DATA607 FINAL PROJECT

NCAA Athletics and College Finances

Logan Thomson

May 5, 2016

Introduction

“A very small number of the 1,100 (NCAA members) have a positive cash flow on college sports, so those schools are making a decision that having a successful athletic program is valuable to them despite the fact they have to subsidize it with institutional money. The same thing is true for a lot of academic programs. So every school has to sit down and say, ‘What is this worth to us?’” - NCAA President & CEO Mark Emmert

Are college athletics a huge source of revenue?
Do college athletics pose a financial burden?
Is there a positive or negative effect on institutions?

Data Sources

Data	Type	Variables	Source
NCAA APR	.tsv	Conference, Sub-Divisions, Sports, Academic Performance	http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/NCAA/studies/26801
Knight Foundation	.csv	Academic & Athletic Spending	http://spendingdatabase.knightcommission.org
USA Today NCAA Finances	Scraped Web Page	Athletic Expenses & Revenues	http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances
IPEDS	.csv	Admission, Retention, Graduation	http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/Default.aspx

Overview of Combined Data

Division I institutions only
Limited to financial data in Knight Foundation and USA Today
29 different variables
Data on 225 institutions

Conclusion

Many different scenarios
Athletic spending far outpaced by academic expenditures
Few institutions generate positive revenue
Most institutions break even on athletic expenses
More attention should be put onto athletic team subsidies