College athletics is a business, and business is booming. But not everybody is benefitting from the financial windfall.
An investigation by The Chronicle of Higher Education revealed only a few of the FOIA'd respondents are giving portions of their proceeds back to academics.
The Ohio State University, however, is one of those few. Gene Smith told The Chronicle he sees putting money back into academics as an obligation: "When you’re at our level, we should be doing that. But not as many schools as we all think have that capability."
So just how much has Ohio State athletics given to the university? A multi-year Freedom of Information request revealed it to tens of millions of dollars. Most impressively, though, Ohio State athletics didn't take a single penny in subsidy between 2011 and 2014.
Here's a look at five of the 10 (out of 40 polled schools) that gave more money back than they took:
| SCHOOL | TOTAL TRANSFER TO INSTITUTION | SUBSIDIES |
|---|---|---|
| TEXAS | $37,147,027 | $0 |
| OHIO STATE | $36,282,811 | $0 |
| ALABAMA | $25,420,003 | $23,039,471 |
| FLORIDA | $25,242,435 | $17,928,596 |
| LOUISIANA STATE | $19,036,652 | $0 |
Texas and Ohio State combined for more than half of the money returned to universities between 2011 and 2014. As for the uses of this money, OSU athletics helped finance the $109 million renovation of the Thompson Library.
Add this as another example of Gene Smith's stewardship that has Ohio State on the cutting edge of college athletics.
