The state audit of the University of Colorado’s athletic department was an unusually aggressive critique of athletic spending and record-keeping, but many of the practices state auditors revealed are universal in college sports, experts say.
All football teams going to bowl games take coaches’ families along; it’s a way they can be with their families during the holidays after so much time away from home, athletic officials say.
Most large athletic departments offer summer camps for young athletes, and coaches often run them. Other athletic-department entitlements described in Monday’s audit report, such as cellphones and courtesy cars, also can be found in many programs, said David Ridpath, who left a career in college athletics to teach sports administration at Mississippi State University.
The shoddy record-keeping in Boulder may be noteworthy, but otherwise the release Monday of the state audit report provided a glimpse of a familiar system, Ridpath and others said Tuesday.
“Most schools probably have better accounting procedures, but I don’t look at this as some kind of watershed event,” said Ridpath, also the executive director of the Drake Group, a consortium that advocates for academic integrity in college sports.
Commonplace or not, spending tens of thousands of dollars at a bowl game is not universally supported.
Some, like John DiBiaggio, a past president of three universities who was hired to observe CU’s athletic department in 2004, say the expensive junkets are evidence of the commercialization of college sports.
DiBiaggio puts these expenses on a list with ever-more-expensive stadiums and millionaire coaches in college sports.
“It just goes on and on and on,” he said. “They say they need that for the competitive edge. The fact of the matter is, it keeps escalating.”
But like it or not, college football is what it is, defenders of the system say. Coaches spend a lot of time on the road. Universities recognize this by bringing their families to bowl games, which occur during the holidays.
“I never heard of a school that didn’t (pay for families to go to bowl games). It’s a reward for the season,” said Navy coach Paul Johnson, who will face Colorado State in the Poinsettia Bowl on Dec. 22.
“Every university I’ve worked at, it’s agreed with the administration ahead of time. In some cases, it’s part of a coach’s contract,” said Wyoming athletic director Gary Barta, who was previously on the University of Washington staff.
In response to the audit, CU administrators said they are sending a smaller contingent to the Champs Sports Bowl in Orlando, Fla., Dec. 27.
CSU athletic director Mark Driscoll said his school is reviewing how bowl procedures are handled in the wake of the audit.
“The families have always gone on the charter with the team, and that’s our plan this time,” he said.
Typically, CSU spouses who fly free on the charter agree to official duties such as meeting and greeting fans at public events, said CSU spokesman Gary Ozzello. Some schools assign value to such plane trips as part of the compensation package reported on federal W-2 withholding forms, according to administrators.
Christmas away from home is so common in football families that children grow up believing Santa will find them anywhere, some say.
When the Air Force Academy Falcons regularly went to the Liberty Bowl in the early 1990s, former sports information director Dave Kellogg said his son believed Santa Claus lived in Memphis, Tenn.
“Families are included in our bowl games,” said Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich. “We’d never expect a coach to leave his family behind to go to work.”
But universities should examine whether these expensive perks are related to the academic mission, DiBiaggio said.
As for gifts, it depends on the season and the bowl. The NCAA limits the dollar value of gifts that each bowl and school gives to participating student-athletes.
Wyoming football players were given the option of purchasing rings signifying their Las Vegas Bowl win.
The oversight of camp and departmental finances varies from institution to institution.
“It seems like there is an audit here every week,” said Utah athletic director Chris Hill.
Utah coaches are given the opportunity to run sports camps as their own enterprises but must rent the facilities, Hill said.
Staff writer Jim Hughes can be reached at 303-820-1244 or jhughes@denverpost.com.
Staff writer Natalie Meisler can be reached at 303-820-1295 or nmeisler@denverpost.com.
