At MSU, Athletics Chips In for Faculty Bonuses

For four straight years, faculty members at Mississippi State University have gone without merit pay raises. This year, for some, a financial boost came from an unlikely source: the athletics department. Last week, 406 faculty members—nearly a third of the university’s full-time teachers—received bonuses of $2,500 each. The awards were backed by $750,000 from the Bulldogs’ annual share of the Southeastern Conference’s lucrative TV deal. In all, thanks to matching funds provided by donors, roughly $2-million has been set aside, with half for the faculty bonuses and half for student scholarships. …

It’s not unusual for major athletics programs to give a portion of their revenues to academics: This year, for instance, the University of Georgia’s athletics program donated $2-million to support professorships and scholarships. Mississippi State’s athletics budget, at $37-million, is roughly half that of Georgia’s—and is the smallest in the Southeastern Conference.

Kentucky also does this – $1.7 million for need-based scholarships last year. Oregon?