NCAA Athletic Department Revenue Inequality

Last year I looked at NCAA FBS bowl game payout inequality to bowl participants, and found that there is a substantial level of payout inequality.  Now I am turning my attention to income (or revenue) inequality at FBS and non-FBS schools that are in USA Today's NCAA athletic department database.  As I stated yesterday, not all schools are in the USA Today's database.

Later I will investigate the Equity in Athletics data.  The advantage is that I can include more schools and look at total revenue by sport, but for now, I using USA Today's database since I am interested in revenue inequality among various revenue streams in athletic departments, not solely total revenue at athletic departments.

Economist's measure income inequality using a Gini coefficient.  The Gini coefficient measures the total difference between perfect income equality and the actual income distribution which is called a Lorenze curve.  For those interested - here's a step-by-step guide to calculate the Gini coefficient.

Given we have an income inequality measure and NCAA athletic department income, let's take a look at the various athletic department's revenue streams in the USA Today database from 2006 to 2011 by FBS and non-FBS schools.  The table below has the Gini coefficients.  As I expected FBS schools in general have greater revenue inequality than non-FBS schools except for ticket sales for each of the seasons during this time period and contributions in 2007, 2009 and 2011.  Otherwise FBS schools have greater income inequality than non-FBS schools.

		Gini		Gini
2006		FBS		Non-FBS
Ticket Sales		0.4988		0.5693
Student Fees		0.5708		0.4753
School Funds		0.5310		0.4361
Contributions		0.5852		0.5315
Rights & Licensing		0.4390		0.3919
OtherRevenue		0.3882		0.3637
Total Revenue		0.3492		0.2540
Generated Revenue		0.4685		0.3809
		Gini		Gini
2007		FBS		Non-FBS
Ticket Sales		0.5067		0.5610
Student Fees		0.5641		0.4882
School Funds		0.5137		0.4441
Contributions		0.4971		0.5398
Rights & Licensing		0.4474		0.3790
OtherRevenue		0.3750		0.3629
Total Revenue		0.3293		0.2601
Generated Revenue		0.4469		0.3747
		Gini		Gini
2008		FBS		Non-FBS
Ticket Sales		0.4964		0.5818
Student Fees		0.5767		0.4917
School Funds		0.5108		0.4299
Contributions		0.5165		0.5121
Rights & Licensing		0.4525		0.3710
OtherRevenue		0.4046		0.3273
Total Revenue		0.3333		0.2525
Generated Revenue		0.4503		0.3648
		Gini		Gini
2009		FBS		Non-FBS
Ticket Sales		0.5061		0.5704
Student Fees		0.5832		0.5102
School Funds		0.4983		0.4037
Contributions		0.5108		0.5631
Rights & Licensing		0.4465		0.3617
OtherRevenue		0.4946		0.3212
Total Revenue		0.3219		0.2496
Generated Revenue		0.4485		0.3640
		Gini		Gini
2010		FBS		Non-FBS
Ticket Sales		0.5074		0.5771
Student Fees		0.5817		0.5127
School Funds		0.5361		0.3992
Contributions		0.5394		0.5295
Rights & Licensing		0.4538		0.3539
OtherRevenue		0.4071		0.2982
Total Revenue		0.3380		0.2433
Generated Revenue		0.4602		0.3491
		Gini		Gini
2011		FBS		Non-FBS
Ticket Sales		0.5131		0.5687
Student Fees		0.5901		0.5071
School Funds		0.5449		0.4017
Contributions		0.4962		0.5309
Rights & Licensing		0.4544		0.3377
OtherRevenue		0.4073		0.2891
Total Revenue		0.3250		0.2400
Generated Revenue		0.4521		0.3415