It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was the football season of hope. It was the academic season of despair. It was the purple and golden age of athletic conquest and victory. It was the dark ages of budgetary constraints and academic defeat.All told, the aura at LSU today is quite mixed. On one hand, the University has a thriving athletic department. On the other hand, our academic department has been sinking beneath the depths of budgetary debacles.One can interpret these conditions in many ways. But it all comes down to the tale of two separate departments — the athletic and the academic — and how they are subsidized.First, there’s the Athletic Department.For years — the past decade specifically — our athletic program has provided fans with a successful and competitive product. The football team won two BCS titles in five years. The baseball team just earned its sixth national championship. The basketball team won the SEC championship coach Trent Johnson’s first season at LSU. The list goes on.All sports considered, the University placed ninth in the 2009 Learfield’s Directors Cup rankings, according to LSUsports.net.The success of all the sports — the top three especially — has helped make LSU one of the nation’s premier athletic venues, attracting the best athletes from both Louisiana and around the country.Thanks to the high quality of the Athletic Department’s product, funding hasn’t been nearly as much of a problem. Leading Athletic Department officials don’t have to solely rely on public grants or the benevolence of a few wealthy alumni to attain their financial objectives. Instead, they’re able to capitalize on the success of their product and the willingness of the University’s fans to voluntarily support their burgeoning athletic program.But then there’s the other side of the equation — the academic branch of the University — funded in large part by state subsidies.For years — the past decade specifically — the academic department has made a concerted effort to enhance the University’s ranking and attract Louisiana’s best and brightest.The University has certainly taken some strides in the right direction. But the University’s progress has been relatively limited when you consider the massive amount of money that has been tossed toward enhancing our higher education system.In all fairness, the athletic administrators aren’t totally at fault. Many of the problems plaguing the state’s academic system stem from state-sponsored grants that have flooded four-year universities and consequently bolstered the cost of higher education.The end effect of these initiatives is simple. By trying to make access to higher education more accessible, state programs have actually made the entire point of getting a college degree — attaining a better job — more costly and undesirable.And with the recession-induced higher education cuts, the public funding system has backfired on the University.In short, the University’s academic system is anchored to the state’s budget. And thanks to the massive budget cuts the state has issued to higher education, the University has been forced to make even more drastic cuts.Perhaps Chancellor Michael Martin is right. Maybe he could run the University better if it were more like the privately funded athletic department. Perhaps collectivism and redistribution aren’t such great long-term solutions after all.Hey, I’m sure there’s a big-picture lesson in there somewhere.Scott Burns is a 20-year-old economics and history junior from Baton Rouge. Follow him on Twitter @TDR_sburns.
 
 
 
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