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Fuel costs hurting college teams

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It was agony added to misery. Shortly after Ohio State's football team returned from a walloping by Southern California, Ben Jay, the Buckeyes' senior associate athletic director for finance and operations, said he did a double take when he received a $346,000 bill for the group's two charter flights to Los Angeles for players, staff and boosters. The fuel surcharge, which in previous years added at most a couple of thousand dollars to the bill, tacked on another $24,200. Collegiate sports programs throughout the nation, from powerhouses to pushovers, were facing increasing costs even before the current economic crisis. Athletic department administrators said that was one of the most serious issues confronting their programs, which are straining to find innovative ways to stay within their budgets. In recent years, the cost of bus rides for shorter trips has also increased, as has the cost of feeding teams at home and on the road. Now, when teams take commercial flights, they are confronted with extra baggage fees at check-in, unbudgeted and considerable expenses for large teams with lots of equipment.

New York Times

Jim Tressel, AP Jim Tressel, AP
October 3, 2008  06:54 AM ET

Great, setting the rational to raise ticket prices yet again. College tickets are more than many pro teams.

October 3, 2008  06:56 AM ET

Of course this is bad for smaller school teams, but for most large programs, these costs are small compare to revenues and the coaching staff salaries.

October 3, 2008  06:59 AM ET

This is the most important college sports story you will find today. And it proves how, in time, poor, corrupt, ignorant leadership in America trickles down to everything in our society. Pretty soon football players will be wearing their pads on those flights from Columbus to L.A. to save on baggage fees.

October 3, 2008  08:25 AM ET

346k? That's a lot of $ for a game they never really showed up for.

October 3, 2008  08:39 AM ET

Another number that caused a double take, the final score.

October 3, 2008  11:16 AM ET

$346,000! That's almost as much as they gave to Pryor to come to tOSU!

October 3, 2008  11:25 AM ET

This is a joke for big time schools..Give me a break. They pay multi year multi million dollar contracts to coaches . Let them go early, eat the contract and then do it all again-over and over. They are not upset about the money, they are just upset that more money is going to airlines and the like...Too easy to cut back if they really wanted to. This is about setting the stage for the fan/student body and alumni to throw some more cash at them...;

October 3, 2008  11:44 AM ET

346k for a program that cleared over 100 million last year. Sure its alot, but cmon...

Warden you're being nice you know da mn well we gave him a cool mill

October 3, 2008  12:08 PM ET

84,

Pryor is worth more than 346K! Even I know that. He's going to be a pain in UM's butt.

Btw, a LB recruit UM has in the verbal column wants to be the official Pryor hunter. I like his attitude!:P

October 3, 2008  12:20 PM ET
QUOTE(#6):

$346,000! That's almost as much as they gave to Pryor to come to tOSU!

But nowhere near what Reggie Bush cleared!

October 3, 2008  12:20 PM ET
QUOTE(#9):

84,Pryor is worth more than 346K! Even I know that. He's going to be a pain in UM's butt.Btw, a LB recruit UM has in the verbal column wants to be the official Pryor hunter. I like his attitude!:P

he'll be swallowing those word through a straw.

October 3, 2008  12:21 PM ET
QUOTE(#4):

346k? That's a lot of $ for a game they never really showed up for.

thats a great one liner

October 3, 2008  12:22 PM ET
QUOTE(#5):

Another number that caused a double take, the final score.

another great one liner..good thing i have a sense of humor about my beloved bucks or i'd be hot headed like a lot of our other fans

October 3, 2008  02:28 PM ET

If your new linebacker wants to key on TP next year then, all you'll see is Boom (heron) goes the dynomite!

October 3, 2008  02:31 PM ET

I'm not sure this makes any sense. It seems to me that normal people would want to know how much something is going to cost before they purchase it. Let's say a person goes to a Toyota dealership and tells the salesman, "I'll take this brand new Camry, just send me the bill." A week later he gets a bill for $100,000.00 for the Camry.

October 3, 2008  02:46 PM ET
QUOTE(#15):

I'm not sure this makes any sense. It seems to me that normal people would want to know how much something is going to cost before they purchase it. Let's say a person goes to a Toyota dealership and tells the salesman, "I'll take this brand new Camry, just send me the bill." A week later he gets a bill for $100,000.00 for the Camry.

Welcome to big business, LOL. They dont care what it costs, they just do whatever they feel like.

October 3, 2008  02:56 PM ET

Interesting, there's around 150 to 180 seats on a typical commercial plane. Multiply that by $500 round trip and you get around $190,000 ... but I'm sure THE ohio state university can figure out math on it's own.

October 3, 2008  03:45 PM ET

Apparently their math sucks if they were more than $150,000.00 off.

October 3, 2008  04:27 PM ET

maybe the pilot charged us extra after our lousy performance

 
October 3, 2008  04:40 PM ET

If it was based on performance, they should have made them take buses back.

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