{"id":8781,"date":"2026-08-06T14:40:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T14:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8781"},"modified":"2026-08-06T14:40:31","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T14:40:31","slug":"most-division-i-colleges-lose-money-on-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8781","title":{"rendered":"Most Division I colleges lose money on sports"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Schools typically cover multimillion-dollar shortfalls with tuition, fees and other support, the federal report found. (Icon Sportswire\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

Just weeks before the college football season kicks off, a federal report<\/a> released Wednesday underscored what some researchers have been saying for decades: Most major college sports programs lose money.<\/p>

Read more Senior home hosts first happy hour after resident fought to change law<\/a><\/p>\n

The Government Accountability Office reported 94 percent of Division I colleges spend more money on athletics than they generate \u2014 even after accounting for revenue from television contracts, ticket sales and donations to athletic departments.<\/p>\n

The GAO looked at athletic departments as a whole, including the total cost for all sports offered at a school. The median shortfall for colleges with Division I sports teams was $20.6 million in the 2023-24 school year, up from a $12.3 million gap a decade earlier, the report found. Schools generally make up the difference with tuition, fees and other support.<\/p>\n

The GAO did not address the marketing value of college sports.<\/p>\n

Researchers have found that schools sometimes see a surge of applications after sports wins, a phenomenon called the \u201cFlutie effect\u201d<\/a> \u2014 nicknamed for 1980s Boston College football star Doug Flutie. But that impact can be inconsistent and fleeting.<\/p>

Read more Why you shouldn\u2019t be surprised if Democrats don\u2019t flip the House<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThat stuff just doesn\u2019t pay off generally,\u201d said Andrew Zimbalist, an economist at Smith College who has long followed sports spending.<\/p>\n

Still, Zimbalist said there is some value in spending on sports programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cRather than creating an economic boon for the school, what they do is create a better sense of community for the student body, faculty and staff,\u201d Zimbalist said.<\/p>\n

Catch up quickly every weekday morning with a rundown of the 7 most important and interesting stories. <\/i>Sign up for The 7 newsletter<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>

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Over 90 percent of these athletic programs spend more money than they generate, according to the Government Accountability Office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nMost Division I colleges lose money on sports - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8781\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Most Division I colleges lose money on sports - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Over 90 percent of these athletic programs spend more money than they generate, according to the Government Accountability Office.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=8781\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-06T14:40:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/34e174760433f268372b2b6037cde6cd-2-1024x683.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8781#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8781\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"Most Division I colleges lose money on sports\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-06T14:40:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8781\"},\"wordCount\":320,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8781#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/fce0732798175c7e58daf316e25721e7-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Interesting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8781#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8781\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=8781\",\"name\":\"Most Division I colleges lose money on sports - 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