Duke Basketball Makes Good Use of a Budget Suitable for Football

This is the last of a three-part series on expenditures in college athletics. Read part one here. Read part two here.

There's never been any question that basketball is king at Duke. But if you need more evidence, consider this: During the 2008-09 school year, Duke spent more money on its men's basketball program than 22 BCS conference schools spent on their football programs.

That's right. Duke's men's basketball program had a larger budget ($13.87 million) than one-third of the 66 automatic qualifying BCS conference school's football programs in 2008-09, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Education's Equity in Athletics.

The Blue Devils certainly got their money's worth this year with another Final Four trip, capped by winning a fourth national title -- but first since 2001 -- under coach Mike Krzyzewski.

The spending gap between Duke and the nation's other men's basketball teams is staggering. Last year, Duke spent at least twice as much on its men's basketball program than 330 of the other 346 Division I men's basketball programs.



Share The next highest spending men's basketball program was Marquette, which doesn't have a football program. The Golden Eagles spent $10.3 million, followed by Michigan State at $9.02 million. Louisville was fourth at $8.62 million, but the Cardinals accounted for $25.49 million in men's basketball revenues, easily the nation's highest amount.

Of college basketball's biggest spenders -- Duke, Marquette, Michigan State, Louisville, Kentucky ($8.61 million), Kansas ($8.21 million), Florida ($8.10 million), Texas ($7.89 million), Syracuse ($7.78 million), North Carolina ($7.48 million), Georgetown ($7.40 million) and Virginia ($7.18 million) -- 10 of those 12 schools have been to at least one Final Four since 2003. Four of the top 12 spending basketball programs are from the Big East.

The only two schools among the top 12 spenders that haven't been to the Final Four that recently are Kentucky, which made its last Final Four in 1998, and Virginia, which hasn't been since 1984.

For a school that ranks among the top 12 spenders in college basketball, Virginia has had very little success to show for it. The Cavaliers have made only two NCAA tournaments since 2001 -- or the same number of appearances that Ole Miss has made in that time period.

Ole Miss, by the way, spent only $2.5 million in 2008-09, the lowest amount of the automatic qualifying BCS conference schools, or nearly $5 million less than the Cavaliers

Although the Cavaliers' influx of money into their basketball program hasn't translated into much success, the schools that put the least money into their programs not surprisingly aren't regular participants in the NCAA tournament.

The six BCS conference programs that spent the least amount on their men's basketball programs -- Ole Miss ($2.5 million), South Florida ($2.92 million), DePaul ($3.25 million), Oregon State ($3.32 million), Washington State ($3.48 million) and Northwestern ($3.72 million) -- have pretty much got what they paid for: not many NCAA tournament trips.

Washington State, which made back-to-back NCAA tournaments in 2007 and 2008, is the exception. DePaul hasn't been to the tournament since 2004 and Ole Miss since 2002. South Florida's NCAA drought extends to 1992 and Oregon State's to 1990. Northwestern has never made the NCAA tournament.

Another way to look at the commitment a university has to its basketball program is comparing the amount of money spent on the men's basketball program to the football program.

Of the current 11 members of Big Ten, six schools -- Ohio State, Iowa, Penn State, Northwestern, Wisconsin and Michigan -- did not put in one-fourth of the money on their respective men's basketball programs that they did on their football programs.

In all, 17 of the 66 BCS universities didn't have one-fourth of the budget for their men's basketball program than they did for their football program. The biggest discrepancies between men's basketball and football programs were at Ohio State (only 14.5 percent of what the football program spent), Auburn (15.6 percent), Iowa (16.5 percent), Alabama (18.8 percent) and Rutgers (19.2 percent).

However, maybe that's to be expected since Ohio State, Auburn, Iowa and Alabama are the four biggest spenders in college football.

None of those schools, however, can compare with Texas. As far as overall revenue generated by a school's athletic department, the Longhorns win by a landslide. Texas, which also ranked No. 1 nationally in football program revenue, ranked first in overall revenue for its athletic department, bringing in $138.45 million.

By comparison, the Longhorns brought in more revenue than the top four schools combined from Conference USA -- SMU, Memphis, East Carolina and Rice.

Each of the top five revenue producing athletic departments brought in more than $100 million in 2008-09. Following Texas' money making athletic department machine was Ohio State ($119.85 million), Florida ($108.30 million), Alabama ($103.93 million) and LSU ($100.07 million).

Rounding out the Top 10 were Penn State ($95.97 million), Michigan ($95.19 million), Tennessee ($95.52 million), Wisconsin ($89.94 million) and Auburn ($87 million).

