A high stakes game during the time of COVID-19: What happens if college sports don’t come back in the fall?
Large universities rely on sports revenues in order to balance their operating budgets. The coronavirus has already caused massive cancellations nationwide, and experts are suggesting that a second wave could hit in the early fall. According to NCES, tuition and fees account for only 20% of revenues at most public institutions. What happens if sports – and students – don’t come back in September? The stakes are high, especially at powerhouse football universities.
A recent article on Forbes says that cancelling the Men’s Division I basketball tournament in March cost the NCAA about $375 million. The University of Michigan, a Big 10 powerhouse, is already bracing for a loss of between $400 million and $1 billion across its three campuses for the coming school year. USA TODAY reports that at least $4.1 billion is at stake for all of the Power Five Conferences(a grouping of 65 universities that includes major conferences such as ACC, Big 12, Pac-10, SEC and the Big 10 – home to the University of Michigan). At an average of more than $78 million in revenues per school, those athletic dollars represent more than 60% of most schools’ total annual operating revenues (based on amounts reported to the NCAA for the 2019 fiscal year).
