Value, form and content of a small college athletic budget

Abstract

Always live within your income even if you have to borrow money to do it. This advice, which the late Francis Bret Harte facetiously gave to mankind, epitomized the general attitude of indifference toward budgeting a quarter of a century ago. The United States government, for example, did not have a centralized budget until 1821. The budget of former years had no functional value, it was something to be prepared but not used. Some small colleges even today do not have athletic budgets which are itemized sufficiently and still concise enough to make them an adequate workable process for the anticipated needs of their students. Therefore the writer deems it advisable to present a clear picture of a workable athletic budget even though it may only be an infant step in the progress of athletic budget making.