ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the business of major college football and basketball, with a survey of both expenditures, particularly the salaries of coaches and administrators, and revenue-generators such as seat licenses and alumni contributions. We also look at the relationship between a public university’s athletic success and the size of its appropriations from the state legislature; expenditures on so-called “minor” sports, which bring in virtually no revenue from ticket sales or television; and the rosy, if not outright mendacious, feasibility studies done for schools whose administrations want desperately to join the FBS division of the NCAA. An oft-unacknowledged cost of big-time sports is severely compromised academics; we review the example of SUNY Binghamton, which sullied its reputation with a scandal-ridden move into Division I men’s basketball.
