Alabama's NMF scholarship is still available! If you need a safety apply NOW.

Paying for College
21

@dfbdfb, Alabama is indeed one of a handful of schools whose football teams do generate income for their other programs. It is most definitely NOT the norm, but it’s really not in dispute with regard to UA.

I do think much of the STEM-related building on campus has been fueled in great part by federal appropriations via Sen. Richard Shelby (which is why I flatly reject any accusations of being a carpetbagger from frustrated Alabamians). But it’s clear the enormous revenues generated by Bama football (both direct and indirect) have helped underwrite the incredible scholarships so many of our kids have personally benefitted from.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/07/sports/ncaafootball/alabama-crimson-tide-football-marketing.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share

22

I think there are ~20 or maybe 30 schools that make money from football, so it is definitely not the norm.

However, Bama is most definitely one of the ones that makes money.

23

Usually, football (and basketball) profits at school which have them cover losses/expenses in other sports, making the losses/expenses of athletics as a whole less (possibly indirectly enabling other spending by the school, if it does not want to cut the loss-making sports).

24

Well, as I’ve recently learned while being in discussions about possible budget cuts at my university, NCAA regulations require schools to offer at least 10 sports, so there would be some sports’ losses for football/basketball/hockey income to cover, no matter what.

But even though the big three are usually called “revenue-generating” programs, even those lose money at most places. There’s a good argument about whether they increase revenue in the form of donations, since some of the large donations to sports programs may be given instead of what might have been large donations to the academic side, but that’s hard to gauge. There’s no question, however, that a successful sports program in one of the revenue generating areas increases the applicant pool (and the quality of the applicant pool, though not as strongly), and increases various measures of what’s generally called “school spirit”.

Alabama made money from its sports programs in 2014, but some that may surprise you lost money, like Florida State, Oregon, and Ohio State. (See http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/sports/wp/2015/11/23/running-up-the-bills/ for an overview of several big-name programs.)

So my initial comment on that remains: At most schools, sports programs aren’t funneling money into the academic side of the house, and may in fact be draining money. I don’t know whether Alabama’s sports profits are being shifted over to the academic side, but at the very least they’re not sucking it away.

25

Ohio State made money (nearly as much as UA). You must have been looking at a different line on the list.

26

You’re right—probably switched lines to Wisconsin. (I mentioned it because Ohio State losing money surprised me.) The number of red dots even among the big-time conferences, though, is nothing short of amazing.

And now I’m done with this thread hijack. Sorry about that, all.

27

<<<
do think much of the STEM-related building on campus has been fueled in great part by federal appropriations via Sen. Richard Shelby


[QUOTE=""]

[/QUOTE]

This is very true. The federal gov’t paid for a large chunk of the fabulously new and state of the art STEM buildings on UA’s campus. Bama has nearly 1M square feet of new academic STEM space.

Sen Shelby made it a personal goal to bring $1 billion to the state’s universities to provide fab new STEM facilities…and since UA is his alma mater, UA got the most $$$…by far.

28

To comment further on post #26, large article in today’s Huntsville Times (Huntsville AL, written by Howard Koplowitz for al.com) - Senator Shelby (who is seeking re-election this year, long time Senator) has secured hundreds of millions of federal dollars for Alabama universities for campus buildings that were then named after the senator. UA system, Auburn University and the University of South AL were the beneficiaries - this has been a boon to Alabama’s economy.

Dr Robert Witt is quoted “It has been about more than constructing, research and classroom building on campuses. From my perspective, those funds that Sen. Shelby brought to the state of Alabama, were, in effect, over the last decade building a foundation for the economic future of our state.”

Article also states “Since the Shelby Center for Science and Technology was erected at UAH in 2007, undergraduate engineering enrollment at the school increased 50 percent.”

There is some flak about the naming of University buildings with someone still in public service/public office.

USA Provost and Senior VP of Academic Affairs for USA Dr David Johnson said “In my view, the building would not have been built without Senator Shelby’s commitment to support the state of Alabama and the University of South Alabama in particular, and given his support I think it appropriate that the university honor him in this way. His commitment to helping the state and the university become competitive in engineering and science education is commendable. In my opinion, it was fitting that the University of South Alabama names Shelby Hall after him.”

“Before Auburn’s Shelby Hall was erected, AU had 4,000 engineering students. Today there are about 6,000 and the average ACT score of incoming freshman as a whole have increased from 24 to 27.8 over the last nine years.”

“University of Alabama, UAH and UAB have made similar progress since Shelby secured funding.”

“Before the first component of the Shelby Hall Research Center went up in the fall of 2002 (article said 2012 but I believe that was a typo), UA had about 1,200 undergraduate students in the College of Engineering. This fall, it had about 5,300. And the number of national merit scholars from the college have more than doubled…”

“And since the $70 million Richard C and Annette N Shelby Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building was established at UAB in 2006 , the school’s $50 million in National Institutes of Health research funding ranks in the top 10 nationally among public schools.”

AU’s $30 million was secured by Senator Shelby for the Senator Richard C and Dr Annette N Shelby Center for Engineering Technology. AU’s President Jay Gogue “Sen. Shelby invests the time, he spends time with us on campus. He comes and interacts with students, interacts with faculty. It is not part common for a US senator to come to your campus on a recurring basis and to really interact with students and faculty.”

29

It’s still not too late (but it will be by Monday!) to apply for those kids scrambling to find an affordable school for this fall:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19620359/#Comment_19620359