[Roberton3]

What is your objection to athletic revenue going to fund athletic expenditures?

I don't think it's unreasonable to ask that the athletic department provide some support for the university's educational mission.  But more importantly, "athletic revenue" often includes revenues that aren't really generated by athletics.  For example, the University of Texas counts all trademark licensing revenue (the cut they get any time someone buys anything with the Texas name or logo on it) as athletic revenue.  Much of the licensing revenue is genuinely athletics-related (a lot of people who buy UT shirts think of them as representing a football team, not a school), but certainly not all of it.  And that's just one of many ways in which the accounting is manipulated to make athletic revenues look higher and athletic expenses look lower. 

I've never taught at Tennessee, so I don't know that university as well.  But if they're using similarly deceptive accounting -- and I suspect they are -- then using "athletic revenue" only to cover "athletic expenses" really means that the rest of the university is subsidizing athletics.


(Edited to correct a typo.)

[Roberton3]

What is your objection to athletic revenue going to fund athletic expenditures?

I don't think it's unreasonable to ask that the athletic department provide some support for the university's educational mission.  But more importantly, "athletic revenue" often includes revenues that aren't really generated by athletics.  For example, the University of Texas counts all trademark licensing revenue (the cut they get any time someone buys anything with the Texas name or logo on it) as athletic revenue.  Much of the licensing revenue is genuinely athletics-related (a lot of people who buy UT shirts think of them as representing a football team, not a school), but certainly not all of it.  And that's just one of many ways in which the accounting is manipulated to make athletic revenues look higher and athletic expenses look lower. 

I've never taught at Tennessee, so I don't know that university as well.  But if they're using similarly deceptive accounting -- and I suspect they are -- then using "athletic revenue" only to cover "athletic expenses" really means that the rest of the university is subsidizing athletics.


(Edited to correct a typo.)