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Men’s volleyball teams at top Division I schools are generating more revenue for their athletics department than women’s volleyball teams, according to a recent NCAA report.
The NCAA revenue and expense report released this week showed men’s volleyball teams from schools with a team in the Football Bowl Subdivision had a generated revenue median of $162,000 during the 2009-10 fiscal year. The amount is more than double the generated revenue median for women’s volleyball teams from the same type of schools.
Among the items used to determine a team’s generated revenue for the report included ticket sales, alumni contributions, television and radio contracts and other royalties.
Schools with a men’s volleyball team and a FBS football team includes Penn State, Ohio State, Ball State, USC, UCLA, BYU, Stanford and Hawai’i.
Men’s volleyball ranked seventh among all male sports in revenue generated. Football led all sports with a median of $16.21 million.
Women’s volleyball at $78,000 had the sixth highest median of generated revenue among female sports for schools in the FBS.
Division I schools were divided into three categories for this NCAA report — schools in the FBS, schools in the FCS and schools without a football team.
Men’s volleyball teams had more generated revenue than women’s volleyball teams among Division I schools without a football team. Those men’s volleyball teams had a $73,000 median in generated revenue, while the women’s volleyball teams had a $13,000 median in generated revenue.
Women’s volleyball teams fared better than men’s volleyball teams in generated revenue at Division I schools with a team in the Football Championship Subdivision. At these schools women’s volleyball teams had a $21,000 median in generated revenue with men’s volleyball teams at a $12,000 median.
In addition to generated revenue, Division I schools are spending more money on women’s volleyball than men’s volleyball, according to the report.
The widest expense gap between men’s and women’s volleyball teams was among FCS schools. These athletics departments are spending almost four times more for women’s volleyball, which has an expense median at $447,000. In addition, at FBS schools women’s volleyball teams have a expense median of $927,000 while men’s volleyball teams are at $628,000 median.
The closest expense gap is among schools without a football team as the athletics department median expense for women’s volleyball is at $515,000 and men’s volleyball is at $337,000.
The NCAA report showed an overall growing gap between schools with a self-sufficient athletics department and schools relying on subsidies to balance their athletics budgets. Twenty-two schools in the FBS were able to generate enough revenue to exceeded their expenses — an eight school increase from the previous year.
For more on the NCAA revenue and expense report, click here to view the full report.
A few schools — Penn State, UCLA, USC, Stanford come to mind — field elite volleyball teams in both men’s and women’s. I’d be curious to see the head-to-head men’s and women’s revenue comparisons at each of these schools.
Individual school athletics department financial reports are usually released sometime in July. I agree that would be very interesting comparisons when the new data is released.