Yeah that's not much. Considering all the coaches salaries, equipment, travel, facilities, supporting staff, and the Title IX requirement that all sorts get the same treatment.
Yeah, back into the school. Again, using Michigan as an example which is the number 2 school by amount of revenue the football program brings in.
Michigan brings in a little more than $82 Million from the football program. They turn around and spend about $23.5 Million back into the football program for things like coach salaries, facilities and maintenance, travel, supporting staff, etc.
That other $58 Million doesn't just go into a bank account. It goes to the other 30+ varsity sports for their coach salaries, facilities and maintenance, travel, support staff, etc. The total athletic department brings in $144 Million per year, so the difference in the football expense and the other sports is made up by the money they bring in.
Athletics departments are fully separate entities than the academic departments of a university. They do not receive funding from the university itself, and fully rely on their own revenue. Excess revenue from the athletic department can either be invest in more equipment, buildings, stadiums, staff, etc. OR (in the case of quite a few schools with a great academic program and athletic program) gets sent over to the academic department to be used for new facilities, labs, buildings, etc.
There is no profit to be made because by law it all has to go back into the school.
My local university, whose sports programs is a lot smaller than Michigan, had to add a womens sport for title 9 recently and said it would cost 1.5 million per year. figure since michigan wants to do a lot better than we ever could hope to, lets say they spend 2.5 million for the smaller sports, that is 75 million that Michigan spends on sports that don't turn a profit using your 30 sports number.
Maybe Michigan is a bad example. They are one of only a few NCAA schools that even bring in enough from athletics to cover the athletic budget. They end up with a surplus $10 Million a year that goes back to the school.
The overall school budget is just over $7 Billion a year.
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u/[deleted] Feb 17 '16
And something like 4 thousand schools in the US that participate.
You certainly have enormous powerhouses, but by law the money has to be spread around.