April 23, 2006

Know the Score

I never have blogged much about sports, but I am a big fan of both good journalism and open records, so here's a link to an impressive database compiled by the Indianapolis Star of financial data from the athletic programs of 164 NCAA Division 1 schools. The Star gathered the data via freedom of information (FOI) requests which it sent to all 215 public universities and colleges that compete in Division 1.

That means 51 taxpayer-funded schools refused to make such financial information public. The Star also sought the same data from the 112 private colleges and universities in Division 1. Private institutions - even private universities that get federal grants and such - are not required to release such data and, not surprisingly, none did.

Of the eight NCAA Division 1 schools in Tennessee - five public and three private - only two - the University of Memphis and the University of Tennessee-Knoxville - released the information to the Indy Star. Bloggers interested in those schools might wish to dig in to the data the Star collected.

[Thanks to Ben Cunningham for sending along the link to the database.]