Lilly King earned $134,000 thanks to her gold medal performance in the 2016 Olympics, but she can still swim for Indiana University as an amateur under NCAA rules. This was one of the many changes in the world of college athletics discussed at a forum Monday night.
Jayma Meyer, a professor teaching sports law and public policy at IU’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs, organized the panel discussion titled “The Future of College Athletics.” Panelists included IU athletic director Fred Glass and NCAA Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Oliver Luck, who said the Operation Gold Grant Program originated about 15 years ago. He said the U.S. Olympic Committee was under pressure to provide cash bonuses for its athletes for winning medals.
“That, in the mind of the NCAA, is outside of their college competition,” Luck said.
Money was a recurring theme during the discussion that filled the seats and the aisles of the School of Global and International Studies auditorium with spectators. The Global and International Studies building itself, which cost $53 million to build, was funded in part by athletics. About half the money for construction came from IU’s share of Big Ten Network revenue.
Athletics revenue is a source of pride for IU because its athletics department is one of the few in the country not operating at a deficit. Glass pointed out that most of the other financially successful programs are power football schools with stadiums twice the size of IU’s. For example, Ohio State University makes more from one home football game than IU does over an entire seven-game home schedule.
Most of the revenue for IU’s $90 million athletics budget comes from media deals. Philanthropy makes up the next largest category, followed by men’s basketball at about $10 million and football at about $6 million. Glass pointed out all of IU’s 24 varsity sports are funded without subsidies from student fees or legislative appropriations. However, that also means 22 of those varsity sports are essentially subsidized by the football and men’s basketball programs.
“What is the fundamental fairness of having basketball players and football players, who are restricted in what they can be paid because of the rules of amateurism, yet that value of their work is being captured and given to so many other people,” asked panelist and IU law professor Kevin Brown.