There is a huge difference between the Big 10 athletics funding model and ours.  75% of our athletics budget comes from institutional (i.e. non-athletics generated) funds.  That is the 4th highest percentage out of all public FBS institutions.  The only schools more dependent on institutional funds on a percentage basis are EMU, Florida International, and Buffalo.  In fact, MAC teams make up 10 of the top 21 most subsidized athletic departments in all of FBS:

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/01/19/subsidy

Now you might say, well the BCS conference schools all have significantly higher athletics budgets, so maybe they actually spend more institutional funds, even though it makes up a smaller percentage of their athletics budget.  But that would be wrong as well.  Only one BCS program - Rutgers - uses more institutional dollars to support athletics that Ohio does. 

Our funding model for athletics is thus radically different than the vast majority of FBS institutions.  Hardly anyone else in FBS does things the way we do.  And that's because unlike the vast majority of athletic programs, ours only sustains enough interest to generate a paltry sum of revenue.  In other words, most schools can justify increased athletics spending because there is significant demand for their programs.  We don't have that.  It hurts to admit it, but comparatively speaking very few people really care about or support Ohio athletics, by any measure (season ticket base, merchandise revenues, alumni donations, television packages, etc.). 

So why is that?  Part of the reason undoubtedly is a lack of tradition, especially in football.  But a bigger part of it is the fact that Ohio University is situated in an extremely small town smack dab in the middle one of the poorest regions in the entire country, in a state where college athletics are dominated by an institution 90 miles up the road.  Unlike a Butler, Xavier, Memphis, Louisville, TCU, or Dayton, we don't have significant business interests or a large alumni base in town to call upon for donations.  Unlike Boise State, we aren't the only show in a state without a BCS level college or professional sports team.  Rather, we compete with 6 professional teams (not inlcuding the semi-professional Suckeyes), 7 other FBS programs (2 of which went to BCS bowls last year), and 5 more Division I basketball programs just in the state of Ohio alone. 

We all want to believe in the potential of Ohio athletics.  And if all the stars magically align some day, maybe we have an outside chance of achieving those dreams.  But the fact of the matter is that every other Division I program in the country also harbors the belief that it too can be the next big thing.  Almost none of us will.  Yet, few of those schools divert anywhere near the amount of institutional money from academics that we do in order to pursue that pipe dream, especially when compared to how little revenue and interest our athletics programs actually generate. 

Again, this is simply not a sustainable model under any rational analysis.  For someone who prides himself on "real world" business sensibilities, you should be able to recognize that.

Edit: In short, throwing even more institutional funds at athletics is not the answer.  Rather, we must tap new lines of outside funding.  If athletics is a priority for this administration, it must push hard for private donations to athletics, perhaps even at the expense of donations to other university accounts.  Without a significant increase in outside donations, eventually the axe will fall on athletics, it is just a matter of time.

Given the size of MAC schools, I would expect them to show up on this list. Where are the per student metrics? How does an Ohio University student's fees compare to those of BCS and non-BCS? What impact does the fee have on college selection?

Everything is relative. If Ohio spends $20M on Athletics across its students, how does that compare to the $11M Wofford spends on athletics across its 1,400 students?

Also, this isn't an apples-to-apples comparison. You're counting student fees at Ohio as institutional support. At Ohio St., your student fees wouldn't cover football or basketball tickets. You'd have to pay $160 for 5 football games and $120 for 10 basketball games. In your numbers, those would count as ticket revenue for Ohio St. while they are institutional support for Ohio. You would also have to include in institutional support for Big 10 schools the de facto Big 10 tax that, as cable or satellite TV subscribers, we all must pay.

Wow, if we are going to use a corporate business model why not have faculty in the class room 40 hours per week...hahaha!  Oh, I forgot, they are doing "student advising and counseling" and "administrative" work in addition to teaching and that is how they get to 40 hours...hahaha. 

That's a good one...

I've been holding my peace in this debate but I can't let this one stand.  I would venture to guess that most faculty are working more than 40 hours a week even if it's not all in the classroom.  With numerous friends who are young PhD in their first job, I hear plenty about 6/7 day work weeks and days "off" spent in the office devoted to researching so that they can work towards tenure and maintain their position. Between teaching (and all it's responsibilities), the service component, committees, research, etc., I think you are barking up the wrong tree of criticism.  Sure, there's some young faculty who are disengaged and under-working and some long-standing tenured faculty who may be coasting, but the majority of faculty, I'm sure, put in a full work week and have nothing to be embarrassed about.  Those quotation marks are mis-used and your sarcasm misplaced. 

In the Ohio State example, only students that want to consume athletics have to pay for them.  Here we tax all of our students equally for sports, even though only a small minority of them have any interest.

All I know is that the student fee subsidy for athletics makes the price of an individual student season ticket a great deal more expensive than mine.  They pay more per quarter in fees than my basketball, volleyball and football season tickets combined.

not to mention that our students pay more to attend an Ohio Football game than students at Ohio State

"The difference in athletics is you actually have to accomplish something to keep your job.  Either as a player or as a marquee program coach. There is not much room for coasting."

Let's not pull at that thread.

Nor should anyone who has no idea about what they're talking about (i.e., quite a few of you) spend one second speculating about how little time professors put into their jobs. You're really looking foolish when you do that. Really, really foolish.

There are clearly some great hard working professors and educators at Ohio University.  The difference in athletics is you actually have to accomplish something to keep your job.  Either as a player or as a marquee program coach. There is not much room for coasting.

As would Bob Cooley....