Alex C's Essay

During my time spent in Boston, along with my group, I visited three colleges and the Boston Globe to ask questions. We talked to different kinds of coaches, faculty, and others involved in athletics. Throughout spending time in Boston University, North Eastern, and Boston College I gained the information needed to answer my essential question about funding for sports. How does each select college decide what program receives the most money and where does the money come from? Do the coaches make the decision? Alumni?
First my group went and visited Boston University. After doing a speed and agility work out with the staff and BU. Funding at BU is well spread though the different athletics. Boston University has most major sports besides football but is known for their hockey teams. They most money is usually given to the hockey team to recruit players. They spend more money on players then they do on equipment. Funding is provided by Alumni and people in or related to the school.
When we went to Northeastern University we learned a lot about the baseball team and program. They however do not have great funding because of being a smaller school and do not compare to big schools like Boston College. Coaches do not have any say in how much money is given to what program. However because they do have most major sports the number is even smaller. Funding for equipment at Northeastern is nothing above good because of the lack of money and they have to spend it on players.
Boston College was the nicest college that we visited while staying in Boston. Their facilities are by far the best and are taken care of very well. Boston College is well funded and because of this they are able to spend a large amount of money on their buildings and equipment. Funding is also a big part of being able to have those nice things when smaller or financially littler schools cannot. BC is also the school with the most scholarships to give and have the most recruiting money. Most of the funding is decided by the Admissions buildings. The money comes from Alumni, students, and commercialism. The majority of the money and Boston College goes to the football program.
The Boston Globe has the inside track to all of the professional and college sports that happen in Boston. During our time spent there we received a recap of most of what we learned at the schools. The only thing said about funding during this stop is that it is different at every school.
During my JUA experience I learned a lot about sports in the North East and in the New England area. Although some questions were left up in the air I feel a good sense of knowledge about funding in these certain schools. We had a great leader and a good group of guys to travel around Boston with for two days. Coming from the Mid West and hearing mostly about a big state college, it was interesting to learn about how some schools have to really make good decisions with their money because of how much they can spend. Funding in colleges mostly comes from Alumni, Facility, and people associated with the university.