Spending

[Idaho]

Scroll down to page 28 to see actual Iowa wrestling numbers. Read page 27 for context. Note that the actual numbers from the regent's report are not the same as the article cited in this thread. Also note that Iowa wrestling brought in 1.2 million in income and led the nation in home dual fan attendance at 95k in FY 2025. Also note that they had 3.15 million in expenses. I guess new ways of thinking and Nebraska math only work in Nebraska, because Iowa should have made over 6 million in income.

https://www.iowaregents.edu/media/cms/0725_ITEM_9__Budgets_B7978EBC54888.pdf

[ionel]

5 minutes ago, Idaho said:

Also note that Iowa wrestling brought in 1.2 million in income and led the nation in home dual fan attendance at 95k in FY 2025. Also note that they had 3.15 million in expenses. I guess new ways of thinking and Nebraska math only work in Nebraska, because Iowa should have made over 6 million in income.

But ... if we don't count expenses Iowa would be nearly in the green like Nebraska correct ...  potato potahto.  

[ScottishSteel]

19 hours ago, jajensen09 said:

If the events they hold are making money it helps no matter what. Saying a full stadium/arena does nothing for the program is foolish. Weve also been raising $$ as fans, boosters have put $$$ forward, camps, coaching clinics, etc 

Was not what I said but as people have pointed out to you, parking fees go to the University transportation services department.  Concessions would go to the vendor that handles concessions (and some contracts stipulate that the Athletic department gets a % of all sales while others stipulate that the Athletic department gets a flat rate for the year.  I won't pretend to know how Nebraska is set up there).  You dismissed and ignored operational costs of the event, working staff, custodial, set up/teardown costs etc.  That also isn't counting things like insurance for the athletes, staff wages, gear, training table, meals, travel and all those expenditures.   Do you really think beer sales are covering charter flights? You are correct a full arena is great, no one has said otherwise but claiming Nebraska is making a profit when your data is "look at all the beer we sell" is just living in a bubble that you created and refusing to acknowledge that you don't know what you aer talking about. 

[Idaho]

4 hours ago, ScottishSteel said:

Was not what I said but as people have pointed out to you, parking fees go to the University transportation services department.  Concessions would go to the vendor that handles concessions (and some contracts stipulate that the Athletic department gets a % of all sales while others stipulate that the Athletic department gets a flat rate for the year.  I won't pretend to know how Nebraska is set up there).  You dismissed and ignored operational costs of the event, working staff, custodial, set up/teardown costs etc.  That also isn't counting things like insurance for the athletes, staff wages, gear, training table, meals, travel and all those expenditures.   Do you really think beer sales are covering charter flights? You are correct a full arena is great, no one has said otherwise but claiming Nebraska is making a profit when your data is "look at all the beer we sell" is just living in a bubble that you created and refusing to acknowledge that you don't know what you aer talking about. 

What do you know? All you did was spend 20 years in D1 college athletics and at a big time BG10 program.... LOL

As an additional note, I don't know about every school, but I know  that at some schools,  use of additional equipment and  facilities for banquets, socials, etc. the program has to rent it back from the school. They don't get it for free. And, it's not cheap. 

[Caveira]

On 6/3/2026 at 4:45 PM, Former158 said:

It seems hard to believe every psu back up is on a full ride

They claim to share nil evenly / linearly across the roster no?    Even though Cstall claims he was the highest paid athlete in all of college wrestling 

[Idaho]

10 minutes ago, Caveira said:

They claim to share nil evenly / linearly across the roster no?    Even though Cstall claims he was the highest paid athlete in all of college wrestling 

He could have been with 3rd party NIL deals outside of the PSU collective. 

[MoveCountermove]

On 6/5/2026 at 2:54 PM, Idaho said:

Scroll down to page 28 to see actual Iowa wrestling numbers. Read page 27 for context. Note that the actual numbers from the regent's report are not the same as the article cited in this thread. Also note that Iowa wrestling brought in 1.2 million in income and led the nation in home dual fan attendance at 95k in FY 2025. Also note that they had 3.15 million in expenses. I guess new ways of thinking and Nebraska math only work in Nebraska, because Iowa should have made over 6 million in income.

https://www.iowaregents.edu/media/cms/0725_ITEM_9__Budgets_B7978EBC54888.pdf

Please stop using facts in your arguments, especially those supported by citations

[MoveCountermove]

9 hours ago, Idaho said:

What do you know? All you did was spend 20 years in D1 college athletics and at a big time BG10 program.... LOL

As an additional note, I don't know about every school, but I know  that at some schools,  use of additional equipment and  facilities for banquets, socials, etc. the program has to rent it back from the school. They don't get it for free. And, it's not cheap. 

