Follow the money | The Boneyard

Follow the money

Men’s version. Ouch, Kentucky

IMG_4919.jpeg
 
Huh. Everything I've heard in recent years is that Washington doesn't allocate much of their athletics department budget to women's hoops. This showing them among the bigger spenders in the entire country seems...implausible to me. Langley at $650 K is certainly not among the highest paid coaches. A USA Today article I just found from 2024 had her at #37.

Yeah, Washington spending about as much on women's hoops as Tennessee, color me very, very skeptical of this info.
 
.-.
Huh. Everything I've heard in recent years is that Washington doesn't allocate much of their athletics department budget to women's hoops. This showing them among the bigger spenders in the entire country seems...implausible to me. Langley at $650 K is certainly not among the highest paid coaches. A USA Today article I just found from 2024 had her at #37.

Yeah, Washington spending about as much on women's hoops as Tennessee, color me very, very skeptical of this info.
The graphic states that the data is from 2023-2024 and the source was the US Department of Education. The question would be what they considered to be part of the budget as it's more than just coaches salaries.
 
Huh. Everything I've heard in recent years is that Washington doesn't allocate much of their athletics department budget to women's hoops. This showing them among the bigger spenders in the entire country seems...implausible to me. Langley at $650 K is certainly not among the highest paid coaches. A USA Today article I just found from 2024 had her at #37.

Yeah, Washington spending about as much on women's hoops as Tennessee, color me very, very skeptical of this info.
Washington was 5th among the 16 public schools in the BIG in FY 2025 WBB program expenses, as self-reported to the NCAA:




Institution

Total WBB Expenses FY '25
Head C
WBB Program FY '25 Excess (Deficiencies) of Revenues Over (Under) Expenses

UCLA

$9,690,479
$1,276,951
($7,683,011)
Indiana
$9,383,477
$1,641,763
($5,611,748)
Iowa
$8,485,428
$2,517,502
($3,706,021)
MD
$8,236,450
$2,323,123
($6,834,631)
Washington
$7,862,066
$981,687
($5,913,358)
Rutgers
$7,547,971
$1,398,035
($6,954,968)
MSU
$7,265,000
$1,110,978
($6,003,782)
Ohio St
$7,163,564
$1,397,149
($5,612,098)
Illinois
$7,052,333
$1,262,423
($4,865,835)
Oregon
$6,718,334
$2,374,428
($4,888,217)
Minnesota
$6,589,399
$1,074,953
($4,950,586)
Nebraska
$6,299,266
$1,030,619
($4,112,499)
Michigan
$5,858,896
$1,042,126
($4,720,387)
Penn St
$5,540,713
$1,927,622
($4,739,317)
Wisconsin
$5,150,467
$942,563
($4,390,414)
Purdue
$4,911,279
$832,989
($3,917,532)
 
.-.
Pretty insane that the penn st coach was making almost 2mil😳
My Penn State head coach number is incorrect. Should have double checked my chart made several weeks ago. The NCAA form breaks out head coach and assistant coaches compensation, but Penn State submitted only a combined number. Mea culpa.
 
Several years ago, I became aware that information was filed with the Department of Education, and I thought it would be interesting to do some analysis.

Long story short, I ended up giving up.

BigTenGuy's comment reminded me of one of the issues – there are many more.

If you don't think about it much it seems like it ought to be easy to document all the expenses associated with the program. In the particular case just mentioned, it simply means that you don't have the exact amount of the a coaches salary only have the total which isn't a big deal if you are interested in the overall program expenses but obviously a big deal if you're trying to track down the Head coaches salary.

It's been years, so my recollection is vague but there are other issues.

For example, UConn almost certainly charges a license fee when apparel makers want to but the Husky logo or "UConn" on an item of clothing for sale. That income counts as income to the athletic department, but how do you decide how much goes to the women's basketball team, the football team the hockey team the volleyball team etc. There are multiple plausible rules but those rules may differ among institutions.

Does the cost of tuition which is not paid because the student is on scholarship count as an expense? That seems likely but I don't know whether all institutions do it exactly the same way. More importantly, I know that many of the scholarships are funded by private donors. How is that income allocated? It sounds straightforward – if a donor offers to pick up all or a partial scholarship for player X, then that income should be allocated to that program, but do we know for certain that it happens exactly this way? What if a donor contributes to a general scholarship fund? How is that allocated?

Schools do advertising. If they are generally advertising UConn athletics or more broadly UConn as an institution, how much of that cost should be allocated to the women's basketball program? As above, there are plausible algorithms but it's not necessarily the case that every institution doesn't exactly the same way.

UConn has a dedicated practice facility for the basketball teams, both men and women. How is this allocated to the two teams? Does it just include annual operating costs, or does it include the cost of the facility, some of which is covered by donors.

I have only scratched the surface but I'm sure some readers of bored to tears. The general point is that one should be very cautious about comparing numbers among institutions or over time because there are a lot of assumptions be made differently by different organizations.
 
