While college sports is bigger than ever and revenues are at all-time highs, several large programs are operating in the red, according to a comprehensive report this week by The Washington Post.
The Washington Post took an extensive look at the books of 48 big-time athletic departments in the five power conferences and found that money goes out the door as quick as it comes in.
Six years had passed since Rutgers’s last big athletics purchase — a $102 million expansion of the football stadium, which the former athletics director said would help finally make the program financially self-sufficient. That plan hasn’t worked yet. In 2014, Rutgers’s athletics deficit topped $36 million, an amount equivalent to losing $1, every second, for a year.
Rutgers, by far, had the largest deficit in the Big Ten, but six other schools are also operating at a loss.
2014 Big Ten sports department
[Note: Data via The Washington Post; Northwestern’s was not available]
