LSU released its 2014-15 athletics budget on Friday (thanks to the Baton Rouge Advocate), but really this could be any major athletics department.
For those who can’t (or simply don’t want to) make out the numbers:
– LSU projects $109 million in revenues, and $108.9 million in expenses. The usual disclaimer: athletics departments spend what they want to spend, and accountants can count the beans in any number of ways.
– The most important, of course, is football. LSU projects $66.1 million in revenues, and $19.3 million in overall media revenue – most of which should be credited to football. Football will spend $22.6 million, and thus books $62.8 million in profit. Not a bad ROI there.
– The rest of the athletics department is credited with $8.96 million in total revenue (not including sponsorships, donations, interest on investments, etc.) and $28.027 million in expenses.
– This part surprised me: LSU is expecting $10 million in distributions from the SEC, up $3 million from last year, thanks to the College Football Playoff and SEC Network. Every SEC media member told me SEC Network money would be $4430495934930293 million from day one. (Insert from Scott: Just wait a few years Zach. Once they build the reserves of the network the payouts will be substantial.)
