Flying Coach: Many Universities Are Using Private Planes

By COLLIN BINKLEY, Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle
Mon, 02/20/2017 - 7:57am

BOSTON (AP) — Once seen as a luxury of the corporate world, private planes are becoming increasingly common at U.S. colleges and universities as schools try to attract athletes, raise money and reward coaches with jet-set vacations. The Associated Press requested documents from dozens of public universities and found that at least 20 own or share ownership of planes for school business, often employing a few full-time pilots to fly them. At Ohio State University, which leases one plane and partly owns another, football coach Urban Meyer and members of his family took 11 personal trips last school year, including a vacation in Florida, a weekend getaway to Cape Cod and a spring break in South Carolina. Colleges defend the costs, saying coaches and top administrators need to travel more than ever, while commercial airlines are offering fewer flights. Universities often use planes for athletic recruiting, mostly football and basketball, and to shuttle administrators on trips to woo donors or lobby lawmakers. Purdue University, for example, sent a plane to Providence, Rhode Island, last year to bring alumnus and former NFL lineman Matt Light to Indianapolis for an athletics meeting and then flew him back, at a cost of $15,000. Last year, the University of Minnesota found that men's basketball coach Richard Pitino had overspent his budget for chartered flights by more than $200,000 over three years. [...] the school has hired a new athletic director whose job will partly be to rein in the budget. Iowa State University President Steven Leath, a pilot, acknowledged last year that he used a school plane for trips that mixed personal and university business, a practice that came to light after he damaged the aircraft in a hard landing.

NEXT
BING NEWS:
  • USCAA men’s basketball champion Apprentice School promotes seven-year assistant to head coach
    Michael Gainey replaces Evan Kee, who became Randolph’s head coach after guiding the Builders to the 2024 U.S. Collegiate Athletic Association championship.
    05/2/2024 - 11:08 am | View Link
  • Coach Deion Sanders, Colorado illuminate the pros and cons of wide-open transfer portal
    College sports now has wide-open free agency for players. There are issues with that, especially if the goal remains to graduate from college.
    04/30/2024 - 1:01 am | View Link
  • Opinion | On Columbia University and Coach Handbags
    A ccessible luxury. That’s how the Federal Trade Commission described the market for Coach, Kate Spade and Michael Kors handbags in an antitrust lawsuit last week. It’s also an apt epithet for elite ...
    04/28/2024 - 9:02 am | View Link
  • Private colleges say ‘free tuition’ plans at risk if state grant program cut
    Tuition-free guarantees from Michigan’s private colleges and universities are at risk if the governor’s proposal to eliminate the Michigan Tuition Grant garners support from legislators. Five private ...
    04/18/2024 - 4:48 am | View Link
  • More

 

NEXT
Welcome to Wopular!

Welcome to Wopular

Wopular is an online newspaper rack, giving you a summary view of the top headlines from the top news sites.

Senh Duong (Founder)
Wopular, MWB, RottenTomatoes

Subscribe to Wopular's RSS Fan Wopular on Facebook Follow Wopular on Twitter Follow Wopular on Google Plus

MoviesWithButter : Our Sister Site

Movies With Butter More Movie News

More News

  • Crazy Outdoor Fails
    The Daily Dot, Friday - 05/03/2024 - 11:00 PM

    Crazy stuff from around the world. It's Friday and I'm tired. If that's not to your liking, here's some crazy cats. Open thread below read more

    More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
  • Heavy Rains Over Texas Have Led Water Rescues and Evacuation Orders
    Time, Friday - 05/03/2024 - 07:14 PM

    Houston — Heavy storms slammed the Houston area again Friday, widening already dangerous flooding in Texas and leading to numerous high-water rescues, including some from the rooftops of flooded homes. Officials redoubled urgent instructions for residents in low-lying areas to evacuate, warning the worst was still to come. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] “This threat is ongoing and it’s going to get worse.

    More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
  • The Eta Aquarids Meteor Shower Is Coming. Here’s How You Can See It
    Time, Friday - 05/03/2024 - 05:58 PM

    The Eta Aquarids meteor shower, which occurs each year as the Earth passes through remnants of Halley’s comet, is expected to reach its peak this weekend. Watchers can expect to see hundreds of meteors fill the sky in the pre-dawn hours. With the moon at a waning crescent, the show is expected to be even more vibrant than usual.

    More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
  • Pro-Palestinian Protests Spark on College Campuses Across the Globe
    Time, Friday - 05/03/2024 - 05:03 PM

    Chants of “disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest” are reverberating across the globe as student-led protests in support of Palestine have popped up outside the U. S. and in countries like Australia, Mexico, and the U. K. as the Israel-Hamas war enters into its seventh month.

    More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
  • The 25 Best Taylor Swift Needle Drops 
    Time, Friday - 05/03/2024 - 03:48 PM

    The best Taylor Swift needle drops will make you think about her music a little differently. A show like You might play with tone, turning an emotional ballad into comic relief, while The Buccaneers might help christen a new Swiftie classic with one pivotal scene. Some music syncs feel so seamless you may start to believe they were written specifically for a movie, while others, like Swift’s Valentine’s Day sweetheart anthem “Today Was a Fairytale,” actually was.

    More | Talk | Read It Later | Share
  • There’s Yet Another Danger Lurking in Your Gas Stove
    Time, Friday - 05/03/2024 - 03:45 PM

    In a fast-food culture, there may be few things better for your health than making a simple home-cooked meal. But while the meal itself may be a good idea, the cooking part can be a problem—at least if you own a natural gas or propane stove. That’s the conclusion of a new study in Science Advances, showing that dangerous levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) are emitted by both kinds of stoves. The findings are a result of new work conducted at Stanford University by environmental scientist Rob Jackson and graduate researcher Yannai Kashtan.

    More | Talk | Read It Later | Share