Total Revenue for UNT Athletics

[Christopher Walker]

[i admit this might be fully more appropriate in the general Athletics forum, but as it is telling of the weight of football vs other sports...]

I've seen many talk of our "revenue sports" vs "non-revenue sports", or "Football & Men's BB" vs everything else.

University of North Texas Revenue and Expenses

This stuff is pretty telling. Yes, Football brings in the most at 7.7M, and Men's BB 2.3M, but based upon the expert chatter of GMG, I woud not have expected the combined Womens' teams to be bringing in 6.7M. Yes, in the grand scheme of things, that's only a third of the total AD revenue, but looking further...

Total Revenue minus Total Expenses

Men's $2,253,591 to Women's $2,097,526

That's an interesting figure to me.

Anyway, just wanted to note, that yes, the women make money too.

[Christopher Walker]

Furthermore, looking into some of those top tier, read: UT, Alabama, etc., athletic institutions, and its the norm that after revenues minus expenses, their women's programs run deficits into the eight digits.

[meanrob]

Isn't the student fee somehow tied into women's sports?

Because no way, no how do the women's sports bring in that kind of revenue.

[kalebschumann]

I thought our football program ran a deficit?

[KRAM1]

Interesting numbers...I do wonder where the revenue for the women's programs comes from if not the student fees. I just cannot see that much revenue being generated by the programs themselves, but would be great if so. Thanks for these numbers...interesting indeed.

[DeepGreen]

I thought our football program ran a deficit?

Looks to me like the University's general fund balanced the total athletic programs with a contribution of $2,748,093. I don't think this is anything new and UNT is not the only institution to do it.

[Mean Green 93-98]

Isn't the student fee somehow tied into women's sports?

Because no way, no how do the women's sports bring in that kind of revenue.

I thought our football program ran a deficit?

I think with our "bodybag" games, football actually makes a profit that is also used to cover other sports. I don't believe any of our other sports actually make a profit.

[MeanGreenGlory]

There was a 60 Minutes story the other week on college football revenue and how it (typically) helps fund other on campus sports. It obviously depends from university to university but it's a really interesting 13 minute clip.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50135410n

[GrayEagle]

The university can't fund athletics. I do remember on an occasion when the University "loaned" athletics enough to balance revenue and expenses for that particular year. My guess (and it is only a guess) is that only the portion necessary to balance the statement comes from student fees. We know that up to half of the student fees can go toward paying for Apogee. There is a line item concerning funds not allocated to a particular sport which is from student fees and Mean Green Club donations. I also noted that the total revenue was approximately two million dollars less than last year.

[oldguystudent]

Recruiting expenses:

Men's teams: $123,924

Women's teams: $86,480

That's for all athletes in all sports, right? Seems small.

[Christopher Walker]

Recruiting expenses:

Men's teams: $123,924

Women's teams: $86,480

That's for all athletes in all sports, right? Seems small.

The big-wigs of college athletics don't ever seem to get above a quarter million.

[JesseMartin]

When I chaired the Student Service Fees Committee (waaaayyyy back in 1999-2000), we looked very closely at line items to ensure that there wasn't any crossover into areas where internal Athletics funding was supposed to cover costs. The (very small in terms of relativity) portion of the budget that came from fees primarily covered things like A.D. staffing and facilities/maintenance/grounds. So the AD, assistant ADs, marketing director, people answering phones, academic coordinators, groundskeepers, etc are examples of what the fees cover. Everything else is fully funded by sports-related revenue. The students' portion was basically, "if everybody else did it for free, this is what we would still be covering to make sure we still had a program." For a mid-major school, this is pretty standard, since we aren't bringing in the huge TV, apparel, etc. revenue of a Michigan or USC or whatever.

Since then, there have been major changes, including the designated Athletics fee, increased MGC membership, and a slew of other programs and advancements, so for more current analysis we would need either a GMG poster who has been involved with fees more recently or someone to look over the annual fee info (all of which are open records) to determine if the funding has changed much now that we have the stadium costs jumbled in and such.

[GrandGreen]

School sources have basically covered athletics at NT forever. The university can and does fund athletes mainly through student generated funds. The state cannot fund athletes but the university can. Now there are more monies available through athletic designated funds so the amount of general funds used is reduced but still necessary. A lot of the cost is tuition and board which is charged the athletic department than offset by mysterious university funds in a purely paper transaction.

NT like 90% of the NCAA does not come close to funding their athletics through revenues generated.

[JesseMartin]

It's not that mysterious. The tuition and fees are waived through athletic scholarships at either 100% or 50% rates for most athletes in the NCAA. Walk-ons and non-scholarship athletes can receive these benefits if another student fails to meet the requirements of the University, the state, or the NCAA, thus opening up the spot for whomever the coaches determine to be the next worthy candidate. The boarding costs are absorbed by Housing and Residence Life, and as each sport has a mandated maximum of scholarship athletes intended to receive these benefits, that number of occupancies (not rooms, as each has 1-2 roommates) is designated as such and reserved in advance of determining available occupancy for any given semester. So the only remaining question is whether UNT's current Athletics budget is covered by the designated Athletics fee, or if staffing, facilities, and maintenance are still included in the Student Service Fee.