The Red Zone

By Bill Maher

It’s college football season and here’s a cool stat, right out of the latest NCAA programs report: Of the 1092 colleges and universities with athletic programs that compete under NCAA governance, only 24 make a profit. That’s right, even with all the stadiums and TV contracts and ads for Bud Lite Lime, there were only 24 schools in the entire country where athletic revenue exceeded athletic expenses in 2014. Football programs made a median profit of about $3.7 million and men’s basketball made a median $295,000. But all the other sports cost money, and that came out of football and basketball profits – even at the schools where there were some. The median loss among athletic departments was $14.7 million. Of the 24 schools that made money, the median profit was $6 million. Of the 101 Division I schools that lost money, the median deficit was $16.9 million.  

So not only is college football a sham that hands out fake degrees and concussions, it doesn’t even pay for girls’ lacrosse.  Everyone agrees that college is too expensive, and student debt now exceeds credit card debt; maybe we should look at cutting the defense department of higher education: college sports.