I found this at the NCAA web site.  I hope it answers some
questions we've all been having.
 
Joe
 
====
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
                                                              CONTACT:
             Tuesday, November 19, 1996
                                                                        Kathryn M.
Reith
                                                                        Director of
Public Information
 
 
                                       COLLEGE SPORTS: PROFITS
OR LOSSES?
 
             OVERLAND PARK, KANSAS---Are college athletics
departments making a profit or are they losing money? For
Division I-A colleges and universities, the answer may be:
both. For other Division I institutions along with those in
Division II, the answer is: losing money. For Division I-A
football and men's basketball, the answer is usually making
money. For football and basketball in other divisions and for
other sports, the answer is usually losing money.
 
             An NCAA study, "Revenues and Expenses of
Intercollegiate Athletics of Division I and II Intercollegiate
Athletics Programs," by Daniel L. Fulks, Ph.D., CPA, from
the University of Kentucky School of Accountancy, details
the financial state of intercollegiate athletics in 1995 and
updates a similar survey from 1993.
 
             The study shows that Division I-A is the only
subdivision or division of the NCAA in which the average
athletics  department operates at a profit. In 1995, the
average I-A athletics program brought in about $15.5 million in
revenue  while spending about $14.3 million, creating an
average profit of about $1.2 million. That number is up from
the average profit of $660,000 in 1993, the last time member
schools were surveyed.
 
             But the profit cited includes money provided by the
college or university to operate the athletics department, or
institutional support. If institutional support is removed from
the budget, the result is a $237,000 deficit, up from a
$174,000 deficit in 1993.
 
             In addition, only 46 percent of Division I-A schools
were profitable after institutional support is removed,
compared with  51 percent in 1993.
 
             Division I-AA and I-AAA programs showed a similar
pattern to each other. The average I-AA program showed a
deficit, considering all income sources, which was $469,000
in 1995, down from $618,000 in 1993. With institutional
support removed, the average deficit was $1.67 million, up
from $1.41 million in 1993. For I-AAA, the average program
had a $388,000 deficit, compared to $658,000 in 1993.
Without institutional support, the numbers were $1.46 million
in 1995, up from $1.13 million in 1993.
 
             Division II athletics departments also showed a
similar pattern. The average Division II program with a football
team showed a deficit, which was $221,000 in 1995, down
from $432,000 in 1993. The average Division II program withou
football also showed a deficit, $177,000 in 1995, down from
$210,000 in 1993. Without institutional support, athletics
programs with football lost $842,000 in 1995, up slightly from
$805,000 in 1993, and programs without football lost
$584,000 in 1995, again up from $503,000 in 1993. The
average I-A program generated more income from ticket sales
than any other source, or 29 percent of its revenue, down
from 33 percent in 1993. The next largest sources were donor
contributions, 15 percent, and institutional support, nine
percent. Conference distributions, student activity fees and
radio/television rights each accounted for seven percent of
revenues in Division I-A. Note that those conference
distributions may also include NCAA distributions that go first
to the conference and are then distributed among its
members.
 
             Salaries and benefits were the largest expense at 31
percent, unchanged from 1993. Scholarships are the
second-largest expense, at 17 percent. More expenditures
are directed at men's sports than women's, 48 percent to 15
percent, but that gap is narrowing. The 1993 numbers were
54 percent for men's sports and 14 percent for women's,
respectively. The rest of expenses are administrative and not
assigned to one gender.
 
             In football, the average Division I-A program reported
a profit in 1995, up two percent from 1993. The average
football profit reported was $3.9 million. The percentage of
schools reporting a deficit decreased from 33 percent to 30
percent, and the size of the average deficit also declined,
from $1,020,000 to $969,000.
 
             Division I-A men's basketball also showed an
increase in the percentage of teams making a profit, up to 70
percent in 1995 from 67 percent in 1993, and that average
profit rose from $1.6 million in 1993 to $1.9 million. The
percentage of schools losing money on their basketball team
declined from 32 percent in 1993 to 29 percent in 1995 and
the average deficit stayed about the same.
 
             Division I-A women's basketball showed an increase
in those making profits, from two percent in 1993 to six
percent in 1995. Average profits increased from $57,000 to
$67,000. The percentage losing money decreased from 95
percent in 1993 to 91 percent but the average deficit
increased from $373,000 in 1993 to $459,000 in 1995.
 
             A majority of teams in those three sports lost money
in Divisions I-AA and I-AAA, as well as in Division II.
 
             Just 10 percent of I-AA football teams made an
average profit of $351,000, while 84 percent had average
deficits of $632,000. The good news is that the 10 percent
creating a profit is twice the amount in 1993 and teams
reporting a deficit dropped from 95 percent in 1993 to only 84
percent in 1995. Another six percent reported breaking even.
 
             Nineteen percent of I-AA men's basketball teams
reported a profit, compared to 24 percent in I-AAA. That
percent in I-AA was unchanged from 1993, while it was up five
percent in I-AAA.
 
             Only two percent of women's basketball teams in
I-AA showed a profit, down from three percent in 1993.
Women's basketball in I-AAA, on the other hand, showed an
increase, from four percent making a profit in 1993 to nine
percent in 1995.
 
             All three sports in Division II institutions with football
showed an increase in the percent of teams reporting a profit.
For Division II football teams, the increase was from 11
percent to 17 percent. The percentage of men's and women's
basketball teams at Division II institutions with football
reporting a profit increased by eight percent, from 11 to 18 for
men and from five to 13 for women. Basketball showed a
smaller improvement in Division II institutions without football.
 
             Men's teams reporting a profit increased from 10 to
13 percent and women's teams increased from two to seven
percent.
 
             A separate report by Dr. Fulks on revenues and
expenses in Division III colleges and universities is also
available from the NCAA.
 
             The NCAA is a membership organization of colleges
and universities that participate in intercollegiate athletics.
The primary purpose of the Association is to maintain
intercollegiate athletics as an integral part of the educational
program
             and the athlete as an integral part of the student
body. Activities of the NCAA membership include formulating
rules of play for NCAA sports, conducting national
championships, adopting and enforcing standards of eligibility
and studying all phases of intercollegiate athletics.
 
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