"Media Alert" Collegiate ATs Salary

Did anyone else log into the Media Alert: NATA, NCSA to Release Joint Statement Addressing Labor Crisis in Collegiate Athletic Trainer Workforce today?

The goal was to address the recruitment, hiring, and retention of collegiate athletic trainers.

Two main points that I think that missed the boat ⛵ 👋 ;

1. From the aspect of trying to increase college AT compensation, we need to start educating athletic trainers where the funding for athletics programs and the sports medicine departments come from in an institution. The funding does not come out of thin air and most likely may not actually exist. An older statistic, but in 2015 by the NCAA's benchmark for self-sufficiency, just 24 of 230 public schools in Division I stand on their own. Self-sufficiency means an athletic department's generated operating revenues (not counting money from student fees, university funding or direct government support) are at least equal to its total operating expenses, aka making a profit.

2. Return on Investment (ROI) does not really save much for the institution, ROI only matters to the student athlete due to decrease in outside medical costs that they do not need to incur, especially when you do not have in house staff/doctors like at D1 institutions. I think we blur the lines between ROI and effecting injury prevalence. Injury prevalence data would be a better point to push rather than ROI, since playing time of specific athletes can increase revenue for some institutions (aka winning).

College athletics finance report: Non-Power 5 schools face huge money pressure (usatoday.com)

Shelby 5/2024