BCS leagues expanding - yeah?

UVA wants to be like Princeton and be considered an Ivy League school so they keep undergraduate enrollment low to drive up the SAT's of the freshman class. I use then as an example because I paid the school about $150,000 in tuition.

But I will use another example. Colorado, which also loses comparable amount as Virginia on athletics has a COVID related revenue shortfall. CU, for a variety of reasons, receives a lot of federal grant money and as a result their most prestigious programs are science and technology related. So the idea is being floated to raise tuition on the STEM majors.

This is just what our country as needs as we try to compete in 21st century world economy. Additional disincentives to major in a STEM subject. While paying Karl Dorrell four million a year to coach the football tram.

 

Add that UA does not accept nearly as many in state students as it used to. They are carrying a huge load of bond payments for on campus construction. They are pushing for as many non-resident students (mo money) as possible as a result. They increased the size of the student body for the same reason. There are many Alabama HS students with good grades who have dreamed of going to UAT for years who can't get in.

 

It's not just athletics. I would argue that institutional bloat in the middle management of universities is a far bigger factor across the board. There are *far* more assistant and associate deans than there used to be. In the past those schools ran just fine on about a third as many of those positions as they have now.

 

A big part of why they adopted that outlook was that out of state tuition was seen as a more predictable income source than whatever crumbs the state legislature delegates from year to year. I can’t say I entirely blame them.

 

I think that there probably to many assistant deans on university campuses. Cut them also.

But the bloat in athletic departments is amazing. I just counted 36 people under the University of Colorado head football coach, excluding volunteer coaches and graduate assistants. There is a Director of Player Personnel and a six member recruiting staff. The Director of Player Personnel is the coach's 26 year old son. There is also a Creative Services Manager. I think what that guy does is send out nifty e-mails to potential recruits (I could be wrong. Does anyone know for sure?). And I am pretty sure that many of those staff members cost more than an assistant dean. The assistant coaches salaries run from about 200k to 550k.

 

Given the way Alabama treats education in general, I can't blame them for it but that doesn't help the kid who who grew up planning to go there much.

 

That too. Middle management bloat happens in all departments to one degree or another. Given the explosion in athletic department salaries it is more costly and insane than in some others.

 

Yep. The top ranked public schools are not designed to be wide reaching. The outlier is UNC Chapel Hill, which, by law, cannot have > 18% of the population from out of state.
My favorite factoid is that 33% of the University of Alabama’s undergraduate students are from Alabama.

 

Don’t forget about the “analysts.” >^%%^% joke.

 

There’s a lot of bloat in major non-profits. The board, by its nature, is filled with guys who know guys and who are buddies with the other board members. The oversight is minimal. The only difference is in some universities where you have to run for BoT seats.

 

Not all of them. One on my alma maters in Indiana. Their Board of Trustees seems committed to continuing their enrollment policies and if that costs them some places in the U.S.News and World Report rankings so what.

And Colorado has been pretty good about expanding enrollment as the population of the state grows. But I agree many are limiting enrollment of in-state students to drive up their rankings.

 

To be brutally honest, about 25 percent of the kids in college running up debt to pay these outrageous tuitions ought to go get a CDL or go to trade school instead. We need a hell of a lot more truck drivers, electricians, plumbers and crane operators. They'd make more money and have less stress. I blame that on the expectations that everybody ought to have a degree.

(And I have no idea what that has to do with BCS expansion.)