Although the James Madison men's basketball team lost a game to Duke University in the NCAA Tournament last weekend, JMU is still ranked No. 1 in one of its national categories, and it's not a good category.
According to a recent report from Sportico, a news site specializing in reporting on the “business of sports,” JMU spends more student fees supporting intercollegiate athletics than any other school in the nation.
Second place went to Old Dominion University. “The James Madison Athletic Department reported spending $68 million on athletics in fiscal year 2023, of which $53.3 million was covered by mandatory student fees charged annually as part of tuition to all JMU students. ” wrote Sportico. “This is by far the highest amount for a public school in the country, $23 million more than Old Dominion's $30.3 million in student funding,” Sportico estimated. The University of North Carolina at Charlotte came in third with $24.9 million.
Disclosure: I am a JMU alumnus and consider myself a fan, but reading this report made me see red, not purple or gold.
Before discussing this further, there are a few caveats and conditions that need to be added here.
Kevin Warner, JMU's athletic director for communications and strategic initiatives, said that while JMU's numbers are accurate, comparisons to other schools may not be accurate. “Sportico's report approached this article by trying to compare student fees across institutions and did not delve into why this is the case, but the reality is that there is no standardized accounting, reporting structure, or revenue “It's impossible to accurately compare student fees because of the model that extends beyond the academic and collegiate athletic worlds,” he told me via email.
This rings true for me. Different universities often do things differently, so perhaps we should focus more on the actual numbers rather than focusing on JMU's No. 1 ranking. Whether JMU ranks #1 or #100, what matters to students (and parents) paying tuition is the actual dollar amount.
There are also extenuating circumstances as to why JMU's numbers were so high.
The first one is related to the new coronavirus. “Especially in the most recent year, it was higher than usual. At a time when everyone in Virginia was feeling the economic crisis due to the suspension of business due to the coronavirus pandemic, financial institutions were forced to defer some of their debt burdens. ,” Warner said. “As this deferred payment was implemented last year, it was significantly higher than previous years.” Sportico reported that of the $53.3 million, deferred debt amounted to $4 million.
The second relates to JMU's move to a Sunbelt conference. As is often the case when a school joins a new conference, JMU won't immediately receive the full amount of its television revenue. “JMU has relied on student fees to cover other revenue increases that could ultimately be covered by the full Sunbelt revenue share,” Sportico wrote.
Pursuant to state law effective in 2015 (then Dell). Kirk Cox, Republican of Colonial Heights and a JMU alumnus, was the sponsor. JMU can only subsidize his 55% of the athletic budget from a student's tuition. (Cox wasn't averse to sports, either; he once coached high school baseball.) Sportico quoted an anonymous JMU spokesperson as saying, “JMU's plan to manage student fee revenue is It was presented to and approved by the state prior to the move to the Belt. The university has adopted that plan, which will allow it to fully comply with the 55% limit for seven years.”
In 2022-2023, JMU's number was 78%. Last year it was 78.5%. The University of Virginia and Virginia Tech have a 20% cap under the Cox Act and rely much less on student levies. In Virginia, it's 11.6%. At Virginia Tech, it's 11.5%.
All of this indicates that JMU's numbers are only temporarily high and may not be comparable to other schools across the country. So there's no need to worry about the No. 1 rating or even the $53.3 million tuition. Because I think that will go away once JMU fully joins the Sun Belt conference.
Instead, focus on something else. Why do students have to pay tuition fees at any school? Any Mandatory fees to support intercollegiate athletics?
All universities charge some kind of fee in addition to tuition fees. It's a bit like buying a car. The sticker price may be low, but there are some must-have add-ons that increase the price. I understand some of these fees. The school operates a student health center. They run extracurricular activities. Purists might argue that even those should be optional fees paid only by those who use them, but I wouldn't argue with that. We don't want a situation where students are afraid to go to the Student Health Center because they don't have the money to pay for medical care. Although most students may never have participated in an intramural sport, the existence of such programs contributes to the overall quality of life at school, so using student fees for that is a good idea. I can argue that there is no problem. If a student chooses not to participate, that is up to them.
But why do students have to pay what amounts to a minor league sports program these days?
