South Carolina athletics’ spending and revenues are up significantly. A closer look
One of the most successful years in recent South Carolina athletics history resulted in an increase of revenue and expenses for the Gamecocks.
In essence, South Carolina basically broke even — which is more or less the fiscal goal for every NCAA athletics department — reporting a deficit of just under $200,000 while spending over $183.6 million in fiscal year 2024.
The NCAA requires schools to submit financial reports annually. South Carolina’s latest report, obtained by The State via public records request, covers the fiscal year 2024, which ran from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024.
Here are some interesting takeaways from the report:
- FY24 only includes the 2023 football season, in which South Carolina finished 5-7 and missed a bowl game for the first time in Shane Beamer’s tenure.
Still, USC football profited nearly $31 million. That’s over a $5 million increase from FY23 — which accounts for the great 8-5 Carolina team from 2022 — and a $4 million increase from FY22.
- OK, so South Carolina football made more money in FY24. Where did it come from? One big moneymaker was USC opening the 2023 football season with a game against North Carolina in Charlotte, which brought in over $3 million — though those neutral-site games usually require schools to spend that much on tickets that it can sell back to its fans.
- In FY24, South Carolina football made over $5.2 million from food, concessions, parking, novelties and game programs — which is almost a $2 million jump from FY23. It’s hard to know how the revenue spiked that much considering the alcohol sales between the two years are almost identical.
- One line item is titled “Compensation and benefits provided by a third party” — which includes car stipends, country club memberships, speaker fees, media income, apparel income, housing allowance, etc. In FY24, USC football brought in and then shelled out over $5 million in that category, up nearly $1.8 million from FY23.
- USC football paid far more for its support staff (everyone aside from Beamer and his 10 on-field assistants), spending about $1.5 million more from FY23 to FY24.
- Aside from football, men’s basketball was the only other program to make the school money, recording a $3.5 million surplus. The women’s basketball team ran a $5.6 million deficit.
Why that massive gap? Well, combining media rights compensation and NCAA Tournament distribution, USC MBB collected almost $7.3 million. The Gamecocks WBB program — which does not earn any money from media rights — made under $400,000 in the same categories.
- The success of both basketball programs directly converted to more ticket revenue. The men’s basketball team — which made the NCAA Tournament — saw a 24% increase in ticket sales (Up to $2.15 million) and the women’s squad — which won a third national title — received a 21% increase (up to $1.63 million).
- The USC women’s basketball team actually spent less on recruiting in FY24, needing $181,318 to secure the nation’s No. 2 class. That’s almost $100,000 less than coach Dawn Staley spent in FY23.
On that note, the men’s basketball team spent over $237,000 and the football squad shelled out nearly $2 million for recruiting expenses in FY24.
- How much does it cost to feed each program? The football squad spent $950,834 in meals (not including travel). Compare that to men’s basketball ($95,015), women’s basketball ($39,252), baseball ($45,449) and softball ($13,865).
- Contributions (money donated by fans, boosters, etc) actually dipped about $1 million overall, but really it was only non-program-specific giving that drastically dropped.
For example: Fans donated nearly $3 million more to the football program in FY24 than in FY23.
- The softball program, despite a disappointing 36-24 record that led to the firing of head coach Bev Smith, made $65,404 in ticket sales — a 43% increase from the prior year.
Jordan Kaye
The State