MN Daily Letter to Editor: New athletic facilities plan is wrong for the University

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I read somewhere that Butler had a huge increase in people applying for school immediately after their first Final Four run.
 


As did NDSU after back to back minor league titles in football!!!
 

DLguy said:
Can you honestly tell me that a winning sports program, something they can watch from afar and be pround of, will not entice them to donate more to the school?
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It would entice them to donate more to the athletic department. The studies on academic donations are very mixed.

The best case that can be made is in student enrollment (as others have mentioned), but that hardly seems to be a problem at the U. Look, I'm not the type of academic that doesn't like sports (obviously) or that doesn't appreciate what they can bring to the overall university experience. I'm not agreeing with the OP at all. But by and large I don't think the academic reputation of a state university like ours is tied to its athletic department (for good or bad). If it was, the SEC wouldn't be full of mostly mid-rate universities.
 



Gopherprof said:
If a business hires someone because they come from a school with a good football team, capitalism is in a whole lot more trouble than I thought.
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LOL. Got that right.

I think upgrades are in order and I think Teague has laid out a bold plan for improvement that may or may not be achievable. I doubt that there's $200 million to be gotten privately, but I could be wrong.

To my fellow Auggie. I graduated about a million years ago and my degree at Augsburg is on a par with all the rest of the MIAC schools. My daughter just got here degree from St. Thomas and I was impressed with the school, but that doesn't mean I'm not impressed with what is going on academically and in terms of community involvement at my alma mater. I guess what I'm saying is that if business owners judge the the quality of their applicants on the quality of sports teams at the the applicant's alma mater, things are really screwed up.

Quality athletic facilities will lead to better recruiting, but will that upgrade giving across all university programs. Maybe, but I'd have to see the data.
 

If your team is successful, you get more people watching your games and usually on a bigger stage. During those games, your school gets a commercial slot. The U then can use that commercial spot to tell the world about how great of an academic school the U is and what a great experience it is. This gets younger people interested in attending, and builds pride in the alumni base. And with more people applying to the school, the better applicants the U can accept, boosting the prestige and reputation of the school. That leads to more successful people graduating from the school, and in turn donating to the school. One big fall of the dominoes. Yes, it is just a small part. But an important part.
 

I love how he fails to mention the % of the budget the $190 million privately raised would be of the total U budget for the next 8 years. At a very low estimate of an annual budget of $1billion the $190 million privately raised is still only 2.3% of that which to me is worth it to spend on a major part of a university.
 

Curseislifted33 said:
I love how he fails to mention the % of the budget the $190 million privately raised would be of the total U budget for the next 8 years. At a very low estimate of an annual budget of $1billion the $190 million privately raised is still only 2.3% of that which to me is worth it to spend on a major part of a university.
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And the U's actual operating budget is currently hovering right around $3 B (up about $1 B from 8 years ago), so the percentage would actually be much lower than that.
 



So I was just told that TCF Bank doesn't help recruiting and that spending all this money doesn't translate to W's.
 

dpodoll68 said:
And the U's actual operating budget is currently hovering right around $3 B (up about $1 B from 8 years ago), so the percentage would actually be much lower than that.
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In that case the percentage drops to 0.79%

Man spending less than 1% of the budget on the athletic department is flat out crazy for a B1G college to do these days! And this money isn't even part of the budget at all is the funny part.
 

50PoundHead said:
LOL. Got that right.

I think upgrades are in order and I think Teague has laid out a bold plan for improvement that may or may not be achievable. I doubt that there's $200 million to be gotten privately, but I could be wrong.

To my fellow Auggie. I graduated about a million years ago and my degree at Augsburg is on a par with all the rest of the MIAC schools. My daughter just got here degree from St. Thomas and I was impressed with the school, but that doesn't mean I'm not impressed with what is going on academically and in terms of community involvement at my alma mater. I guess what I'm saying is that if business owners judge the the quality of their applicants on the quality of sports teams at the the applicant's alma mater, things are really screwed up.

Quality athletic facilities will lead to better recruiting, but will that upgrade giving across all university programs. Maybe, but I'd have to see the data.
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You'd be surprised.
 

Gopherprof said:
It would entice them to donate more to the athletic department. The studies on academic donations are very mixed.

The best case that can be made is in student enrollment (as others have mentioned), but that hardly seems to be a problem at the U. Look, I'm not the type of academic that doesn't like sports (obviously) or that doesn't appreciate what they can bring to the overall university experience. I'm not agreeing with the OP at all. But by and large I don't think the academic reputation of a state university like ours is tied to its athletic department (for good or bad). If it was, the SEC wouldn't be full of mostly mid-rate universities.
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I agree that the academic reputation of a state, or any other university, is not tied to its athletic department without regard to that reputation. In other words, the fact that a school has a successful football or basketball program doesn't necessarily mean that its academic standards are high. But if its standards are high, as I believe is true of our University, I do believe that a successful athletic program - especially football and basketball - will give that university greater public exposure and help promote its academic excellence.
 




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