Clemson to consider mandatory $350 per year student athletic fee

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Next school year, Clemson University may turn to its student body to help pay for its sports teams.

Clemson may begin to charge students a $350-per-year athletic fee beginning next school year to supplement its athletic department budget against an expected rise in the costs to remain competitive in intercollegiate sports, said Lambert McCarty, chair of Clemson's Athletic Council.

The council acts as a liaison between the school's academic and athletic departments.

Clemson is the only public school in the Atlantic Coast Conference or Southeastern Conference that doesn't charge an athletic fee for students or charge them for tickets to sporting events, said Joe Galbraith, assistant athletic director for communications.

Athletic Director Dan Radakovich discussed the fee at the Athletic Council's October meeting, but it hasn't yet been proposed to the school's Board of Trustees, who would have to approve it, McCarty said.

The student fee would raise $6 million-$6.5 million per year once it's fully in place, McCarty said. That would add to the athletic department's $72 million per-year budget.

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