This seems common, I think because the budgets are from different university sectors, so the money has to move for budgetary and legal purposes, paper trails included.

[jajensen09]

17 hours ago, ScottishSteel said:

Was not what I said but as people have pointed out to you, parking fees go to the University transportation services department.  Concessions would go to the vendor that handles concessions (and some contracts stipulate that the Athletic department gets a % of all sales while others stipulate that the Athletic department gets a flat rate for the year.  I won't pretend to know how Nebraska is set up there).  You dismissed and ignored operational costs of the event, working staff, custodial, set up/teardown costs etc.  That also isn't counting things like insurance for the athletes, staff wages, gear, training table, meals, travel and all those expenditures.   Do you really think beer sales are covering charter flights? You are correct a full arena is great, no one has said otherwise but claiming Nebraska is making a profit when your data is "look at all the beer we sell" is just living in a bubble that you created and refusing to acknowledge that you don't know what you aer talking about. 

When not knowing nebraska fans and following of their sports teams makes you not knowledgeable of Nebraska athletics. Beer sales are a big deal! The revenue beer sales have brought to university throughout sports has been millions of $$s

[jajensen09]

13 hours ago, Idaho said:

What do you know? All you did was spend 20 years in D1 college athletics and at a big time BG10 program.... LOL

As an additional note, I don't know about every school, but I know  that at some schools,  use of additional equipment and  facilities for banquets, socials, etc. the program has to rent it back from the school. They don't get it for free. And, it's not cheap. 

20 years then and now are 2 different beasts

[jajensen09]

17 hours ago, ScottishSteel said:

Was not what I said but as people have pointed out to you, parking fees go to the University transportation services department.  Concessions would go to the vendor that handles concessions (and some contracts stipulate that the Athletic department gets a % of all sales while others stipulate that the Athletic department gets a flat rate for the year.  I won't pretend to know how Nebraska is set up there).  You dismissed and ignored operational costs of the event, working staff, custodial, set up/teardown costs etc.  That also isn't counting things like insurance for the athletes, staff wages, gear, training table, meals, travel and all those expenditures.   Do you really think beer sales are covering charter flights? You are correct a full arena is great, no one has said otherwise but claiming Nebraska is making a profit when your data is "look at all the beer we sell" is just living in a bubble that you created and refusing to acknowledge that you don't know what you aer talking about. 

You are living in the old days where $$ wasnt generated.  Nil has changed ways of thinking. In just donations only they hit at least 750k!! On a fundraiser 

[ScottishSteel]

6 hours ago, jajensen09 said:

You are living in the old days where $$ wasnt generated.  Nil has changed ways of thinking. In just donations only they hit at least 750k!! On a fundraiser 

I literally left working in a Big Ten athletic department less than a year ago . . . I think I'm pretty up-to-speed w/ how the modern athletic department operates

[ScottishSteel]

6 hours ago, jajensen09 said:

When not knowing nebraska fans and following of their sports teams makes you not knowledgeable of Nebraska athletics. Beer sales are a big deal! The revenue beer sales have brought to university throughout sports has been millions of $$s

So your argument is just Nebraska fans are more passionate and drink more than any other college fan base?  You have no actual data and your argument would only work in theory if you were knowledgeable of the quantity of beer sales by every other D1 athletic department and even THAT is ignoring what I said earlier about how concessions sales revenue goes to a 3rd party company and Nebraska could be contracted to get a flat rate from that company (or a %) but either way not full profits.

But if you must know, I did text a former colleague who now works in the Nebraska athletic department and do have confirmation that Nebraska wrestling does not make a profit

[Idaho]

4 hours ago, ScottishSteel said:

But if you must know, I did text a former colleague who now works in the Nebraska athletic department and do have confirmation that Nebraska wrestling does not make a profit

Lol..... 

[MoveCountermove]

6 hours ago, Idaho said:

Lol..... 

[2001Hokie]

On 6/7/2026 at 7:03 AM, ScottishSteel said:

But if you must know, I did text a former colleague who now works in the Nebraska athletic department and do have confirmation that Nebraska wrestling does not make a profit

I'd expect that colleague wasn't considering the beer!!!  

