Must Be The Money, Part IV
Endowments key to athletic funding
The BCSP series,"Must Be The Money," is looking at the role
funding plays in big-time college athletics in light of Florida A&M's decision to
seek NCAA Div. IA status in football, the first black college to make such a move.
In Part IV this week, Elliot Robinson completes his piece about the role endowed scholarships play in the matrix of athletic funding at many institutions and the lack of such programs at black colleges.
ELLIOT ROBINSON
Special to the BCSP
The Ultimate Models
Given their success in all areas of athletic excellence, it is no surprise that Stanford University is one of the leaders in athletic endowments.
The current market value of their endowments is almost $200 million and it generates $10 million annually.
This means Stanford's athletic endowment is able to provide for 287 of the 340 full athletic scholarship equivalents they fund each year. Given that tuition and room and board costs approximately $35,000 per year, they are certainly getting an incredible bang for the buck.
Clemson's IPTAY (I Pay Ten A Year) has long been the standard bearer for excellence in athletic funding.
Their program has funded the costs of all 19 varsity sports at Clemson since the late 1970's. Others who are well on their way to funding their athletics departments via the power of interest are the University of Florida (240 endowed athletic scholarships) and the University of Georgia (159),
A program that is playing catch-up is Penn State. They are using a similar marketing tool to promote endowment growth, naming individual positions. Some of the examples are the: Kerry Collins Endowed Scholarship for Quarterbacks for football and the Kenton and Audrey Broyles Endowed Wrestling Scholarship (133 pound)
Endowments Aren't Just For Big Programs
There is often the misconception that endowments are only for large Div. IA universities. Well, that is certainly not the case.
Division I program, UC Santa Clara, currently has 45 endowed scholarships. Since their tuition plus room and board is $38,373, you can see the incredible financial burden that they are able to relieve.
Elon College, a small Div. I-AA program that moved up from Div. II only four years ago, boasts some 41 endowed scholarships currently on the books and another three in progress. I-AA powerhouse Youngstown State currently has over 65 athletic endowments.
Even Division II schools like Sonoma State (18 endowments), Carson-Newman (17) and Western Washington University (12) have seen the benefit and necessity of endowing athletic scholarships. Such programs are cropping up at all levels of education as is evident those established by Midland College and Hucthinson Community College.
According to an article on the school's website last month, Florida A&M assembled in March "The Rattler Foundation," designed to increase the amount of outside funding for the athletic department.
The foundation's director, Rodney Roberts, said the ultimate goal is to completely fund FAMU's athletic program.
"We hope to be a $5 million a year organization," said Roberts. "We are just
getting started, but we have some very ambitious goals." Before reaching its goal, the foundation has to reach many milestones including becoming incorporated and creating a membership base.
But Roberts said those goals are within reach. The organization was to be incorporated in September. Presently, the organization has short term goals in place to give it momentum.
"Our goal between now and the end of the year is $1 million," said Roberts. "That will include outright donations and will include the dollar value of endowed scholarships."
Roberts said two organizations have already committed to providing endowed scholarships, valued at $50,000 each. The scholarships are payable over 3-5 years.
Whether they are moving up in classification or not, the endowment model for athletic scholarships is one that should be adopted by all black colleges.
Elliot Robinson (hulaw94@mac.com) is a freelance writer, graduate of the Howard University School of Law and owner of an intellectual property company, ESAR Properties (www.esar.biz).
© 2003 Azeez Communications, Inc.