<p>Some schools are pretty transparent about their athletic department finances. Here’s a link to Michigan’s athletic budget for FY 2010:</p>
<p>[url=<a href=“The Regents of the University of Michigan”>The Regents of the University of Michigan]June</a> 2009 Regents’ Meeting | Regents of the University of Michigan<a href=“click%20on%20link%20to%20item%20#19%20in%20supplemental%20agenda”>/url</a>.</p>
<p>Highlights: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>The Athletic Department is entirely self-supporting. It receives no payments or subsidies of any kind from the University, and it expects to generate an operating surplus of $8.8 million in FY 2010 on operating revenues of $94.4 million and operating expenses of $85.6 million.</p></li>
<li><p>Football is the big dog, pulling in $33.7 million in ticket sales (net of payments to visiting schools), and accounting for the bulk of an additional $15 million in television revenue and another $1.8 million in conference distributions of football bowl revenue. Football also accounts for the lion’s share of a projected revenue of $13.8 million in corporate sponsorships, $13.7 million in “priority seating and other annual gifts,” $4.1 million in licensing royalties (Michigan logos on sports clothing), and $1.9 million in concessions and parking, though basketball and hockey play some role in all of these.</p></li>
<li><p>Basketball ($2 million in ticket sales) and hockey ($1.8 million in ticket sales) are much smaller, though basketball also pulls in another $2.7 million in “NCAA based basketball distributions” coming through the Big Ten conference. </p></li>
<li><p>The three major revenue sports—football, basketball, and hockey, but about 90% football—not only pay all their own costs, but fully support the entire athletic department including 25 varsity sports as well as non-varsity intercollegiate sports and recreational sports.</p></li>
<li><p>A portion of the Big Ten conference payout, about $1.6 million, goes to the University’s general fund to support need-based financial aid. The operating surplus is budgeted for athletic department “operating reserves” but when this fund gets too large the athletic department has in the past made additional contributions to the University’s general fund. The athletic department also awards about $15 million in athletic scholarships, the maximum allowed under NCAA rules. The tuition portion of these scholarships goes to the University’s general fund in the form of direct payment of the tuition of scholarship athletes, an estimated 70% of whom are OOS and therefore get their tuition paid at the OOS tuition rate.</p></li>
</ul>