2010-2011 Football Revenue

These numbers are for football only, not the entire athletic department. If you’re curious about what is included in each category, the descriptions of each category are below the chart. Also, please read the caveats below the table before drawing an conclusions from the data.

As a general caveat, schools tend to interpret the instructions for each category differently, so keep that in mind if your goal is to compare schools.

We are happy to share this data we’ve collected free of charge, but we ask that if you use it you please cite BusinessofCollegeSports.com and link to this page. All information is from NCAA disclosures filed by each school.

CATEGORY DEFINITIONS:

These are the actual instructions given on the form….

Ticket Sales: Include revenue received for sales of admissions to athletics events. Include ticket sales to the public, faculty and students, and money received for shipping and handling of tickets. Do not include ticket sales for conference and national tournaments that are pass-through transactions. Report amounts in excess of a ticket’s face value paid by ticket purchasers (for example, to obtain preferential seating) in Category 4 (Contributions).

Student Fees: Include student fees assessed and restricted for support of intercollegiate athletics.

Guarantees: Include revenue received from participation in away games.

Contributions: Include amounts received directly from individuals, corporations, associations, foundations, clubs or other organizations that are designated, restricted or unrestricted by the donor for the operation of the athletics program. Report amounts paid in excess of a ticket’s value. Contributions shall include cash, marketable securities and in-kind contributions. In-kind contributions may include dealer-provided automobiles (market value of the use of a car), apparel and soft-drink products for use by staff and teams. Do not report pledges until funds are allocated. Report gifts and merchandise from corporate sponsorship agreements in Category 12 (Royalties, Licensing, Advertisement and Sponsorship).

Compensation and Benefits Provided by Third Party: Include all amounts provided by a third party and contractually guaranteed by the institution, but not included on the institution’s W-2 (e.g., car stipend, country club membership, entertainment allowance, clothing allowance, speaking fees, housing allowance, compensation from camps, radio income, television income, and shoe and apparel income). This should equal Expense Categories 20 and 22 combined.

Direct State or Other Government Support: Include state, municipal, federal and other government appropriations made in support of the operations of intercollegiate athletics. This amount includes funding specifically earmarked to the athletics department by government agencies for which the institution has no discretion to reallocate. Any state or other government support appropriated to the university, for which the university determines the dollar allocation to the athletics department shall be reported in Direct Institutional Support (item 7).

Direct Institutional Support: Include value of institutional resources for the current operations of intercollegiate athletics, as well as all unrestricted funds allocated to the athletics department by the university (e.g., state funds, tuition, tuition waivers and transfers). Also include Federal Work Study support for student workers employed by athletics.

Indirect Facilities and Administrative Support: Include value of facilities and services provided by the institution not charged to athletics. This support may include an allocation for institutional administrative cost, facilities and maintenance, grounds and field maintenance, security, risk management, utilities, depreciation and debt service. If your institution does not currently track indirect institutional support, consult your business office for a reasonable allocation. If counted here, include offsetting expenditure equal in value in Expense Category 32 (Indirect Facilities and Administrative Support).

NCAA/ Conference Distributions including all tournament revenues: Include revenue received from participation in bowl games, tournaments and all NCAA distributions. This category includes amounts received for direct participation or through a sharing arrangement with an athletics conference, including shares of conference television agreements. If known by sport, report as such. Include any payments received from the NCAA for hosting a championship (permissible to include in Revenue Not Related to Specific Teams).

Broadcast, Television, Radio, and Internet Rights: Include institutional revenue received directly for radio and television broadcasts, Internet and e-commerce rights received through institution-negotiated contracts.

Program Sale, Concessions, Novelty Sales, and Parking: Include revenue of game programs, novelties, food or other concessions, and parking revenues. Revenue from sales of game program advertising is to be included in Revenue Category 12 (Royalties, Licensing, Advertisements and Sponsorships).

Royalties, Licensing, Advertisements and Sponsorships: Include all revenue from corporate sponsorships, licensing, sales of advertisements, trademarks and royalties. An allocation will be necessary to distinguish revenues generated by athletics versus the university if payments are combined. Include the value of in-kind products and services provided as part of the sponsorship (e.g., equipment, apparel, soft drinks, water and isotonic products).

Sport Camp Revenues: Include amounts received by the athletics department for sports-camps and clinics.

Endowment and Investment Income: Include endowment spending policy distribution and other investment income in support of the athletics department. These categories include only restricted investment and endowment income for the operations of intercollegiate athletics; institutional allocations of income from unrestricted endowments qualify as “Direct Institutional Support”.

Other: As a guide, please limit this to no more than 5% of total revenues and attempt to reclassify amounts greater than 5% to the appropriate category(ies) above to bring the category to less than 5% of the total revenue. If the number is greater than 5%, please provide the top three categories and amounts in the comments section below.

EXPLANATIONS AND CAVEATS:

Ticket Sales: Schools may vary as to how they attribute revenue from ticket sales between the Ticket Sales and Contributions categories, so any analysis of ticket revenue should take both categories into consideration.

Contributions: Some schools may not break down contributions by sport, so the value could be zero. In addition, the amount shown may only reflect the amount the athletic department accepted from the fundraising arm for that school year, not necessarily the full amount of money that came into the fundraising arm or booster club.

Direct Institutional Support: Keep in mind this amount can include tuition waivers from the university. For example, some universities allow for the athletic department to pay in-state tuition for all student athletes, regardless of residency. The athletic department has to report the money saved on out-of-state student athletes as revenue. It’s not actual cash coming into the athletic department, however.

Broadcast: Schools have varying methods of dividing broadcast revenue between sports.

Thank you to Katie Blitz and Mackenzie Thirkill for all their hard work gathering and inputting this data!