Eva Cherniavsky can鈥檛 help but feel a little envious.
She's an English professor at the University of Washington. English is old school. It鈥檚 where students go to read deeply, write cogently and hopefully broaden their minds. But it isn鈥檛 hot in the age of AI.
Or in this age of big-time college-professional sports.
Cherniavsky couldn鈥檛 help noticing the other day when the UW Athletics budget . That budget is growing fast, even as it bleeds red ink. Yet unlike the College of Arts & Sciences 鈥� UW's main teaching division 鈥� Athletics is getting bailed out by the university.
"Apparently there is no limit to the salaries at Athletics, or how far in debt they can go," she told me.
Since the Huskies left the Pac-12 athletic conference for the Big Ten , the Athletics salaries line item has gone up 16%. The budget for employee benefits has soared 38%. Some other line items have been pared back, so is up a total of 12%.
Meanwhile Athletics has had negative cash flow for years. This year they were $19 million in the red, and for the upcoming year they're expected to be $16 million more in arrears. The sports budget is so out of whack the UW鈥檚 campuswide internal lending program has propped it up with low-interest loans totaling $46.7 million (the interest on the latest one is 2%).
"Costs related to operating in the Big Ten exceed historic levels experienced in the Pac-12," said an to the UW Board of Regents last month. The report also cited "inflationary market pressures on travel, training table food and nutrition," as well as the new era of sharing some revenue with student-athletes.
The report noted the university treasurer gave Athletics a negative credit outlook 鈥� the only negative score at UW among the units evaluated. Athletics now is carrying 9.5% of the UW鈥檚 entire debt portfolio, even as it brings in just 1.9% of the UW鈥檚 total revenue.
The Athletic department鈥檚 "financial challenges present a systemic risk to the internal lending program if debt service goes unpaid," a separate loan report cautions.
Normally these facts would be cause for empathy or concern, not envy. But on the upper campus 鈥� the part of the school where classes are held 鈥� they've also been grappling with budget deficits.
The College of Arts & Sciences faced a $14.1 million hole this year 鈥� coincidentally about the same size as the annual deficit in Athletics. But they were told to cut. In the past year they have laid off staff, left faculty vacancies unfilled and cut the size of the graduate program, among other reductions.
鈥淲e lost 50% of our graduate program in English,鈥� said Cherniavsky, who doubles as the department鈥檚 director of graduate studies. She said faculty is looking at 2% pay boosts.
The contrast is a "sore point," said Colin Marshall, a philosophy professor. "Everybody loves the Huskies. But I think people are pretty upset about these internal loans, coming at the same time we鈥檙e being told to cut, cut, cut."
As former UW engineering professor Andrew Davidson wrote to me: "We always heard inside the academy that intercollegiate athletics was never a drain on the university鈥檚 academic budget. And that the exorbitant athletic leadership salaries were funded by the big sports donors. So now it turns out that isn鈥檛 the case, by a long shot, and that athletics has been borrowing buckets of money from the UW."
This latest loan isn't expected to be paid back until 2048, .
The UW treasurer said "it is anticipated that (Athletics) will face on-going financial pressures through at least fiscal year 2030."
Meanwhile, five out of the top seven are in UW sports. Head football coach Jedd Fisch was No. 1 at $5.89 million in 2025. UW football has two assistant coaches who are paid more than any UW academician, which includes doctors at the medical school.
That Athletics is responding to debt and deficits by goosing its overall salary budget seems to reflect a "go big or go home" posture. The finance report is hopeful that national exposure from the switch to the Big Ten Conference will bring "new revenue growth from new sponsorship opportunities and continued strong donor support."
This is the thing that has professors feeling a bit bitter. Sports has gotten itself in a bit of a pickle. It's all good, because the UW has their backs. But is this as true with the school part of the school?
"We did not get the same grace to say 鈥榟ey, we鈥檒l pay it back later,鈥� like Athletics gets," Cherniavsky said. "The contrast between the austerity and cutting that鈥檚 happening at Arts & Sciences, versus the growth and belief in the future at Athletics 鈥� it鈥檚 striking."
Athletics does have a revenue generator 鈥� the stadium. (This is also its major source of debt, which it has struggled to cover.) Husky Inc. is morphing into a pro sports enterprise. It operates on a different model than Arts & Sciences, where the core operating budget is funded nearly 90% by tuition from its customers, the students.
Still, the UW has massive endowments, loan accounts and private fundraising appeals. There鈥檚 also more than $1 billion in reserves. It has chosen to float this support to Husky Inc. 鈥� banking on future glory, yes, along with hopes of getting paid back.
"Debt service repayment risk in fiscal year 2027 and beyond is high," the UW treasurer flagged about Athletics. The bold font is theirs.
"This is what we're struggling with," Cherniavsky said. "It isn鈥檛 that sports isn鈥檛 important 鈥� it is. But there are substantial resources at the UW. The question is: Who gets to touch them, and who does not?"
For as vast as the UW is, it has a . It鈥檚 "the preservation, advancement, and dissemination of knowledge." Remember that old stuff? In that spirit, the main faculty advocacy group is organizing an on-campus forum Sept. 8, with invited state lawmakers and university leaders, titled "UW Mission Under Threat."
Probably won鈥檛 be as thrilling as a Huskies-Ducks showdown. But in an old-school, academic kind of way, it could be a barn burner.