2015 to 2025 FBS Athletic Departments Receiving Government Support

AP has an article on the use of state funds for college athletics.  That got me to wonder how many FBS public athletic departments actually do receive direct government support.  To answer this, I looked up the Direct Government Support financial numbers from the Membership Financial Reporting System reports since fiscal year 2015 (or academic year 2014-2015) to fiscal year 2025 (or academic year 2024-2025), which is the most recent data available.

Below is a chart of the number of FBS athletic departments receiving direct government support.  Note the spike during the COVID-19 season (FY 2021).  As you can see other than the COVID-19 season the number of FBS athletic departments receiving government funding is on a slight upward trend over the last few years, but is not that much different than prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Will this change with the new "revenue sharing" model?  Time will tell.

Here's a list of the 105 public universities included in the analysis: Akron, Alabama, Appalachian State, Arizona, Arizona State, Arkansas, Arkansas State, Army, Auburn, Ball State, Boise State, Bowling Green, Buffalo, California,  Central Michigan, Cincinnati, Clemson, Colorado, Colorado State, Connecticut, East Carolina, Eastern Michigan, Florida, Florida Atlantic, Florida International, Florida State, Fresno State, Georgia, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Georgia Tech, Hawaii, Houston, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas,  Kansas State, Kent State, Kentucky, Louisiana LaFayette, Louisiana Monroe, Louisiana Tech, Louisville, LSU, Marshall, Maryland, Massachusetts, Miami (Ohio), Michigan, Michigan State, Middle Tennessee State, Minnesota, Mississippi, Mississippi State, Missouri, Navy, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, New Mexico State, North Carolina, North Carolina State, North Texas, Northern Illinois, Ohio, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Old Dominion, Oregon, Oregon State, Penn State, Purdue, Rutgers, San Diego State, San Jose State, South Alabama, South Carolina, South Florida, Southern Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, Texas A&M, Texas State, Texas Tech, Toledo, UAB, UCF, UCLA, UNLV, Utah, Utah State, UTEP, UTSA, Virginia, Virginia Tech, Washington, Washington State, West Virginia, Western Kentucky, Western Michigan, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

Some FBS schools are missing since they are private such as Boston College, Duke, Notre Dame, USC etc. Some are missing due to incomplete data:  Air Force, Jacksonville State,Memphis, Troy.  Some are missing since they were not in the FBS the entire time period: Coastal Carolina, Idaho, James Madison, Kennesaw State, etc.

Louisiana FBS Athletic Department Subsidies

About a week ago there was an interesting article about college athletic department finances in the state of Louisiana, where the premise was that since Division I athletic departments are losing money, should sales tax revenue be allocated to these universities in order to get their finances back on track.

Since the premise of the article is regarding whether Division I athletic departments in Louisiana need sales tax revenue (i.e. a subsidy), I was curious about how much (if any) subsidies Louisiana Division I athletic departments already receive.  To answer this I am going to use the Membership Financial Reporting System income and expense data that Division I athletic departments are required to submit to the NCAA.  If you are interested in seeing LSU's 2025 report - click here.  I am able to request many of these reports via public records requests, but since universities such as Tulane are private, they will not be part of the analysis.

I am going to look at how much each athletic department received in subsidies for fiscal years 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025 (the most recent year of athletic department financial data that is currently available).  Subsidies are the aggregate of Direct State or Other Government Support, Student Fees, Direct Institutional Support, Indirect Institutional Support and Indirect Institutional Support - Athletic
Facilities Debt Service, Lease and Rental Fees.  I am presenting the nominal values (i.e. no adjustment has been made for inflation).  

First, let's take a look at four of the five (again, Tulane is private and not subject to public records requests) Football Bowl Subdivision athletic departments total subsidy numbers.  As you can see below, LSU does not allocate any subsidies to their athletic department, while Louisiana (formerly known as Louisiana LaFayette) has been allocating nearly $20 million per fiscal year over the last four seasons.

Second, let's take a look at the six FCS and one no-football (LSU New Orleans formerly known as New Orleans) Division I athletic departments total subsidy numbers.  To keep the chart more readable, I will divide these into two charts. 

The first is with McNeese State, Northwestern State, Southeastern Louisiana State and Southern.  Each athletic department is allocated over $5 million in subsidies for each fiscal year already.  While not as much as most of the FBS schools, it is still a sizable outlay to each athletic department.

The second is with Grambling State, LSU New Orleans (formerly New Orleans) and Nicholls State.  As you can see, each receives subsidies as well, although smaller than the group directly above.