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[quote]
Now having said that, a lot of universities do not have that revenue stream to share
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<p>Indeed, universities with that revenue stream to share appear to be distinctly in the minority.</p>
<p>James Madison U (the place that started this thread 12 pages ago!) is losing 2 million dollars a year on their football program (with most of that loss made up from student fees. According to the article I posted earlier, JMU used $18 million in student fees to fund 84% of the cost of athletics overall and the article also mentioned that even the most profitable program, football, would have run a $2 million dollar loss last year, had it not been for the student fees.)</p>
<p>And this despite the fact that JMU was the 2004 National Division I-AA champion!!!</p>
<p>If the National Champion in Division I-AA can't make a profit (despite what I suspect are plenty of clever cost-accounting tricks that likely disguise the full cost of the program), then I imagine JMU is the tip of the iceberg of money-losing athletic programs that are costing students and/or taxpayers a lot of money at the great bulk of colleges which are not Notre Dame or Tennessee.</p>
<p>Here's another source on James Madison's athletics finances:</p>
<p>According to the Times Dispatch, all JMU sports together generated $400K in gate receipts. </p>
<p>Apparently they aren't getting money for TV broadcast rights, but fans throughout Virginia can tune in on their radios to hear the games and games are also webcast for free:
<a href="http://www.jmusports.com/Team/Stories/2_4335.asp?TeamID=2%5B/url%5D">http://www.jmusports.com/Team/Stories/2_4335.asp?TeamID=2</a></p>