As a refresher, the U.S. Department of Education requires athletics departments across the nation to report their financials, which it then publishes via the Equity in Athletics Disclosures Act. This is for every sport, across every level, dating back to 2003.
But while the the Department of Education requires schools to report their finances, there is no uniformity in how those numbers are reported. Where one school might classify its football season tickets as football-specific money, others might put that in the general athletics fund -- and we have no way to tell. We simply enter what we want to get out of the database, the database gives us a number, and that's all we get. (The numbers below come from the 2018-19 fiscal year.)
All that aside, it stands to reason we'll get more uniformity the further down we dig. Look at it this way: there's no debate in the Ferris State athletics offices whether to put the $50 million in football TV money in the football pot or the general athletics pot.
For instance, at the FBS level the No. 15 Power 5 school (Washington) earned 54 percent of what the No. 1 school (Texas) earned. In D2, No. 25 Mississippi College earned 61 percent of what No. 1 Grand Valley State reported.
The only difference is the total money here is roughly the size of a Power 5 coordinator's salary.
Without further ado, here are the top 25 (self-reported) money-earning football programs at the Division II level for the 2018 season:
1. Grand Valley State (Mich.) -- $3.36 million
2. Florida Tech -- $3.10 million
3. Texas A&M-Commerce -- $2.91 million
4. Northwest Missouri State -- $2.60 million
5. LIU Post -- $2.54 million
6. Clark Atlanta -- $2.535 million
7. Lindenwood (Mo.) -- $2.51 million
8. Mercyhurst (Pa.) -- $2.44 million
9. Indianapolis -- $2.42 million
10. West Florida -- $2.41 million
11. Lenoir-Rhyne (N.C.) -- $2.37 million
12. West Alabama -- $2.35 million
13. Ferris State (Mich.) -- $2.32 million
14. Tuskegee (Ala.) -- $2.3 million
15. Miles College (Ala.) -- $2.26 million
16. Wayne State (Mich.) -- $2.25 million
17. Merrimack (Ma.) -- $2.24 million
18. Ouachita Baptist (Ark.) -- $2.235 million
19. Colorado School of Mines -- $2.22 million
20. Findlay (Ohio) -- $2.16 million
21. Augustana (S.D.) -- $2.15 million
22. Northern Michigan -- $2.12 million
23. Northwood (Mich.) -- $2.08 million
24. Carson-Newman (Tenn.) -- $2.06 million
25. Mississippi College -- $2.05 million
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.