(02-08-2018 01:23 PM)JRsec Wrote:  

(02-08-2018 12:27 PM)Wedge Wrote:  

(02-08-2018 11:20 AM)tcufrog86 Wrote:  Looks like UConn (83M) and BYU (67M) were the only non P-5 conference schools (of course also ND) in the top 65.

SMU, Temple, SDSU, and UCF only others over $50M.

But it is hard to really know the actual financial situation behind these numbers because things like student fees collected for athletics are likely being counted as "revenue".

That's right -- we know from the USA Today data, which has slightly different overall totals, that for at least some of the schools you mention, student fees and money from the university general fund makes up a third or more of their total "revenue". That money is not truly athletic department revenue. If I own a restaurant, and in order to make the books balance I have to add $500,000/year from my savings to the restaurant's sales, that $500,000 isn't revenue; it's me subsidizing the restaurant's operation with funds from outside the restaurant business.

The number that would be more informative in a table like this one is revenue without any of those university or student fee subsidies -- "real revenue".

Maybe USA Today will put out early numbers this year, but usually their report won't come out until April. It's a news story that gains traction after March Madness. To get these totals you have to dig them out of the link one school at the time. The totals are usually derived from tax filings. So accounting plays a huge role in NET totals. Usually the compilation of the Gross revenue is more reliable for a total, but the kinds of income reported are important to know, e.g. student fees.

It gives us an idea of how healthy an athletic department is. A $60 million/year department that uses $20 million/year in student fees and other subsidies is really a department with $40 million/year in revenue and a $20 million/year shortfall that is covered by fees and subsidies, whereas a department that has $60 million/year in "real revenue" and $60 million in expenses is in much better financial health.