Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Show me the money!

Athletic departments, with their non-traditional accounting practices, may have a little more 'splainin to do about where their monies are going. Congress is looking at the tax-exempt status athletic departments, because they are part of educational institutions, receive. Are they really using football and basketball revenues to subsidize non-revenue sports as we so frequently hear yelled from the anti-Title IX rafters? Congress wants to know. 'Cause if they are not being used thusly or in support of an institution's educational mission, well all those millions of tax-free dollars may have to be reconsidered. (Government needs money, in case you hadn't heard.)
So the Congressional Budget Office has been looking at things and will issue a report on the matter. They were not too pleased, though, that the data they used had to come from the Indianapolis Star's investigation into the issue earlier. They obtained their data from a Freedom of Information request. In other words, there are certain transparency issues involved.

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