2015 Data Journalism Finalists: The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Huffington Post Staff

The $10 billion sports tab: How college students are funding the athletics arms race.

Comments from the Judges:

“This was a tricky subject because it was pretty dense: Subsidies for athletics. But the reporters here did a bang-up job of pulling together data from various sources and laying out exactly why we should care. As is typical with most Chronicle stories, the storytelling here was just as fantastic. And it properly conveyed the injustice that is not making poor kids more of a priority. Great job.”

“An excellent piece of work that takes on a serious subject and delivers a piece of work no one else thought about. The quality of reporting is solid and fair and told a story cleanly. The research was compelling, as it was not sorted from only one database. It explained the issues quickly and clearly.”