Washington was 5th among the 16 public schools in the BIG in FY 2025 WBB program expenses, as self-reported to the NCAA:




Institution

Total WBB Expenses FY '25
Head C
WBB Program FY '25 Excess (Deficiencies) of Revenues Over (Under) Expenses

UCLA

$9,690,479
$1,276,951
($7,683,011)
Indiana
$9,383,477
$1,641,763
($5,611,748)
Iowa
$8,485,428
$2,517,502
($3,706,021)
MD
$8,236,450
$2,323,123
($6,834,631)
Washington
$7,862,066
$981,687
($5,913,358)
Rutgers
$7,547,971
$1,398,035
($6,954,968)
MSU
$7,265,000
$1,110,978
($6,003,782)
Ohio St
$7,163,564
$1,397,149
($5,612,098)
Illinois
$7,052,333
$1,262,423
($4,865,835)
Oregon
$6,718,334
$2,374,428
($4,888,217)
Minnesota
$6,589,399
$1,074,953
($4,950,586)
Nebraska
$6,299,266
$1,030,619
($4,112,499)
Michigan
$5,858,896
$1,042,126
($4,720,387)
Penn St
$5,540,713
$1,927,622
($4,739,317)
Wisconsin
$5,150,467
$942,563
($4,390,414)
Purdue
$4,911,279
$832,989
($3,917,532)

If Jensen is $2.5M that's news to her and Iowa fans both.
 
If Jensen is $2.5M that's news to her and Iowa fans both.
My speculation is that this is the same issue as Penn State. They decided to combine the head coach salary along with all of the assistant coaches, and who knows, maybe the administrative assistants and the video person etc.
 
I hate the impact of AI with a passion, but isn't this the type of where a high-end version would be expected to excel?
Several years ago, I became aware that information was filed with the Department of Education, and I thought it would be interesting to do some analysis.

Long story short, I ended up giving up.

BigTenGuy's comment reminded me of one of the issues – there are many more.

If you don't think about it much it seems like it ought to be easy to document all the expenses associated with the program. In the particular case just mentioned, it simply means that you don't have the exact amount of the a coaches salary only have the total which isn't a big deal if you are interested in the overall program expenses but obviously a big deal if you're trying to track down the Head coaches salary.

It's been years, so my recollection is vague but there are other issues.

For example, UConn almost certainly charges a license fee when apparel makers want to but the Husky logo or "UConn" on an item of clothing for sale. That income counts as income to the athletic department, but how do you decide how much goes to the women's basketball team, the football team the hockey team the volleyball team etc. There are multiple plausible rules but those rules may differ among institutions.

Does the cost of tuition which is not paid because the student is on scholarship count as an expense? That seems likely but I don't know whether all institutions do it exactly the same way. More importantly, I know that many of the scholarships are funded by private donors. How is that income allocated? It sounds straightforward – if a donor offers to pick up all or a partial scholarship for player X, then that income should be allocated to that program, but do we know for certain that it happens exactly this way? What if a donor contributes to a general scholarship fund? How is that allocated?

Schools do advertising. If they are generally advertising UConn athletics or more broadly UConn as an institution, how much of that cost should be allocated to the women's basketball program? As above, there are plausible algorithms but it's not necessarily the case that every institution doesn't exactly the same way.

UConn has a dedicated practice facility for the basketball teams, both men and women. How is this allocated to the two teams? Does it just include annual operating costs, or does it include the cost of the facility, some of which is covered by donors.

I have only scratched the surface but I'm sure some readers of bored to tears. The general point is that one should be very cautious about comparing numbers among institutions or over time because there are a lot of assumptions be made differently by different organizations.
 
.-.
If Jensen is $2.5M that's news to her and Iowa fans both.
My speculation is that this is the same issue as Penn State. They decided to combine the head coach salary along with all of the assistant coaches, and who knows, maybe the administrative assistants and the video person etc.

Likely a different issue for Iowa. Iowa reported $2,517,502 in "Head Coaching Salaries, Benefits and Bonuses paid by the University and Related Entities" during fiscal year 2025, i.e. from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025. Iowa also reported $1,121,900 in compensation for assistant coaches and $329,815 in compensation for support staff. The "Head Coaching" figure likely includes a substantial amount of deferred compensation for Lisa Bluder paid on/after July 1, 2024 (Bluder retired May 13, 2024), as well as compensation for Jan Jensen.

Separately, the head coaching compensation figures in my earlier chart are accurate for 14/16 schools, and inaccurate for Penn State and Oregon, which combine amounts for head coaches and assistant coaches. Also, the head coaching figures in my earlier chart do not include Post-Season Coaching Compensation/Bonuses, which are reported separately to the NCAA.
 
Kelly Graves salary at Oregon is a public record. Currently on a four year extension at $1,075,000+ running through 2029. $1,500,000 buy out. Two main assistants, Berry and Freeman, are somewhere north of $208,000. Bonuses are in place for all coaches for Big Ten and NCAA tournament results.
I expect Graves will finish out this contract at Oregon and make a decision. He is 63 so may be looking at retirement at 67 or so.
 

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