SoCon Athletic Budgets

Yeah - we were suffering from "we can't do this" for most of the last 40 years. What schools have good football programs where a $1000/year donor can be counted in the top 10 percent of athletic donors? How many schools have a total of 2,500 athletics donors? The good news is that the Catamount club giving has more than doubled in five years and the number of members has about doubled as well. We have a long way to go, but the attitude has changed, and hopefully the expectations of graduating students has changed as well.

The more things change, the more they remain the same.  Remember, this is only athletic operating budgets, has nothing to do with facilities (except upkeep)


Reporting Year:        2014 - 2015
1  Furman                 - $25,940,883.00
2  Samford                - $18,493,564.00
3  Chattanooga          - $17,221,945.00
4  Wofford                 - $17,047,400.00
5  Mercer                  - $15,147,341.00
6  Citadel                  - $14,403,113.00
7  VMI                       - $13,022,018.00
8  ETSU                     - $13,802,387.00
9  UNCG                    - $11,801,830.00
10 Western Carolina   - $11,222,113.00

(remember UNCG does not play football)
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Reporting Year:    2016-2017

1  Furman               - $28,179,039
2  Samford              - $21,921,217
3  Wofford               - $19,822,191
4  Mercer                - $18,731,628
5  Chattanooga        - $17,660,119
6  Citadel                - $16,964,499
7  ETSU                  - $15,587,269
8  VMI                    - $13,359,816
9  UNcG                  - $12,686,845
10 Western             - $12,412,758

(remember UNCG does not play football, so our closes "bottom-feeder" budget wise is VMI, which puts in $1 million more into their budget than WCU in its budget.)



-example of the top-funded school vs. bottom-funded school in basketball & football

Furman expenditures:
basketball - $2,092,284
football     - $6,675,863

Western Carolina expenditures: 
basketball - $1,044,112
football     - $3,132,692


Furman spends twice what we do on basketball, and 3 time what we do on football.  How can anyone expect or even hope to compete?  


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The Equity in Athletics Data Analysis Cutting Tool is brought to you by the Office of Postsecondary Education of the U.S. Department of Education. This analysis cutting tool was designed to provide rapid customized reports for public inquiries relating to equity in athletics data. The data are drawn from the OPE Equity in Athletics Disclosure Website database. This database consists of athletics data that are submitted annually as required by the Equity in Athletics Disclosure Act (EADA), via a Web-based data collection, by all co-educational postsecondary institutions that receive Title IV funding (i.e., those that participate in federal student aid programs) and that have an intercollegiate athletics program.

what is the difference in scholarship expense?

While the cost of scholarships is important, it's what the university puts in the athletic budget that is important.  Remember, Furman budgets double what WCU does for men's basketball, and triples what WCU does in football.  That's the bottom line, we're not talking about thousands of dollars either, we're talking about millions of dollars in those budgets.  

Furman expenditures on:

basketball - $2,092,284

football     - $6,675,863



Western Carolina expenditures om:

basketball - $1,044,112

football     - $3,132,692