the student body is non-resident. It has become rather difficult for in state students to be accepted as they now only take the best of them. UA has enormous bond debt from construction of facilities and frat/sorority houses. They chose to both expand the number of students and raise the number of people paying non-resident tuition to pay for them. UAT is carrying better than a billion dollars in long term debt.

https://afr.ua.edu/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/UA-AFR-FY22.pdf

 

Properly funding state universities hasn’t been a priority for state government in a long, long time, maybe not since George Wallace was hell-bent on starting a cancer center at UAB after his first wife died.

 

Sure. State education took big cuts across the board a decade or better ago, and only a small percentage of thse cuts have been replaced in the years since.

 

I don't know about other states, but Missouri system schools give in-state tuition rates to kids from the states that border Missouri. My ex, who came from California, had to establish residency with her grandma to get the in-state rate.

 

Alabama non-resident tuition is roughly double the in state rate, which is why there are fewer resident students now.

 

In the 90s, UA was notorious for allowing virtually no out of state tuition waivers outside of a couple of nearby Mississippi counties. I moved off campus, got power bills in my name, switched my driver’s license and plates - nothing. By contrast Auburn was notoriously lax in handing out waivers, particularly for kids from greater Atlanta.

 

According to the Knight Commission the Arizona athletic department receives over 27 million dollars of institutional support.

https://knightnewhousedata.org/fbs/pac-12/university-of-arizona#!quicktabs-tab-where_the_money-1

I would bet that amount is roughly double that of the combined budgets of the English, history and philosophy departments.