[ScottishSteel]

26 minutes ago, 2001Hokie said:

I'd expect that colleague wasn't considering the beer!!!  

Well they might not be living in the old days and not know how things work now

[Former158]

On 6/5/2026 at 2:54 PM, Idaho said:

Scroll down to page 28 to see actual Iowa wrestling numbers. Read page 27 for context. Note that the actual numbers from the regent's report are not the same as the article cited in this thread. Also note that Iowa wrestling brought in 1.2 million in income and led the nation in home dual fan attendance at 95k in FY 2025. Also note that they had 3.15 million in expenses. I guess new ways of thinking and Nebraska math only work in Nebraska, because Iowa should have made over 6 million in income.

https://www.iowaregents.edu/media/cms/0725_ITEM_9__Budgets_B7978EBC54888.pdf

Great find on this data. However by the figures cited directly football and basketball at Iowa are projected to lose roughly 23 million next year. The biggest figure cited is the conference and media contracts worth 92,683,000. We would need to parse out how much of the conference and media money should go to wrestling, though likely not 1.95 million. The outlier is camps which may generate 10,000s extra.

[ionel]

Show me the green!!

[Idaho]

17 hours ago, Former158 said:

Great find on this data. However by the figures cited directly football and basketball at Iowa are projected to lose roughly 23 million next year. The biggest figure cited is the conference and media contracts worth 92,683,000. We would need to parse out how much of the conference and media money should go to wrestling, though likely not 1.95 million. The outlier is camps which may generate 10,000s extra.

Yes - there is the "other income" (media, conference, etc.)  that as you mentioned, is not spelled out by sport but possibly divided up with some sort of formula by sport.  Whatever the case, Iowa wrestling is not bringing in money through dual match income to cover their own costs. Camps are an interesting one where is seems the program can use those funds how they want. @ScottishSteel may know more about that one. I have seen camps used in part to pay wrestlers so they can earn some cash as well as money put toward upgrading something in the program. 

[ScottishSteel]

28 minutes ago, Idaho said:

Yes - there is the "other income" (media, conference, etc.)  that as you mentioned, is not spelled out by sport but possibly divided up with some sort of formula by sport.  Whatever the case, Iowa wrestling is not bringing in money through dual match income to cover their own costs. Camps are an interesting one where is seems the program can use those funds how they want. @ScottishSteel may know more about that one. I have seen camps used in part to pay wrestlers so they can earn some cash as well as money put toward upgrading something in the program. 

At least at the B1G institution where I worked, camp money could be used however the coaches and sport administrator deemed best.  At the smaller institutions I worked at (Missouri Valley and MAAC conferences), those camp funds were integral to sport budgets as a whole.  I won't pretend to know how every school utilizes them and obviously w/ NIL being a thing now that is and will continue to evolve how the priority of finances are used.

Based on my experiences at all levels, I would not count "camps" as part of a financial report as that is "extra" and not "integral" to the operation of the operation of the team.  I use quotes because it would be major malpractice for a team to not have a camp but in terms of the varsity program practicing and competing against their peers at other institutions it is not necessary.   In another way of saying it, when a team puts in their budget request they likely aren't asking for funds for camps either.  It's just a separate pocket of money.  Think of it like you have your bank account where your paycheck goes and you have to pay bills and mortgage etc out of but if you have a second bank account where your grandma gives you money sometimes and you can use that money for whatever you want.

 

Media revenue is weird because the contracts the conference negotiates w/ the media partners likely spells out how they are doing $XXXXX for a specific number of football games vs $YYYY for a specific number of MBB games vs $ZZZZZ for a specific number of WBB games and $????? for remaining Oly sports.   The conference than distributes that evenly to the institutions and the institutions will tag the sport specific where they can (honestly the vast bulk of MBB and WBB programs are financial losses but saved by TV money).  The Oly amount is starting to get more specific as some sports are taking off (WVB is a good example) but pending the wording the Athletic Director's office has a lot of flexibility with how they distribute, utilize, and credit that money on the accounting books.  Any major institution also has their own production arm that has employees, tech needs, etc that would eat away at that revenue as well.

TL;DR - camps are separate and don't really count as expenses or revenue with how most bigger institutions keep their finances and media money is weird and a school can basically make the books say what they want in terms of who gets credit for it or how it's recorded.

