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Show veber state o d 15) ii' SIGNPOST editorial 01 pJtLDD'SdDG ft lbDcSDmlQ by Clark Taylor "Let's Make A Deal", the daily television quiz show, not only has millions of American housewives tuning in every day, but a somewhat different version has many college athletic departments holding their breath in anticipation of choosing the wrong door. Accounting is the name of the game most athletic departments are playing this season. Like business executives throughout the land, the trustees of college sports have been studying their graphs, those craggy profiles of financial happenings. The picture they see does little to improve their upset stomachs. With Montana State and Montana Universities taking student fees out of the athletic department's hands and putting it back into the students governments, the cry has gone up. "We want control over our money," students across the country are screaming. The Student Senate of Weber has heard the cry and is responding accordingly. A group of senators is trying to get a student body vote on who should control the funds, students (in the form of the student senate) or the athletic department. Why all the fuss now, one asks? Well in the last 10 years athletic budgets have increased 108 (only 35 can be attributed to the cost of living rise). Some schools are now spending more than $3 million annually to field sports teams. Here at Weber the football team received most of the criticism for fielding "just average teams' and doing little to get attendance up. When one looks around he must notice this argument rather odd in light of Ohio State's football program. Ohio State has led the country in football attendance in 19 of the last 20 years, but filling its stadium to the top does not leave the school wallowing in profit. In fact a few of those years the Buckeyes lost money on their program. In 1969 the average figure for a major college football program was $668,000, almost twice as much as Weber's entire athletic program. Last year alone the University of Houston increased its sports budget by 26. The question, of wheather students or the athletic department should control student athletic fees, is no longer one of legal concern, but rather one of realistic approaches to the problem. Do you want varsity sports or don't you? That's what the question really boils down to. College athletics today are in much the same boat as the world is in with the arms race. Instead of saying we have the biggest bomb, the athletic departments tell us they have the tallest center. There is no escape from this problem and there are only two alternatives, (1) abolish intercollegiate sports or (2) find a plan that effects the entire country and not just one school. If and when this issue does come up for a vote, and by chance you vote in favor of returning student athletic funds back to the student senate, don't blame the coachs or the players next year if we have a bad season. Go home and look in the mirror and you will find the real villain. Friday May 14, 1971 r v-i 4, 'V, |