The reality is Syracuse has no choice but to invest in athletics in order to remain a successful academic institution. With enrollment trends and how students are selecting colleges, we have to be able to offer students a big time college sports environment. The school has this data and knows it. Without it, Syracuse is a very overpriced middle of the road university in a location a lot of students don’t want to go when they can go south for college or select less expensive schools in the northeast or ones with better academic rankings.
Look at the peers in the northeast and it’s obvious. BC falls back on academic reputation and its location. All the small liberal arts schools have much better academic reputations throughout the northeast. Then you have state or smaller schools that are more affordable.
Without sports, Syracuse could be a failing university. Kent knew that and it’s why he supported athletics. You can only spend so much of course but we have spent a lot. We just got stuck with a bad replacement for Boeheim after his end of career issues.
