Note: I am not including tuition revenue of the student-athletes as revenue to the athletic department, as I contend that tuition revenue is revenue generated by the academic units, not the athletic unit. As you may guess, economists are not unified on this. Go figure!!
Likewise I am not adjusting for internal transfers from the university in the form of subsidies for the athletic department as well. For Florida International University, over 60% of the total operating revenue for the athletic department comes from student fees. Additionally for the last three fiscal years, Direct Institutional Support accounts for on average 10% of the athletic departments total operating revenues.
My takeaway: Eliminating this program reduces the athletic department's deficit, but don't get the Panthers to the Title IX "prong 1" test. My guess is the university is reducing its direct institutional support for the athletic program and as such these three programs were eliminated.
One additional note. Men's Indoor Track is combined with Men's Outdoor Track and Men's Cross Country, thus the numbers below reflect the combination of those three programs. Additionally, for those that would adjust for tuition revenue, it is not appropriate in this case, the members of the Men's Indoor Track program are the same as the members for the Men's Outdoor Track program, so there is no tuition revenue lost. (Actually 62 of the 63 participants in Men's Indoor Track program over the last three years were also members of the Men's Outdoor Track program).
Before I get to the individual numbers, one thing I want to point out is that for Florida International University, the majority of Athletic Department Total Operating Revenues comes from Student Fees and Direct Institutional Support. Here are the numbers for fiscal years (FY) 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19.
| FY | Direct State | Student Fees | Direct Institutional Support | Total Op. Revenue |
| 2017 | $68,858 | $21,096,485 | $2,451,524 | $33,389,929 |
| 2018 | $67,425 | $21,584,797 | $3,198,940 | $34,893,144 |
| 2019 | $53,412 | $22,366,985 | $5,317,342 | $37,018,133 |
Turning now to the reported finances for the Men's Indoor Track Progam, we see the program generating very little operating revenue. Note for 2017, 63% of the total operating revenue for both men's track and men's cross country programs was from student fees and over 90% of the total operating revenue for both men's track and men's cross country programs was from Direct Institutional Support.
| FIU | FY | Total Op. | Total Op. | Surplus/ | Scholarship | Surplus/Deficit |
| Revenue | Expenses | Deficit | Expenses | w/o StudentAid | ||
| M-IndoorTrack | 2017 | $352,285 | $399,248 | -$46,963 | $123,825 | $76,862 |
| M-IndoorTrack | 2018 | $4,523 | $357,584 | -$353,061 | $80,565 | -$272,496 |
| M-IndoorTrack | 2019 | $17,865 | $251,451 | -$233,586 | $73,730 | -$159,856 |
In fiscal year 2017 (ignoring tuition revenue and university transfers to the men's indoor/outdoor and men's cross country program), the combined three programs had a surplus. This is primarily due to the $117K of NCAA funds distributed to the men's indoor/outdoor and men's cross country program.
Using the EADA data, I looked up for each fiscal year the following:
Full-time Equivalent Male Counts and Female Counts; and Male student aid and Female Student Aid.
I calculate the following (in terms of percentages):
| Name | FY | Male% | Female% | Male-Aid% | Female-Aid% | Difference |
| FIU | 2017 | 43.64% | 56.36% | 50.89% | 49.11% | 7.25% |
| FIU | 2018 | 43.51% | 56.49% | 53.80% | 46.20% | 10.29% |
| FIU | 2019 | 43.10% | 56.90% | 58.45% | 41.55% | 15.35% |
As you can see, FIU provides (in percentage terms) between 7% to 15% more student athletic aid to male student-athletes than is representative of the male full time equivalent of the student population.