More on College Sports (Again!)

Last updated on: March 11, 2014 at 8:53 am by Jane the Actuary

More on College Sports (Again!) 2014-03-11T08:53:00-06:00 Jane the Actuary

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

So this is a companion to what I wrote yesterday on big-time college athletics, and I have 10 minutes to type this before I start work. But I was thinking about this some more, and there’s another angle, besides the cartel issue: it’s a tax issue.

When a non-profit engages in activities that are clearly profit-oriented (even if the profits are put to charitable use), then that subsidiary entity is no longer exempted from tax. A non-profit hospital with a profit-making arm, for example. (Or I could run off on a tangent about how non-profit hospitals in general spend virtually none of their revenue on charitable care, using their funds instead on more and more building projects. And every now and again the state of Illinois makes noises about that, but the hospitals are too entrenched for the state to do anything but periodically complain.)

When a college sports program charges significant sums of money for tickets (rather than nominal amounts), and earns large chunks of cash from televising the games, licensing fees for apparel, even running a cable TV network — this looks like a for-profit enterprise, and these profit-making activities should be transparently separated out and taxed accordingly. That means a corporate income tax, and (of greater significance at least in Illinois, where property taxes are high) that the proportion of the university’s property used for these activities — the stadiums, the football workout buildings, and the like — should be liable for property tax.

Now, I’m not a tax attorney, so I don’t know how this area of tax law works, whether there are a lot of grey areas in other parts of the non-profit world, or even, more narrowly limited to universities, whether for-profit companies coming out of the research arm of universities are taxed accordingly. And maybe such entities as the Big Ten Network are already paying their fair share of taxes. (See? I really don’t know what I’m talking about.) But I don’t believe universities have yet been required to treat their entire football and basketball programs as profit-making enterprises, and provide full transparency around them.

And now I’ve reached the limits of what I can say about the topic. Someday, when I’m a big-name blogger (or, okay, may just on the blogroll of a big-name blogger, or maybe on the blogroll of a blog that itself is on the blogroll of a big-name blogger), you all will say, “wow, how prescient!” — or maybe just “wow, how clueless!”

Time for work . . .

Uncategorized

Previous Post

March 10, 2014

Adam, Eve, and Human Exceptionalism

Next Post

March 11, 2014 "Ban Bossy"?

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Actuarial/Retirement Issues Politics Uncategorized

Select a Month September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 December 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 August 2021 June 2021 April 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

True or False: Balaam's donkey spoke to him.

Select your answer to see how you score.

FALSE TRUE