Politics in Virginia are currently in turmoil over whether the state should get involved in helping build a sports arena in Alexandria. One argument against the proposal is that state taxpayers shouldn't be left in the lurch if a project doesn't meet its plans and ends up needing subsidies. However, all students at Virginia's public universities are forced to subsidize semi-professional sports as a condition of admission.
Where is that anger?
How can conservatives support this? This is like a tax by another name. How can liberals support this? This is a regressive fee imposed on those least able to pay (and those least in a position to protest).
Warner, the JMU athletic director, said his school is more transparent than other schools about how these dollars are spent. I compared it to other schools in Virginia and he was right. I don't know if transparency would improve the situation.
JMU, unlike many other schools, publishes a very detailed breakdown of how student fees are spent.
JMU's required student fee for 2024 is $5,662. Of that amount, the largest amount of her money, $2,362, goes to intercollegiate athletics, a program that most students don't participate in.
According to the Virginia Council on Higher Education, JMU has one of the lowest tuition rates among Virginia state universities, but one of the highest required tuition fees. Add these together and JMU's price advantage disappears. These numbers are based on her SCHEV report for 2022-23, the latest available. JMU's tuition at the time was $7,684, lower than Radford University's $8,252 and Virginia Tech's $12,289. However, after adding mandatory fees to tuition and board, JMU's total rose to $25,032, higher than Radford University's $22,340, but still (barely) lower than Tech University's $25,422. It was.
To be more specific to my point here, JMU had the third-highest amount of student fees paid for intercollegiate athletics among state schools in Virginia. Only Virginia Military Institute and Longwood University were higher. VMI is a very different kind of institution, and Longwood, like JMU, has the disadvantage of a smaller market, which often skews things.
For the 2022-23 academic year, JMU charged $2,886 in intercollegiate athletics fees per student, compared to the state average of $1,765. (Give credit where credit is due: JMU's numbers have dropped several hundred dollars since then.)
The lowest amount charged to students in intercollegiate athletics was Virginia Tech, the school with the most media revenue and ticket sales. At Blacksburg, students paid $384 for intercollegiate sports.
If JMU wants to run a Division 1 sports program and play college football at the highest level, that's great, but why should students pay for it? According to Sportico, JMU donors have contributed $4,867,292 to the university's sports budget of $68,035,339. Ticket sales were $3,818,400. Media rights, a big revenue category for some schools, is listed as $0 for JMU in the 2022-23 school year, likely because Sunbelt funding hasn't started yet. But the Sunbelt school with the most media revenue that year was Louisiana-Lafayette, with $1,736,303, so it's unlikely Sunbelt TV money will help. that many.
I hope I don't get invited to the upcoming reunion because of this, but maybe there isn't a big enough market for a Harrisonburg school in the shadow of an Atlantic Coast Conference school to compete at the highest level. . If wealthy alumni (I'm not one of them) think it's important for schools to compete at that level, I'm rooting for them — but why should it put a hand in the pockets of students? Does it have to be done by holding out?
I know this may seem like I'm blaming JMU, but the same principle applies to all state universities. JMU was unlucky enough to be ranked number one in his Sportico report, for better or for worse.
Here are my budget realities: If Virginia lawmakers want to make college more affordable, they don't need to appropriate a single penny of additional tax dollars to the state budget. It would simply prohibit state universities from using mandatory student fees for intercollegiate education. Athletics. Using SCHEV's 2022-23 numbers, his tuition at JMU and Longwood would be reduced by 11.5%. In Christopher Newport's case, prices would fall by 9.5%. In Old Dominion, it's 7.6%. at Radford University, 6.2%; These seem like pretty meaningful reductions to me.
I can almost hear the screams of sports fans. But it would ruin college sports! To which I say: So?
I understand how college sports can act as a unifying force and a great marketing tool for universities. But we've come a long way from the old-fashioned notion of college sports as lazy weekend entertainment. We're talking business here. It's an entertainment business. There, coaches routinely make more money than university presidents, and athletic departments employ more people than many departments. Some say taxpayers shouldn't have to pay for something in Alexandria that its billionaire owners can build themselves. If it's such a good idea, leave it to the free market. Why doesn't the same principle apply here?
