The athletics sports budget is around $33 million this year. The fiscal year budget summary for the 2024 and 2025 years includes a section called student fees, which represents over $10 million in revenue.
Many students might wonder where the money comes from. Athletic director Jermey McClain said that no direct tuition dollars make up any of this revenue.
“We don’t necessarily get any tuition dollars. We do get what is called E&G dollars, which is kind of the way many programs are funded on campus, it’s kind of your general budget dollars,” said McClain.
McClain said that the largest portion of the budget comes from external funding. This includes money raised, ticket sales, sponsorship opportunities, TV deals and more. McClain said that the sports department raised over $10 million last year for this year’s expenses.
The budget summary report from last year showed a budget total of over $30 million from football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, student fees, foundation athletic clubs, education, and general transfers and a category called other. With all these categories, the one with the largest amount of revenue is student fees.
Freshman Student Alvon Brown said he thinks this budget is fine, but wishes it could be shared or similar in other departments like business and music.
“If they are using it for the school from us, it makes sense, and it’s fine, but I think it should be shared equally with business and music,” he said.
Brown is in the music department, and he notices things that could be improved with a budget similar to the sports department.
“I’m in the music department as a singer. It’s a good program, but the funding could be so much better, like for our buildings and facilities,” said Brown.
He also said that sports don’t matter the same to everyone, and it’s just not for him. He said that he believes that there should be money that could be used in other ways that matter more to him.
“The way they are using it could be better. Some people don’t even go to sports, like me. I tried to go, but it wasn’t for me, so why should the sports matter to me if I’m not going or anything like that,” said Brown.
Brown believes more funding should be put towards things that matter more to him as an individual, and that could help further his career in the music industry.
According to the school’s website, the activity fee provides an independent source of funding for student programming and services. McClain said that he believes that part of the activities fee is a perk for students, which allows them to get into sports games for free.
“That mechanism was put in place many years ago, and student perks, if you will. I certainly want it that way for students to get in free,” he said. He also said that the fee goes towards many other things for students, like the Payne Center and more.
The sports funding is used for scholarships, facilities and paying faculty and administration. Like in many situations, change is hard, so with the universities’ most recent coaching staff changes, the department faced challenges, but funding wasn’t one of them, according to McClain.
“Most recently, when we had a transition, the coach left because we were successful. In that scenario, we are in a situation where we get a buyout amount,” said McClain.
He said that the department balances things out and is careful with the financial decisions they make.
“We are really careful about being smart with our dollars, especially when it comes to coaches, contracts, and how we make those decisions,” he said.
McClain said that they are making sure they use the budget well and plan for events that coaches may be asked to leave, or leave on their own. McClain reiterates that no direct tuition dollars go to sports funding, and the largest portion comes from external funding.
Brown believes that other departments would benefit if they had more budget like the sports department, because it’s good for the sports, but they don’t really matter to him.