ABSTRACT
Student fees have become a major source of revenue for many athletic departments, with an average annual student-fee subsidy of $3.53 million per Division I public school. Smaller D-I leagues such as the Mid-American Conference (MAC) are the worst offenders, and the MAC is a major focus of this chapter. Schools do their best to hide these unpopular fees, which can exceed $1,000 per student per year. Student fees are considerably higher at schools making the jump to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) level of NCAA football and at relatively lower prestige public universities, which also tend to have less affluent student bodies. Thus the athletic fee act is a regressive tax. Student revolts against such fees have broken out sporadically, though the transient nature of the college experience militates against any sustained agitation. Reforms up to and including abolition of fees are examined.
