NCAA revenue rises for 14th straight year as changes loom

Revenue at college sports’ governing body increased in fiscal 2014 for the 14th straight year, according to National Collegiate Athletic Association President Mark Emmert.

The growth comes as the NCAA prepares major governance changes aimed at providing more money to athletes, and continues to fight lawsuits and public pressure that challenge its structure.

Revenue for the fiscal year ended August 2014 was more than the Indianapolis-based NCAA’s $912.8 million in 2013, Emmert said Thursday. The final number will be released later this year.

“Not explosive growth, or anything like it, but it is set to increase at roughly the rate of inflation,” Emmert told reporters at the NCAA’s 2015 convention outside Washington, D.C.

The NCAA is appealing an Aug. 8 ruling by U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken in Oakland, California, that found its current structure is a cartel in violation of antitrust laws by limiting what schools can offer athletes.

The organization is also confronted with an antitrust lawsuit brought by labor lawyer Jeffrey Kessler, about a dozen separate lawsuits pertaining to concussions and an attempt by football players at Northwestern University to create college sports’ first athlete union.

Discussion Thursday at the six-day gathering in National Harbor, Maryland, focused in part on the changing landscape of college sports. In two days, the NCAA’s top division will begin a new era in which its five richest conferences—or Big Five—have autonomy to set their own rules in areas such as financial aid and insurance.

‘Turbulent time’

Wake Forest University President Nathan Hatch said he hoped the new structure would help resolve a “turbulent time” for collegiate athletics.

“I hope we can defend the amateur model of student athletics, because it’s in the Big Five where we face the most acute pressure, it’s where there’s the most money, it’s where there’s the most challenges to whether we’re really educating student athletes,” Hatch, also the chair of the NCAA’s Division I Board of Directors, said during the convention’s opening business session. “We have to tell that story much better.”

About 75 percent of the revenue at the NCAA’s central office comes from the organization’s television deal with CBS Corp. and Time Warner Inc.’s Turner Sports for rights to its annual college basketball tournament. The terms of that deal increase 2.5 percent each year, accounting for part of this year’s growth, Emmert said.

The location of the 2014 men’s Final Four—the 80,000-seat home of the National Football League’s Dallas Cowboys—also allowed the organization to grow ancillary revenue streams around the tournament, such as ticket sales, Emmert said.

Increased allocations

The NCAA distributes most of its revenue back to its member conferences and institutions. Those allocations increased as part of last year’s growth, according to Emmert.

Michigan State University President Lou Anna Simon praised Emmert for his handling of the NCAA’s business. She said he’s responded to feedback from conference commissioners that the central office operate in a more cost-effective manner so as to maximize the money available to distribute.

“There are also lots of little things that have occurred under Mark’s leadership that, in and of itself are not huge, but provide a little bit more money for the basic purposes of the organization,” she said.