A bill now in the Iowa Senate would require the University of Iowa and Iowa State University to fund athletics for University of Northern Iowa.

State Sen. David Johnson (R- Osceola) introduced Senate File 2119. It would order Iowa and Iowa State to transfer a total of $4 million a year to the UNI Athletics Department for the next 5 years. Iowa would pay $2.28 million each year while ISU would chip in the remaining $1.72 million.

Last year, KCRG-TV9 reported how UNI's athletics department budget of about $13 million is dwarfed by the $89 million budget at Iowa. Iowa's Athletics Department is also self-sustaining, taking no funding from the University's general fund, so all of it's $89 million comes from revenue from its sports teams.

UNI's athletics department gets about $6 million from the university's general fund. Its sports generate only about $2.5 million a year from 17 sports, with football and men's basketball accounting for about 92% of that revenue.