Considering the increasing popularity of college football over the past decade, it’s no surprise that overall college athletic revenues have been climbing as well. But expenses for athletic departments have climbed too, reaching similar heights in many circumstances. We looked at 117 D1-A institutions (all of D1-A except for the service schools of Army, Navy, and Air Force), tracking how much their athletic departments spent in 2003 and again just seven years later in 2010. Here is what we found:
Only one school spent less in 2010 than they did in 2003 (San Diego State) – all others spent more, and the average of the middle 100 institutions was 70% more.
Where did all this extra money for expenses go?
There were varying strategies. At 12 institutions, 100% of those extra expenses (plus more for some) went into football – the average percentage that went into football expenses at the middle 100 institutions was 33%. After that, more was spent on the sports that you’d expect:
