NCAA fine and public education (Penn: buy, schools, universities)

[squarian]

I don't understand enough about the financing of sports at public (or state-related) universities in PA to know the answer to these questions:

If, as is being reported, the NCAA fines Penn State $30 (or $60?) million, where does that money come from? Are the sports programs at PSU organized as a department of the College of Arts and Sciences, or is it a separate "College of Athletics", and if so do they have sufficient funds to cover that tab on their own? Or will the sum be paid by taking money from the university's general funds - that is, directly at the cost of the primary function of the university, which I take it is still undergraduate and graduate education, rather than playing football, even at PSU?

Naturally, I say "directly", because there is clearly going to be an indirect cost to the university's primary purpose no matter where the money comes from, in which case PSU becomes Exhibit A in the case against athletic programs benefiting higher education.

[safak]

the other programs are all supported football/basketball(baseball in some southern schools) at most big schools.

obviously basketball doesn't help in PSU's case, so football was the one that supported the rest. if they lose football(which i doubt but we will find out in 20 minutes) who knows.

psu doesn't have near the endowment that a prestigious academic-first place like Pitt does, but its still a lot of money. can they touch that to pay the fines? can they touch that to pay all the victims in the coming months? don't think so, but i don't know for sure.

[Evergrey]

Originally Posted by safak

psu doesn't have near the endowment that a prestigious academic-first place like Pitt does.

Indeed. Pitt ranks 26th nationally in endowment.

List of colleges and universities in the United States by endowment - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[pcity]

Originally Posted by safak

psu doesn't have near the endowment that a prestigious academic-first place like Pitt does.

LOL.

PSU is always, always ranked above Pitt in academics.

[squarian]

The new president, Erickson, has released a statement on the PSU website which indicates the $60mil fine will be spread over five years.

$12 million could provide half-tuition scholarships for 1500 new students, or reduce the tuition of all 15,000 freshman at Penn State by about $800 each year.

$12 million could pay the salaries of about 250 new assistant profs, or buy a half-dozen new academic departments, lock, stock and barrel, each including four or five senior profs, a dozen or so non-tenured assistants or instructors, a dozen graduate fellowships, and four or five support staff.

$12 million would cover the institutional digital subscription cost of at least 8,000 academic journals. Or pay for the purchase of about 24,000 laptops.

$60 million would pay all or most of the price of a new classroom building, complete with state-of-the-art IT and audiovisual equipment.

[pcity]

I don't know why Erickson is just lying down and taking this. By not appealing, he is obviously not acting in the university's best interest.

[Evergrey]

Erickson has served with grace and prudence during his brief tenure as President.

[squarian]

I don't know why the board of trustees would not immediately order Erickson to refuse to pay the fine, withdraw from the NCAA, shut down the football program and fire all its staff.

And if they don't, I wonder if the taxpayers of the Commonwealth will know why their money is being wasted?

[pcity]

Shutting down the football program would lose the university a lot more than 60 mil in the long run.

[thecoalman]

Originally Posted by squarian

I don't understand enough about the financing of sports at public (or state-related) universities in PA to know the answer to these questions:

In PSU's case it was a money making machine. If you want to include merchandise that isn't included as being directly related to football they were making 70 or 80 million a year. That's after expenses. Those revenues paid for other sports at the school ,scholarships etc.

I don't know how their finances are organized and technically the school may have to pay the fine, ultimately the football program will pay it at the expense of the students who benefit from those football revenues.