Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Universities should give the same amount of money to their students' sports activities as they give to their university libraries. Use specific reasons and examples to support your opinion.

Funding for athletic programs at colleges and universities is a very controversial issue these days. Some people believe that universities should fund libraries and educational facilities rather than sports teams, while others feel that the opposite is true. I am of the belief that universities should provide more funding for athletics. I feel this way for two reasons, which I will explore in the following essay. To begin with, most universities offer identical academic programs and are only able to set themselves apart from the crowd through the popularity of their sports teams. These days there are hundreds of universities across the United States that are almost completely interchangeable. Only a very select few Ivy League schools are known to be better than average. It may seem somewhat arbitrary, but a sports team can help such middling schools stand out from the crowd and attract new students. For example, my cousin is a very average student. When he graduated from high school a few years ago, he chose to attend California State College based solely on the fact that he loves basketball and that the school is known for its on-court success. This may seem superficial, but it has a lot to do with it, and according to recent surveys he is not the only student who chose to attend for this reason. The college earned its loyalty as a result of the care and attention that it paid to its athletic program. Furthermore, sports are very profitable and are a good source of revenue in today's precarious economic times. Schools across the nation are facing a funding crisis, but they still need to build facilities and dormitories for new students. University sports are a huge business in America and are even more popular than professional sports in many areas. These teams can generate money for their schools through corporate sponsorships, ticket sales, licensing and broadcast agreements. These profits can then be used to pay for academic facilities, including libraries. This type of operation does not always seem to be the most idealistic thing for a university to do, but it is certainly a pragmatic solution to some of the problems that schools face today. In conclusion, I strongly believe that colleges should provide more funding to their sports teams than they do to their academic facilities. This is because sports help universities stand out in a crowded market of schools, and because their profits generated can be used to fund other programs.