How much corporate money is on campuses?
There’s at least $3.1 billion in the Football Bowl Subdivision, the top level of college football, according to an American City Business Journals analysis. Beyond that, it’s hard to tell.
Here’s what’s known.
Universities file annual financial statements with the NCAA that include one line item for media rights and one line item for royalties, licensing, advertisements and sponsorships.
Using public records law, ACBJ reporters asked all 110 public universities in the Football Bowl Subdivision for a copy of their latest financial statements. To date, 92 schools provided the Business Journals some documents.
The $3.1 billion total is simply the sum of those two lines. It’s a conservative estimate.
(Conference averages were used for schools not required to disclose documents and those that have not responded to records requests.)
Corporate money can be tucked in several other accounting pockets, including ticket sales, contributions and in-kind gifts. But those lines aren’t broken down any further on financial statements.
There are two other useful documents when looking at corporate money on campus: apparel deals and multimedia deals. ACBJ reporters gathered data on both.
Universities will get an estimated $428 million in cash and equipment from Nike, Adidas and Under Armour this year, according to the analysis. That money is not included in the $3.1 billion estimate because, as journalist Kristi Dosh notes in her book “Saturday Millionaires,” some schools include it in royalties, licensing, advertisements and sponsorships.
Same goes for multimedia deals.
Broadly, multimedia rights holders work to monetize athletic departments. For example, they sell naming rights for stadiums and advertising space on scoreboards. Universities will get $606 million in guaranteed royalty payments this season from multimedia rights holders.