A relatively interesting (at least to me) discussion topic across the blogosphere and newspapers over the past couple of days has been the athletic department revenue data released by the US government's Office of Postsecondary Education.  Of course, the more glamorous data is the revenue information but the government's site also provided information on Expenses as well.  Seeing that I'm actually nerdy enough to spend some time sifting through the data, I thought I'd share some of that information with everyone as it pertains to KU and the Big 12.  Here we go.  All data is from the 2007 - 2008 academic year (i.e. Fall 2007/Spring 2008 semesters).

Nice overview here bumped to the front page.  After the jump a listing of revenue and expenses broken down by sport and school. - JQ

Total Revenue from Athletics

Total Revenue from Football Only

Total Revenue from Men's Basketball Only

Total Revenue from Baseball Only

Other Revenue not specific to a Gender or Sport

Thoughts on Revenue info:  While it's no surprise to see Texas miles ahead of the rest of the league, it's very satisfying to see KU come in at 3rd in terms of total revenue.  I think this is a clear indication that despite the bickering from some old-timers, Lew's fund raising efforts have been a huge success.  Also, it's a reflection of the unprecedented simultaneous success of KU's "money" sports in the 2007/2008 year.  By way of comparison, KU's total revenue from athletics in the previous year was $65.1 million.  Not bad, but I suspect the Orange Bowl season in football and the national championship in basketball resulted in a significant spike in revenue for the 2007/2008 year.  I'll be curious to see how revenues for this recently completed academic year compare when the data is released next year.  I suspect football revenue was substantially higher in 08/09.   We should rank better than 11th in football revenue next year.

Another thing to point out is the large portion of KU revenue that was not specific to a particular sport.  I don't know for sure but I believe this revenue largely consists of income from merchandise (royalties) and donations not allocated to specific sports.  This may also include the money from Adidas since that revenue is not specific to a single sport.  Without question, KU benefited from an upsurge in merchandise sales due to the success of the football and basketball teams.

Now let's look at Expenses because it's also important to know how much money is being spent on athletics.

Recruiting Expenses Only

Interesting to see how our rivals fair here.  KSU spent the most on recruiting while Mizzou spent the least.  Unfortunately, there's no breakdown of the recruiting expenses by sport.

Total Athletic Department Expenses

Subtracting KU's expenses from its revenues, KU showed a nice profit of around $20.3 million.  My hope is that profit went (or is going) towards the raises for the coaches and facility improvements.  I suspect that next year we'll see expenses were substantially higher in 2008/2009.  KU's total expenses on athletics in the previous year total $58 million.

Football Only Expenses

You can see here that KU barely turned a profit in football in 2007/2008.  Still, it's good to see that KU is not at the bottom of this list and is putting nearly everything it makes in football back into the program.  By way of comparison, KU's football expenses for the 2006/2007 year were $9.87 million.

Men's Basketball Only Expenses

KU spent $6.2 million on men's basketball the year before.

Well, that's probably a lot of info to digest so I'll stop here.  The thing to take away from all this as a KU sports fan is that KU athletics is doing well financially.  With college athletics becoming an ever expanding arms race that seems to require constant facility improvements and higher coaching salaries, it's vital that KU position itself financially to improve (or maintain) its competitiveness in the Big 12.  Of course, money doesn't ensure success but it sure helps.