2021 College Football

[jazzcyclist]

At a very large majority of colleges it is a big money loser.

There is nothing capitalistic about it. They use taxpayer money and student's tuition to fund these sports, especially football.

College football certainly isn't a money loser at Oregon, Alabama, Ohio State and Clemson. All the Power 5 programs operate in the black as well as some of the Group of 5 programs. Now if you take the whole athletic department, probably few operate in the black.

[Conor Dary]

College football certainly isn't a money loser at Oregon, Alabama, Ohio State and Clemson. All the Power 5 programs operate in the black as well as some of the Group of 5 programs. Now if you take the whole athletic department, probably few operate in the black.

They barely break even. They spend it on football and other sports as fast as they get it..

[jazzcyclist]

They barely break even. They spend it on football and other sports as fast as they get it..

Yeah, but it's those "other sports" that are a drain on the taxpayers, not big time college football.

[Davidokun]

In general, Division I athletic departments lost money in 2019:

While schools in the five autonomy conferences generate more revenue (via ticket sales, broadcast rights, and NCAA and conference distributions, among other sources) than their counterparts in the rest of Division I, median athletics expenses at those 65 schools exceeded their total generated revenues by roughly $7 million in 2019. Meanwhile, among the nonautonomy schools in Division I, median expenses outpaced generated revenues by nearly $23 million. Schools account for those deficits by subsidizing athletics via student activity fees and direct support from the university, among other means.

Source: https://www.ncaa.org/about/resources...iate-athletics

Dig deeper, and you will find that in the Power 5 conferences, 25 athletic departments made money, and 40 athletic departments lost money, in 2019:

Screen Shot 2021-10-28 at 11.12.11 AM.png

[Conor Dary]

Yeah, but it's those "other sports" that are a drain on the taxpayers, not big time college football.

Even the football programs barely break even. They spend it as fast as they get it.

College Football Programs, Spending Money As Fast As They Make It, Have Little In Reserve For An Endangered Season

“Revenue growth for big-time college football has been tremendous over the past decade, but rather than set aside reserve funds for emergencies like this, most programs have spent the additional money on excessive coaches’ salaries and expensive sports facilities,” Amy Perko, the CEO of The Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, says. “That shortsighted approach has exacerbated the situation that these institutions find themselves in today.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/rayglie...h=4db56e9e7fc6

[Conor Dary]

The 'other' programs have to legally exist, because of football.

[jazzcyclist]

My guess is that the Power 5 athletic departments that lose money are ones like Ohio State which has 37 sports, as opposed to LSU which has 19 sports. There are a lot of mouths to feed once you start adding sports like fencing, synchronized swimming, rifle and rowing to the mix.

[jazzcyclist]

Even the football programs barely break even. They spend it as fast as they get it.

I don't know how you quantify "barely break even" but whether a football program makes $10, $10,000 or $10, 000,000 makes no difference to the taxpayers who will never see any of it anyway.

[Davidokun]

Ohio State: total expenses ($215,209,566) = 92% of total revenue ($233,871,740)
LSU: total expenses ($155,591,015) = 97% of total revenue ($160,433,475)

Source: https://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances

[jazzcyclist]

Ohio State: total expenses ($215,209,566) = 92% of total revenue ($233,871,740)
LSU: total expenses ($155,591,015) = 97% of total revenue ($160,433,475)

Source: https://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances

I would be curious to know how much of those expenses are for football.

[Conor Dary]

Oregon has the bare minimum of sports and even they can't save anything...

University of Oregon improperly transferred $5.8 million to shore up athletic budget



https://www.oregonlive.com/education...ic-budget.html

[jazzcyclist]

The 20 most profitable college football programs

https://www.athleticscholarships.net...l-programs.htm

[Conor Dary]

$28 million is 20th....as if that is something to brag about....with all the money thrown at college football.

[Conor Dary]

I don't know where they got Oregon at $40 million. Last spring the University had to bail the athletic department out.

[jazzcyclist]

I don't know where they got Oregon at $40 million. Last spring the University had to bail the athletic department out.

It doesn't say what season was used to derive these figures but I'll bet it wasn't for 2020.