The University of Arizona reported $36.2 million in athletic department subsidies during the 2023-24 fiscal year—likely among the highest in the country—as the department’s money-losing history took center stage across campus.
According to a copy of the school’s latest financial disclosures to the NCAA, which was obtained by Sportico, the cash-strapped university handed its athletic department $10.5 million in direct institutional support, $22.3 million in indirect institutional support and $3.4 million in student fees.
Despite those subsidies, U of A ended the fiscal year with a $20.5 million deficit after total expenditures climbed to $154 million—an $11 million year-over-year increase. The 2023-24 year marked Arizona’s final run as a member of the Pac-12. It subsequently decamped for the Big 12 amid a league-wide exodus.
That move preserved Arizona’s status among the so-called power conferences but will keep it at a disadvantage financially relative to peers in the Big Ten or Southeastern Conference. SEC schools received $40-plus million from media distributions in FY24, whereas the Wildcats reported $25.8 million, slightly down from the previous year.
On the bright side, Arizona’s FY24 subsidies were about 24% lower than the $47.6 million in campus-based support the school disclosed in 2022-23. That was the fourth-highest figure among all Division I FBS public universities, according to Sportico’s college sports database.
The athletic department has faced intensifying pressure to lower that number.
In late 2023, with the school facing a $177 million campus-wide shortfall, president Robert C. Robbins made a point of mentioning that athletics wasn’t generating the revenue that the university expected, was having trouble re-paying loans from the school, and could be force to eliminate teams. A few months later athletic director David Heeke was fired, just a week after he hired Brent Brennan as the school’s new head football coach.
Heeke’s replacement, Desireé Reed-Francois, has been vocal in her desire to get the runaway budget under control. In June she presented to the Arizona Board of Regents a “Five-Point Plan to Strengthen Operational and Financial Accountability” for the athletic department. It included reducing administrative personnel costs by $500,000, reducing travel expenses, and prioritizing more income from ticket sales, donations and media. That plan was reportedly hatched with input from Ernst & Young consultants, who identified $16 million to $24 million in operating improvements over the next five years.
