How much do universities make from sports

Feel free to contact us anytime using our contact form or visit our FAQ page. Need infographics, animated videos, presentations, data research or social media charts? More Information. Skip to main content. Single Accounts Corporate Solutions Universities. Follow Statista. Felix Richter. Description This chart shows total revenue generated by NCAA athletic departments in , by source.

Download Chart. The NCAA just released new guidelines for college athletics—here's what schools are doing. Majority of college students say student-athletes should be paid, survey finds. Skip Navigation. As millions of people tune in to watch the Final Four, much of their focus will be on the numbers on the scoreboard. But a March report from U. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, calls attention to numbers of a different sort.

Here are three points from the report that struck me as a researcher who studies the structure and culture of academic life for student-athletes at Division I schools. Though they are considered student-athletes, the young men who play Division I football basketball are often much more. Quite a few of them are celebrities. Since the late s, football has by far been the top-earning sport on American campuses, financing not only every other sport but also often the growth and development of the universities themselves.

On average, a university will realize more revenue from football than it will from the next 35 sports combined. At the University of Texas — routinely ranked No. But that still doesn't mean all these institutions are making money from athletics.

According to the NCAA , among the 65 autonomy schools in Division I, only 25 recorded a positive net generated revenue in It's worse for Division I non-autonomy schools, or those outside the Power Five conferences. The Power Five and other top conferences are classified as Football Bowl Subdivision schools, which compete at the season's end through a series of bowl games culminating in a four-team playoff to determine the champion.

Finally, Division I includes 97 schools without football programs. In total, then, only 25 of the approximately 1, schools across conferences in the NCAA made money on college sports last year.

That's because the cost of running an entire athletics program, which can feature as many as 40 sports, almost always exceeds the revenue generated by the marquee attractions of football and basketball. But as a nonprofit, the NCAA isn't about making money for shareholders.