Big college athletics departments are spending — and drawing in — more than ever before, despite recent concerns that COVID-19 A pandemic and more marketing rights for athletes would usher in a new era of austerity.
Schools across the country recently finished annual revenue and expense reports for the 2021-22 school year, the first full college season under the new NIL rules, and the first since the start of the pandemic with minimal games postponed or canceled. over the next few weeks, Sportico It will continue to collect these reports from public schools at the upper level, and feed them into intercollegiate co-funding Database.
An analysis of 63 FBS public schools showed that budgets have expanded as inflation has risen, in some cases exceeding the rate of inflation. Major athletics expenditures among this group increased 7.3% in 2021-22 compared to 2018-19, as the average program increased its spending from $86.4 million in 2018-19 to $92.7 million in 2021-22. Revenue generated Sportico Calculated by removing line items like student fees and transfers from the institution — it grew at a similar rate, from $74.2 million in the most recent pre-COVID season to $80.6 million in 2021-22 (8.5% jump).
This overall trend has also been reflected in the NCAA’s most recent financial statements Disclosures. Last week, the board released its 2022 financial report, and its business is also largely back to where it was before the pandemic hit. Revenue from her TV deals is at record highs, as is the money she makes hosting tournament tournaments and the NIT. The NCAA would have had record total revenue in 2022 had it not been for a net loss of $72 million from its investment.
Altogether, the results defy the apocalyptic noise made by the sports departments two years ago, when high-profile advertisements warned their fan bases that the emerging financial crisis subtracted an existential threat to their programs and predicted that the economic model of intercollegiate athletics was “changed forever. NCAA executives have used similar language in the organization’s fight to prevent athletes from benefiting from their name, image, and likeness (NIL).
Preliminary data suggests that these fears, whether real or imagined, are probably unfounded. Here’s a deeper look inside the latest sports section data:
total expenses
Athletics budgets recovered last year after a significant drop during 2020-2021. The 7.3% increase in average expenses from 2018-19 to 2021-22 roughly equals the 8.3% CPI inflation rate over the period spanning those fiscal years’ beginnings, as measured by Bureau of Labor Statistics.
However, spending in some specific categories has not fully rebounded after the pandemic cuts. For example, fundraising and marketing expenses were cut in half during the 2020-21 school year, and remained down 16% in 2021-22 compared to the 2018-2019 year.
Coaches’ wages
Coaches didn’t bear the brunt of cutting costs for athletic departments during the pandemic, and also got a salary increase in the first full year that revenue was unaffected by the coronavirus.
Total football coaches’ salaries have increased 18.2% since before the pandemic, an increase that far outpaces those of football coaches, whose salaries are up 12.6%. Furthermore, football coaches’ bonuses and bonuses specifically increased bowling games by 37% on average, more than any other reported expense category.
Trained separator
Coaches in 2021-22 have been paid more than ever, but they’ve also been paid more for not coaching. Severance payments increased 31.6% among the 63 colleges Sportico analyzed, and is the second most expensive expense category. Much of this increase was concentrated in a few schools. For example, the University of Connecticut paid former men’s basketball coach Kevin Ollie more than $11 million in 2022 when the school was Lost in arbitration After trying to quit my initial “because”.
Recruitment
Many of the detailed campus visits that might have happened during a normal year have been replaced by video calls during the height of the pandemic. As a result, staffing costs fell in 2020-2021, but rebounded the following year. Overall, staffing expenses increased by 5.7% between 2018-19 and 2021-2022.
However, this number does not tell the whole story. Football staffing expenses increased 17.5% in 2021-22 versus three years earlier, while non-football staffing costs actually decreased. This trend has been seen most acutely at Power Five schools, where football recruiting expenditures have exceeded pre-pandemic levels by more than 20%.
religion
A lack of revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic has prompted some schools — and their athletic departments — to look for quick capital via loans. However, over the past 36 months the religion has grown fastest on the academic side. Across these 63 schools, institutional debt rose 13.5%, while debt to athletics rose only 3.1%.
Emily Caron Contribute to this story.