While it is true that brands are important to universities, there are certainly negative effects of the money spent in branding on the university level. Cliff Peale of the Cincinnati Enquirer writes in article “Athletics Cost Colleges, Student Millions” that while branding creates and promotes campus pride the funds to support the things that inflate that brand take away from factors more central to the mission of higher education. With more money being spent on university branding and brand management, there are less collegiate funds to be spent on academics, greater funds invested in brand advertising and marketing, and a creation of ambiguity when it comes to decision-making that could negatively impact the brand. Vital resources such as academic funding and money to fund student support services are often done away with while budgets for athletics double and triple over. Peale notes, “Nearly every university loses money on sports. Even after private donations and ticket sales, they fill the gap by tapping students paying tuitions or state taxpayers”.
This article has been absolutely vital to my paper because it recognizes that these athletic programs that take away resources from the academic needs of the university, don't actually make enough money to fund sustain themselves. This signifies that as long as university branding remains an integral part of the strategy to market schools, academics will never receive the appropriate monetary attention and is bound to always have more of the money funneled into athletics programs.
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