N.C. Central University has a championship volleyball team, CIAA championship football team, a championship cross country team and a championship softball team, but it takes proper funding for these teams to exist.

Part of that funding is the athletic fee that every student is required to pay.

Many students are unaware of how much they pay for athletic fees and where their athletic fee money is going after they pay it.

Psychology junior Rikki Rogers says NCCU students are paying a lot for very little at NCCU.

“For the prices we pay here, we should get better,” said Rogers.

Compared to other schools in the North Carolina System, NCCU is in the medium range for athletic fees.

Psychology junior Mike Boone doesn’t look at paying as a hassle, but more as a duty as an Eagle.

“We’re going to have to pay anyways, why not pay and … support our school.”

Assistant Athletic Director Kyle Serba, who works with the budgeting for NCCU athletics, said, “The fees students pay are based on the need for athletics.”

Serba produces an Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act report every year that shows the revenues for head coaches, the revenues for sports teams and where fees are distributed.

The 2006-2007 EADA, which was recently released, displayed the annual salaries for institutional head coaches at NCCU.

Coaches for the men’s teams average a salary of $55,806 and coaches for the women’s teams average $32,137.

According to the EADA report, men’s team salaries appear high because of “turnover in football staff,” not because of gender.

Men’s football, with $1,194,208, and women’s basketball, with $287,637, had the highest budgets — and men’s golf, with $41,705 and women’s bowling, with $40,140, had the lowest.

The grand total for all of NCCU’s athletic teams was $4,340,554, and is expected to increase during the 2007-2008 athletic season after NCCU moves to Division I.

Physical education junior DJ Bush doesn’t mind the athletic fees.

“As long as the money is used for something meaningful, I’m happy,” said Bush.

“Students aren’t going to away games, so we should use that money for home games.”

But Serba says it’s about more than what students get for their athletic fee.

“It’s not just about going to a home game but about a sense of pride.”