That is a 2013 article... so not sure how accurate the numbers are today. The following link is for the 2015-2016 academic year.
http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances/
It's pretty telling, if you look at the % allocated (as in money coming from the school (aka State) and student fees). I perused the list quickly, and excluding the P5 (who have big contracts with Networks that inflate their budgets), only 7 G5 or FCS programs have a lower % allocated:
- Army
- Arkansas State
- New Mexico
- Nevada
- Wichita State
- Montana
- Alabama A&M (who also have the smallest budget in D1)
NDSU's % Allocated was 34.47%... UND's was 47.95%. JMU's was 80.36% (mostly from student fees)
Also, I noticed in this list there are no private schools, but I can't imagine they are financially better off.
NDSU's fiscal responsibility is really impressive!
What would be the reason for increasing fees? If it's just to get to the median then there is no reason and should be completely avoided.
Plus in my opinion the students have gotten kind of a raw deal lately with some of the changes that have happened. Football they have their best section taken away and then in the SHAC they go from behind the bench to behind one of the baskets. In fact because of this I think they should be paying a little less in fees. Yes I understand the athletic department can make way more money by doing what they did, and hopefully they have compensated the students somewhat because of this.
I still want a refund on the fees for the wellness center I had to pay for that never existed while I was at NDSU.
In my opinion, this slide started when the dome was built/opened. Students were relegated to some pretty poor seats as compared to Dacotah Field days when half the seating was student section (albeit smaller seating capacity and no, I am not wishing for an open air stadium). Why, as a second class student citizen, would I want to clamor to pay more for athletic programs like football that I have a very low likelihood of attending as a spectator. The bandwagon will chug along for a long time as long as winning continues, but the crowd is pretty well aged that attends football. There will need to be replacements some day and scorned alumni are not as likely to open up the check book.
Low student fees is something to treasure and be crazy proud of; if you view it as a potential funding source, I'd never vote for you for Congress.