Sunday, March 29, 2026

Universities are trying to keep secret how much money is being spent on sports

NYT:

One of the most common questions among college sports fans is also one of the hardest to answer.

How much are players getting paid?

The answer is unverifiable because programs treat revenue-sharing documents as literal state secrets.

...

Public schools that receive public money generally make their budgets public. Online databases can show you the salary of a janitor at UMass ($44,000) or a surgery professor at Florida ($1.35 million). A records request can get you the recruiting budget for North Carolina football ($2.6 million), food expenses for Houston men’s basketball ($504,000) or Lane Kiffin’s contract at LSU.

But player compensation has been a black box.

One school in the news:

The University of Kansas said "times have changed" and the university will now help financially support KU Athletics, according to a statement Tuesday from the chancellor's office.

...

After years of KU Athletics transferring roughly $15 million annually to the university's general fund, KU said it will now help fund student-athlete tuition, housing and scholarships.

Getting attention now because:

University of Kansas Chancellor ... and Provost ... addressed Kansas Athletics funding, employee salaries and campus facilities in a statement released Tuesday. 

...

Results showed that a majority of the 2,012 respondents, about 80%, expressed “no confidence”