Who is funding athletics on the back of their students? USA Today Finance Report

[THEsocalledfan]

https://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances

Always fun to look at. Another reason to hate JMU.

[Professor Chaos]

IIRC a good chunk of JMU's athletic expenses is paying off the financing on their stadium addition and new basketball arena. I believe the students voted back when those were approved that they would pick up a hefty share of the costs... with the caveat that their payoff would be deferred. So that was a pretty sweet deal for them; "sure we'll pay for it... well not us but students who will be here in 10 years and have no vote on the matter will pay for it". Facilities expenses up $16M for JMU since 2010 and student fees up $21M in that same time.

On a related note I see NDSU's contributions revenue tailing off... maybe that's just a pandemic related thing but it was down in 2019 from 2018 and further down in 2020 while ticket revenue has stayed mostly steady.

On another related not I chuckle looking at the ticket revenue and contributions of the new WAC schools like Sam Houston and Stephen F Austin. It's usually between 1-2M combined... good luck with the WAC's grand scheme of becoming an FBS conference.

[NDSU92]

Wait so JMU is #2 in something else now too?

Almost took the crown for most subsidized athletic department in the country! The Duke Debt Dynasty continues!!

[BISONBRI53]

Don't forget their streamer cost went up the last couple years!

[Hammerhead]

That site says 78% of JMU's revenue comes from student fees while NDSU's is only 5% even when I round up the fees and round down the total revenue.

[NovaBison]

I have always been fascinated by this stuff... I think it's important to remember for these G-5 and FCS schools who don't get the bloated media rights deals that the P5 schools get, and yet they are paying $60-75M a year with 80% of the revenue coming from "allocated" sources, just exactly what are you doing? Especially if your not winning championships.

NDSU has a $27M annual budget... yet they fund 100% of their scholarships and FCOA for all teams. They have great facilities, and their coaches and other athletic staff are well compensated -- there is no need to increase the budget for now -- a move to FBS would require a larger budget -- but somehow, if that opportunity arose, I suspect the funding would be made available

The budgets of schools like JMU, Delaware, UC Davis, or UConn and UMass aren't impressive -- they are inefficient and wasteful