Independent Notre Dame ranked 13th at $81.08 million. Other BCS conference leaders from the Pac-10, ACC and Big East, respectively, were: USC (14th, $80.15 million), Florida State (20th, $74.41 million) and UConn (40th, $58.49 million).

The top non-BCS athletic departments in revenue: TCU ($46.46 million), BYU ($35.62 million), SMU ($35.58 million), San Diego State ($34.45 million) and Memphis ($33.5 million). The remaining non-BCS conferences leaders from the WAC, Mid-American and Sun Belt, respectively, were Hawaii ($30.51 million) , Temple ($26.87 million) and Florida International ($21.27 million).

Here is a conference-by-conference breakdown on men's basketball spending compared to football spending.


*All dollar figures are in millions

Source: U.S. Department of Education's Equity in Athletics report for the 2008-09 school year

Rank	University	Revenue	Conference
1	Texas	$138.45	Big 12
2	Ohio State	$119.85	Big Ten
3	Florida	$108.30	SEC
4	Alabama	$103.93	SEC
5	LSU	$100.07	SEC
6	Penn State	$95.97	Big Ten
7	Michigan	$95.19	Big Ten
8	Tennessee	$92.52	SEC
9	Wisconsin	$89.84	Big Ten
10	Auburn	$87.00	SEC
11	Georgia	$81.49	SEC
12	Oklahoma	$81.48	Big 12
13	Notre Dame	$81.08	IND/Big East
14	USC	$80.15	Pac-10
15	Iowa	$79.52	Big Ten
16	South Carolina	$76.25	SEC
17	Michigan State	$75.62	Big Ten
18	Nebraska	$74.88	Big 12
19	Stanford	$74.69	Pac-10
20	Florida State	$74.41	ACC
21	California	$73.35	Pac-10
22	Texas A&M	$72.88	Big 12
23	Kentucky	$72.05	SEC
24	Oklahoma State	$71.80	Big 12
25	Duke	$71.07	ACC
26	Kansas	$70.61	Big 12
27	Minnesota	$70.32	Big Ten
28	North Carolina	$70.15	ACC
29	Virginia	$67.14	ACC
30	UCLA	$66.17	Pac-10
31	Boston College	$64.15	ACC
32	Arkansas	$63.97	SEC
33	Miami	$61.96	ACC
34	Indiana	$60.61	Big Ten
35	Washington	$60.57	Pac-10
36	Oregon	$60.28	Pac-10
37	Clemson	$60.16	ACC
38	Maryland	$59.96	ACC
39	Purdue	$59.91	Big Ten
40	UConn	$58.49	Big East
41	Louisville	$58.02	Big East
42	Missouri	$57.77	Big 12
43	West Virginia	$55.65	Big East
44	Illinois	$55.60	Big Ten
45	Rutgers	$54.30	Big East
46	Arizona State	$53.29	Pac-10
47	Virginia Tech	$52.83	ACC
48	Syracuse	$52.05	Big East
49	Arizona	$51.82	Pac-10
50	Oregon State	$50.21	Pac-10
51	Colorado	$49.85	Big 12
52	Northwestern	$48.58	Big Ten
53	Baylor	$48.54	Big 12
54	Georgia Tech	$48.06	ACC
55	Kansas State	$47.39	Big 12
56	Texas Tech	$46.63	Big 12
57	N.C. State	$46.49	ACC
58	Pittsburgh	$45.83	Big East
59	Iowa State	$45.81	Big 12
60	Vanderbilt	$45.58	SEC
61	Wake Forest	$44.64	ACC
62	Ole Miss	$41.31	SEC
63	Washington St.	$38.29	Pac-10
64	South Florida	$37.85	Big East
65	Mississippi St.	$36.53	SEC
66	Cincinnati	$35.02	Big East

The top 25 athletic departments ranked by gross revenue from non-automatic qualifying BCS conferences.

Source: U.S. Department of Education's Equity in Athletics report for the 2008-09 school year

Rank	University	Expenses	Conference
1	TCU	$46.46	MWC
2	BYU	$35.62	MWC
3	SMU	$35.38	C-USA
4	San Diego State	$34.35	MWC
5	Memphis	$33.50	C-USA
6	UNLV	$33.17	MWC
7	New Mexico	$31.99	MWC
8	Utah	$31.77	MWC
9	Rice	$30.67	C-USA
10	East Carolina	$30.56	C-USA
11	Hawaii	$30.51	WAC
12	Central Florida	$29.98	C-USA
13	Houston	$29.62	C-USA
14	Fresno State	$28.80	WAC
15	Tulsa	$27.13	C-USA
16	Temple	$26.87	MAC/A-10
17	New Mexico St.	$25.61	WAC
18	Miami (OH)	$24.68	MAC
19	Wyoming	$24.67	MWC
20	Buffalo	$23.44	MAC
21	UTEP	$22.99	C-USA
22	UAB	$22.62	C-USA
23	Central Michigan	$22.47	MAC
24	Colorado State	$22.33	MWC
25	Marshall	$22.14	C-USA

The 73 men's basketball programs in the six major conferences from the biggest spender (Duke) to the most frugal (Ole Miss). These are the 66 automatic qualifying BCS football schools plus the seven Big East members that don't field an FBS program.

