Recently the AD at the University of North Carolina suggested allowing Division I athletic departments to compete in different divisions (i.e. Division II) in order to reduce student athletic aid (why is it always the athletes targeted first)? So I thought I would look at the data that North Carolina submits to the NCAA in their Membership Financial Reporting System. The data below comes from the Summary at the end of these reports, and is for "Other Sports" which I proxy for the Olympic sports at North Carolina.
FY | Total Revenue | Total Expenses | Athletic Aid | Coach Salary |
2015 | 10,773,092 | 19,393,562 | 8752213 | 4876872 |
2016 | 11,450,278 | 20,796,963 | 9490971 | 5415731 |
2017 | 12,405,615 | 22,242,895 | 10136218 | 5801609 |
2018 | 12,630,321 | 24,593,295 | 10748386 | 7002203 |
2019 | 13,213,506 | 26,267,027 | 10861085 | 8247195 |
2020 | 13,081,001 | 25,894,424 | 10791974 | 8121618 |
2021 | 16,062,468 | 25,879,163 | 11506312 | 7827427 |
Athletic aid and coaches salary make up about 70% of Other Sports total expenses, and the AD is suggesting that to reduce other sports total expenses by reducing athletic aid.
At the same time athletic endowments are on an upward trend:
FY | Athletic Endowment |
2017 | 219,393,267 |
2018 | 243,535,866 |
2019 | 255,712,686 |
2020 | 254,542,329 |
2021 | 473,851,140 |