Black Voices

Issue date: 9/6/06 Section: Sports

The University of Texas' athletic department recently made an $8 million addition to their team that may make or break their season. The addition isn't very agile, but at 55 feet tall and 134 feet wide other programs won't be able to compete and the newcomer is sure to put on some big plays for the Longhorns. Their secret weapon is, "Godzillatron": currently the world's largest HDTV screen and Texas' new scoreboard that is as wide as the field itself.

The opulence of this purchase displays how overall attention to athletic programs is getting a bit ridiculous. When a public school is spending the GDP of an island country on a television set one must step back and think: when did college athletics become more important than the actual college?

University of Texas at Austin is a perfect example of a school that may be over stepping its boundaries with such a lavish purchase for the athletic department. University of Texas at Austin is a state school that recently increased tuition and told students and taxpayers the money would go toward better professors and programming. I don't think an $8 million TV set was listed in the tuition package. Also the university notes that students pay for estimated energy consumption at the university in their tuition. With that said, students a sure to pay a pretty penny for Godzillatron's energy bill.

According to a study done in 2004 by USA TODAY and The Des Moines Register average athletic budgets from 1994 to 2001 pace at more than double the increases in average university spending at Division I schools.

Spending on Division I intercollegiate athletics has increased on average about 25%, while university spending has increased on average 10%, after inflation. According to Daniel Fulks, financial consultant for the NCAA, this trend still continues. Ohio State University tops the list with a $90 million dollar athletic budget.

Preferential treatment doesn't stop with stadium equipment it also trickles down to the athletes themselves. Special attention toward athletes can make "normal" students feel overlooked by their university.

When you go to a Division I school it's not about how many credits you have but how many sacks you have. And who cares if you've been on the Deans list every semester, if you weren't you on SportsCenter's top ten nobody cares.

Students at the University of Southern California have experienced being denied for a class because it was mostly filled with athletes who receive class registration before the rest of the student body. Also, while common students are trolling up and down the aisles of the bookstore carrying what seems like a ton of books. Athletes already have their books bundled up in bags marked with their name and sport. All they must do is pick them up at their leisure. To further put the common students in their place, as they walk out of Heritage Hall they must pass by the cafeteria built especially for athletes that is like Tavern on the Green compared to the mess hall where the university makes the common folk eat.

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