Source: U.S. Department of Education's Equity in Athletics report for the 2008-09 school year

Rank	University	Expenses	Conference
1	Duke	$13.87	ACC
2	Marquette	$10.30	Big East
3	Michigan State	$9.03	Big Ten
4	Louisville	$8.62	Big East
5	Kentucky	$8.61	SEC
6	Kansas	$8.21	Big 12
7	Florida	$8.10	SEC
8	Texas	$7.89	Big 12
9	Syracuse	$7.78	Big East
10	North Carolina	$7.48	ACC
11	Georgetown	$7.40	Big East
12	Virginia	$7.18	ACC
13	Vanderbilt	$7.00	SEC
14	UCLA	$6.99	Pac-10
15	Indiana	$6.94	Big Ten
16	UConn	$6.79	Big East
17	Arkansas	$6.63	SEC
18	Georgia	$6.29	SEC
19	Texas A&M	$6.21	Big 12
20	Arizona	$6.13	Pac-10
21	West Virginia	$5.96	Big East
22	Villanova	$5.95	Big East
23	Boston College	$5.68	ACC
24	Tennessee	$5.46	SEC
25	Wisconsin	$5.44	Big Ten
26	Oklahoma	$5.40	Big 12
27	Pittsburgh	$5.33	Big East
28	Seton Hall	$5.20	Big East
29	Oklahoma St.	$5.16	Big 12
30	South Carolina	$5.13	SEC
31	Minnesota	$5.11	Big Ten
32	Alabama	$4.98	SEC
33	Maryland	$4.89	ACC
34	Miami	$4.80	ACC
35	Washington	$4.778	Pac-10
36	Illinois	$4.772	Big Ten
37	LSU	$4.76	SEC
38	California	$4.75	Pac-10
39	St. John's	$4.72	Big East
40	USC	$4.71	Pac-10
41	Purdue	$4.70	Big Ten
42	Ohio State	$4.69	Big Ten
43	Providence	$4.63	Big East
44	Kansas State	$4.60	Big 12
45	Baylor	$4.59	Big 12
46	Missouri	$4.52	Big 12
47	Auburn	$4.51	SEC
48	Oregon	$4.50	Pac-10
49	Virginia Tech	$4.48	ACC
50	Michigan	$4.45	Big Ten
51	Iowa	$4.44	Big Ten
52	Georgia Tech	$4.41	ACC
53	Penn State	$4.40	Big Ten
54	Notre Dame	$4.38	Big East
55	Arizona State	$4.34	Pac-10
56	Iowa State	$4.29	Big 12
57	Florida State	$4.28	ACC
58	Stanford	$4.22	Pac-10
59	Wake Forest	$4.18	ACC
60	Clemson	$4.11	ACC
61	Cincinnati	$4.01	Big East
62	Nebraska	$3.96	Big 12
63	Colorado	$3.95	Big 12
64	Texas Tech	$3.83	Big 12
65	Rutgers	$3.79	Big East
66	N.C. State	$3.74	ACC
67	Mississippi St.	$3.724	SEC
68	Northwestern	$3.720	Big Ten
69	Washington St.	$3.48	Pac-10
70	Oregon State	$3.32	Pac-10
71	DePaul	$3.25	Big East
72	South Florida	$2.92	Big East
73	Ole Miss	$2.50	SEC

The top 20 basketball programs in expenses outside the six major conferences.

Source: U.S. Department of Education's Equity in Athletics report for the 2008-09 school year

Rank	University	Expenses	Conference
1	Memphis	$6.54	C-USA
2	UNLV	$4.64	MWC
3	Rice	$4.63	C-USA
4	TCU	$4.54	MWC
5	Creighton	$4.03	MVC
6	Xavier	$3.93	Atlantic 10
7	New Mexico	$3.80	MWC
8	San Diego St.	$3.50	MWC
9	Dayton	$3.40	Atlantic 10
10	Tulsa	$3.31	C-USA
11	UTEP	$3.25	C-USA
12	BYU	$3.24	MWC
13	Wichita State	$3.18	MVC
14	SMU	$3.17	C-USA
15	Saint Louis	$3.10	Atlantic 10
16	Gonzaga	$3.05