Page 2 offers budget alternatives for Florida

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by Patrick Hruby

Florida State University reportedly spent more than $172,000 in legal costs while unsuccessfully challenging part of an NCAA penalty for an academic fraud scandal that took away 12 of former coach Bobby Bowden's victories. In turn, that raises a question: What else could FSU have purchased for the same amount of money?

Page 2 breaks it down:

Marvin Gentry/US Presswire• Academic scholarships (one year of in-state tuition): 41
• Textbooks (Chemistry, Houghton Mifflin, 12th edition): 967
• Mandatory student activity fees (one year, $20 per student): 8,600
• Laptop computers (HP Pavilion): 287
• Campus police officers (one year, $42,000 average salary): 4
• Assistant professors (one year, $56,000 average salary): 3
• Research grants ($10,000 each): 17
• Glossy, tri-fold 9x12 color brochures touting Bowden's accomplishments: 162,000
• Copies of "The Bowden Way: 50 Years of Leadership Wisdom" by Bobby Bowden: 9,071
• Copies of Florida State 1994 Orange Bowl national championship video: 6,893
• Hours lobbying state legislature to make Bobby Bowden Day an official holiday (reduced fee of $250 per hour): 688
• Hours of airplane pulling sky sign reading "BOWDEN IS AWESUM!!!": 430
• Bronze busts of Bowden ($50,000 per, estimated): 3
• Twelve-foot-tall bronze statues of Bowden: ($150,000 per, estimated): 1

Sources: Florida State University Controller's Office, Amazon.com, Best Buy.com, Indeed.com, University of Central Florida, Printrunner.com, Aerial Messages of Orlando, SF.com