[Idaho]

34 minutes ago, ScottishSteel said:

At least at the B1G institution where I worked, camp money could be used however the coaches and sport administrator deemed best.  At the smaller institutions I worked at (Missouri Valley and MAAC conferences), those camp funds were integral to sport budgets as a whole.  I won't pretend to know how every school utilizes them and obviously w/ NIL being a thing now that is and will continue to evolve how the priority of finances are used.

Based on my experiences at all levels, I would not count "camps" as part of a financial report as that is "extra" and not "integral" to the operation of the operation of the team.  I use quotes because it would be major malpractice for a team to not have a camp but in terms of the varsity program practicing and competing against their peers at other institutions it is not necessary.   In another way of saying it, when a team puts in their budget request they likely aren't asking for funds for camps either.  It's just a separate pocket of money.  Think of it like you have your bank account where your paycheck goes and you have to pay bills and mortgage etc out of but if you have a second bank account where your grandma gives you money sometimes and you can use that money for whatever you want.

 

Media revenue is weird because the contracts the conference negotiates w/ the media partners likely spells out how they are doing $XXXXX for a specific number of football games vs $YYYY for a specific number of MBB games vs $ZZZZZ for a specific number of WBB games and $????? for remaining Oly sports.   The conference than distributes that evenly to the institutions and the institutions will tag the sport specific where they can (honestly the vast bulk of MBB and WBB programs are financial losses but saved by TV money).  The Oly amount is starting to get more specific as some sports are taking off (WVB is a good example) but pending the wording the Athletic Director's office has a lot of flexibility with how they distribute, utilize, and credit that money on the accounting books.  Any major institution also has their own production arm that has employees, tech needs, etc that would eat away at that revenue as well.

TL;DR - camps are separate and don't really count as expenses or revenue with how most bigger institutions keep their finances and media money is weird and a school can basically make the books say what they want in terms of who gets credit for it or how it's recorded.

Thanks @ScottishSteel - I knew you would have a good answer!

[Former158]

2 hours ago, Idaho said:

Thanks @ScottishSteel - I knew you would have a good answer!

https://www.hawkcentral.com/story/sports/college/iowa/2016/07/01/iowa-hawkeyes-sports-camps/86573960/

This older article suggests a few 100,000s annually is generated to the university from all sports camps (assuming its more now). The final piece of the puzzle is endowed funds and donations. The Hawkeye Wrestling club took in 1.37 million in FY24, though much of this goes to fund Freestyle/elite athletes (at least 790k) https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/237302974/202522879349301472/full. However we don't know what annually operating budget funds come from gifts, endowment or how Hawkeye wrestling club funds may offset some regular operating, etc. I would exclude huge capital gifts for Wrestling only facilities but they should be off-setting some operating from gifts, which would still show up as a budgeted expense in the figures. When put together with camps, media and conference share money, I think we are getting close to breaking even....though only at the absolute top institutions. 

To be fair, D1 wrestling is not profitable as the model for profitability is D3 through tuition and enrollment enhancement---see 

 

Edited June 10 by Former158

[Interviewed_at_Weehawken]

2 minutes ago, Former158 said:

https://www.hawkcentral.com/story/sports/college/iowa/2016/07/01/iowa-hawkeyes-sports-camps/86573960/

This older article suggests a few 100,000s annually is generated to the university from all sports camps (assuming its more now). The final piece of the puzzle is endowed funds and donations. The Hawkeye Wrestling club took in 1.37 million in FY24, though much of this goes to fund Freestyle/elite athletes (at least 790k) https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/237302974/202522879349301472/full. However we don't know what annually operating budget funds come from gifts, endowment or how Hawkeye wrestling club funds may offset some regular operating, etc. I would exclude huge capital gifts for Wrestling only facilities but when put together with camps, media and conference share money, I think we are getting close to breaking even....though only at the absolute top institutions. 

To be fair, D1 wrestling is not profitable as the model for profitability is D3 through tuition and enrollment enhancement---see 

 

I wonder how Sacred Heart is doing?  They basically operate under a model very similar to D3.  I even heard Koll say that may be the best way going forward for the have nots.

[Former158]

5 hours ago, Interviewed_at_Weehawken said:

I wonder how Sacred Heart is doing?  They basically operate under a model very similar to D3.  I even heard Koll say that may be the best way going forward for the have nots.

Sacred heart is an interesting model. I don't know how many D1 schools make their case on enrollment. They could definitely be one as at a small private D3 school, 6-8 paying recruits is a year is all you need, even if they all have 50% scholarships