Highest Net Income: ACC Athletic Departments

Last Updated on March 25, 2012

Previously, BusinessofCollegeSports.com showed you the most profitable Division I football and basketball programs.  Now, BusinessofCollegeSports.com will show you which athletic departments turned the highest net income in Division I.  Today, data for the ACC, Big 12, and Big Ten conferences will be posted.  Tomorrow, data for the Big East, Pac-12 and SEC will be posted.  On Wednesday, the top-50 athletic departments with the highest net income will be ranked.

The data was obtained from the Department of Education and is for 2010-11.  The data from the Department of Education is by no means perfect.  Throughout this series, net income was calculated by subtracting the “grand total expenses” from the “grand total revenues” that the athletic department reported to the Department of Education.  Expenses in this instance included:  head and assistant coach salaries, athletically related student aid, recruiting expenses, operating (game-day expenses) and “not allocated” expenses.  The expenses faced by athletic departments, however, may be greater than those reported in this snapshot provided by the Department of Education.  For example, an athletic department may have capital expenses outside of those expenses included in the report.  This all being said, this data is the only data publicly available for both public and private institutions.  Thus, it at least provides some insight into athletic department revenues, expenses, and net income before taking into consideration additional expenses, like capital projects.

School	Total Athletic Department Revenues	Total Athletic Department Expenses	Net Income
Boston College	64,078,272.00	64,078,272.00	0.00
Clemson	61,174,977.00	60,958,659.00	216,318.00
Duke	67,986,188.00	67,418,981.00	567,207.00
Florida State	86,946,503.00	86,946,503.00	0.00
Georgia Tech	46,910,364.00	46,910,364.00	0.00
Maryland	57,765,018.00	57,501,307.00	263,711.00
Miami	60,325,003.00	57,561,177.00	2,763,826.00
North Carolina	71,369,784.00	70,709,553.00	660,231.00
North Carolina State	54,711,001.00	54,518,850.00	192,151.00
Virginia	78,439,006.00	72,400,342.00	6,038,664.00
Virginia Tech	61,077,122.00	56,762,362.00	4,314,760.00
Wake Forest	42,286,588.00	42,286,588.00	0.00

In 2010-11, four ACC athletic departments did not turn a positive net income:  Boston College, , Florida State, Georgia Tech and Wake Forest.  Of these athletic departments, Wake Forest had the smallest amount of revenue, at $42,286,588.00.

Three ACC athletic departments turned a net income larger than one million dollars in 2010-11.  These athletic departments were:  Miami, Virginia and Virginia Tech.  Of these athletic departments, Virginia had the largest amount of net income in 2010-11, with $6,038,664.00.

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