Hardly anybody in charge of major college athletics wants to talk about this publicly.
It’s the Trump effect. Will the Trump administration’s plan to defund American universities trickle down to college sports in the form of funding cuts?
USA TODAY Sports contacted more than 25 universities and college leadership organizations to ask them about concerns that athletics could be affected at least indirectly by this federal funding uncertainty. Almost all of them dodged the question by not responding at all, or by providing vague, undetailed answers, or by saying they didn’t want to talk about it on the record.
“I’m not surprised that nobody wants to talk, particularly at red-state public universities,” said Robert Kelchen, a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Tennessee. “It’s such a touchy topic right now.”
At the same time, many of the same colleges are bracing for another coming financial earthquake after a federal judge recently approved the House vs. NCAA legal settlement. This allowed colleges to start paying their athletes directly for the first time ever, creating a massive new cost of up to $20.5 million per school per year starting July 1, according to the NCAA.
