It’s no surprise that the athletic budgets for schools associated with a Bowl Championship Series conference are quite large. There is a recent SBJ article which shows the athletic budgets for these schools from 2010 to 2012.
As I anticipated, some of the schools with the biggest increases over this period are predictable. For example, Utah comes in at a 25.9% increase during that time period. It makes sense as the school moves into the Pac-12 conference. A large increase might even make sense for a school like South Florida (23.5%) which is trying to up its level of competitiveness in the Big East.
Take a look at the rest of the top 10 largest increases from 2010 to 2012:
The first one that sticks out is Michigan. A 29.8% increase is massive when you are talking about a 2010 fiscal year budget of $84.6 million. That one wasn’t so predicable in my mind. That said, it makes sense. They are trying desperately to correct the direction of their athletic department in Ann Arbor. If those millions of dollars don’t help, what is going on in Columbus, OH might do the trick.
Louisville coming in at number one is interesting. Recently home to a perennially good hoops program, but the Cardinals are a struggling bottom feeder in Big East football. I would imagine this increase in spend has a lot of to with that latter point.
Also interesting to look at; the largest athletic budgets:
Maybe the most intriguing analysis I have seen is that the Super Bowl will take in $85.6 million in Las Vegas. In addition, sports books estimate to take wagers in the $88 million to $90 million area. In essence, people will gamble on the game more than the eat, drink and play all weekend.
