That year, Alabama only broke even despite the enormous football revenue. More recently, the Auburn athletic department only made a profit of $3 million. Most D1 athletic programs operate in the red even when accounting for the huge profits they get from basketball & football. Like you said, I don’t foresee D1 college athletics going anywhere but the reality is that most college programs (including famous ones) aren’t making money - they are money losers. Coming from the Northeast where college sports are a second thought (as we have lots of professional sports teams), it can be hard to understand the passion for college athletics you see in some pockets of the country, but I know it is there.
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Here is a new gift link for those who want to read the article. It includes lots of visual data as well.
The article is not just focused on sports, but costs in general. The budget there has gone up from $650M 20 years ago to over $1.5B now, taking it from a rank of #168 by public university expenses to #4 in the country. There expenses in sports are not just ongoing operating costs but a massive capital investment in new facilities that they are still paying off. As a result, a material part of the budget is debt expenses, already more than triple what they had been 20 years ago by 2016 and presumably higher now.
In line with the trend elsewhere, there’s been an explosion in administrative costs. The university increased professional staff by 73% in 14 years while increasing faculty positions only 10% in the sam period – there’s now vastly more staff than faculty.
The article is filled with specific examples of large elective expenditures, like spending $15M to renovate the President’s house.
Athletic expenses increased 140% in 14 years. And worth noting that part of why the program breaks even or has a small profit is mandatory student fees as part of their tution, which have increased 400% in that time.
My comment was Auburn specific, and meant only as a counterpoint to the criticism of their athletic expenditures. In Auburn’s case, I don’t think it’s right to assume that the athletic expenditures are pulling funds away from academic programs. The school spirit and alumni engagement resulting from athletics benefit the school. As a side note I grew up in New England and I wouldn’t say UCONN basketball is an afterthought. Maybe that’s because Connecticut doesn’t have pro sports?
On another note, I was somewhat surprised that Auburn is considered to be an expensive school. My oldest graduated in 2021. As an out of state student with merit scholarship he paid $10,000 a year in tuition. On campus housing is somewhat expensive, but 85 percent of the students live off campus for much less. Mine paid $600 a month including utilities for a place 50 yards from campus. In contrast, my younger son is out of state at William and Mary. No big time sports or merit scholarships. I pay nearly 3x more than I did for Auburn (even for instate students it’s nearly twice Auburn’s instate tuition) and off campus housing is ridiculously expensive.
There are always exceptions like UConn basketball but my sense it that regions with significant numbers of pro teams tend to favor those over college athletics. It probably doesn’t help that, for the most part, college teams in the Northeast aren’t that competitive athletically in the marquee sports like football.
No doubt there are regional differences. I’m in Atlanta and even though we have pro sports, college football is ingrained in the culture much more than it is up north. We always joke that at any Atlanta pro sporting event, half the crowd is routing for the visiting team. There are so many transplants in Atlanta and people stay loyal to their hometown teams.
@civitas, thank you for posting the link to the article. FWIW, I wholeheartedly agree that the mission of public universities should be to provide an affordable education to their state residents. They should be called out for exorbitant administrative costs, excesses and unnecessary capital expenditures.
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