It’s October, in case you haven’t noticed by the cooler temperatures and the leaves changing colors. You can also tell that fall is here by the way college administrators have begun the traditional fall march of chasing the pipe dream of increased college revenue through athletics.
Locally, two colleges have hung the athletics carrot over the heads of their alumni and supporters with big dreams of new athletics venues and playing against bigger competition. At North Carolina Central University, school officials want to move from Division II athletics to Division I in all sports except for football, where the school would compete in Division I-AA. At North Carolina State, the school is raising money to construct an Arnold Palmer designed golf course.
Let’s look at North Carolina State’s plan first.
School officials have been looking at the proposed $16 million golf course project for several years. In materials related to a construction bid request and fundraising efforts, the school claims that the golf course will benefit the school’s golf team that is without a “home course.” Supposedly, State is at a disadvantage in recruiting top golfers because most other ACC schools have “home courses.”
College golf teams, however, do not need home courses. College golf teams are like wrestling teams, with the great majority of the schedule spent traveling to events at other schools. State does not need “its own” course either for practice or to host an occasional competition. As for attracting top golfers, where would that rank in a list of priorities for North Carolina taxpayers?
True, State is the only ACC school without a golf course, but that’s a non-issue. Many schools, including North Carolina State, have arenas that are off-site of the campus for their athletics department to use. Some, such as the University of Pittsburgh, enter into lease arrangements with professional teams to use their arenas for athletic events. So why should North Carolina State’s golf team be any different?
With the number of golf courses in the area, one could suggest that the school would be able to venture into a marketing and use contract with an area course to stage events and have practice time. Certainly courses such as Prestonwood Country Club in Cary, which hosts the Champions Tour’s SAS Championships and the charity event Jimmy V Classic, would be willing to offer their courses to the school to use to host a tournament. Contracting for golf facilities would cost much less than building a new course.
The desire to build a new golf course at North Carolina State is more about providing a cozy amenity for guests at a proposed hotel and conference center to be built on the Centennial Campus.
North Carolina State is not in the real estate development business. It’s in the education business and should use its resources accordingly. If the course and hotel were being developed and planned in the private sector and to be built on private land, that would be fine. Let people who want to bear the cost and risk of the project fund it.
Turning to North Carolina Central, moving up a division in athletics will be a costly venture for the school if it decides to do so.
There are considerable differences between Division I and Division II athletics. Under NCAA rules, Division I teams must sponsor a combination of 14 total teams, either seven men and women’s teams or six men teams and eight women’s programs. Division II only requires a combination of eight teams, four men’s and four women’s. Currently, North Carolina Central offers five sports for men and six for women, so there will be additional costs for starting up three new programs.
Adding three new teams in minor sports will add to the school’s expenses, but virtually nothing on the revenue side. The move might buy NCCU officials some prestige, but that’s no more important to taxpayers than where State’s golf team plays.
In the U.S. these days, the athletic tail is often allowed to wag the educational dog. Sports are good, but there is no need for public universities to put more money into them.
Shannon Blosser (sblosser@popecenter.org) is a staff writer with the John W. Pope Center for Higher Education Policy in Chapel Hill.