March Madness Daily: IF Houston had won...
Every year, sports journalists write myriad stories that never get published. Here's one of them.
Welcome back to Club Sportico, where we break down the intersection of sports and money—with an extra bit of humor and opinion. Today, we talk in hypotheticals:
Eben: I’ve written probably 100 stories in my career that never got published because of game outcomes. Among the most memorable was for Super Bowl XLIX. Everyone in the press box was writing a “Seattle Seahawks win” story until Patriots DB Malcolm Butler flipped the script. Then all those drafts got deleted.
I’ve always wanted to find some way to publish those stories—a look into the profession that readers don’t see—but I never have. Until now! As the final piece of our March Madness Daily series, here is the top of the story we were working on if Houston 🐆 hadn’t blown a 12-point lead last night 👇
Headline: Houston, One of Most Subsidized Programs, Wins NCAA Title
Subhead: The Cougars, who beat Florida in Monday’s title game, balance their budget with $48.2 million in subsidies and student fees.
In some ways, the story of Houston’s run to the NCAA title is one of a plucky underdog: an athletic department with the smallest budget of any public power conference school winning the NCAA’s biggest championship. The Cougars beat Florida TK-TK on Monday night in San Antonio in the men's final.
Financially, however, the picture isn’t quite so tidy. Houston has one of the most subsidized athletic departments in the country, according to data submitted annually to the NCAA, relying on tens of millions of dollars each year in student fees and subsidies to balance its budget.
On top of that, the Cougars ran an $8.2 million deficit in their first fiscal year in the Big 12. Athletic director Eddie Nuñez told the Houston Business Journal in February that the department was employing myriad strategies, including a new focus on corporate partnerships and a reshuffling of spending, to right the ship. Regarding subsidies, he said they were an investment from the campus in the attention that the Cougars bring to the school.
“Don’t get me wrong, it's not ideal, but we’re not the only program that’s being subsidized by our university,” Nuñez said.
Houston reported $48.2 million in subsidies and student fees in 2022-23. By raw total it was the third-highest amount among all public FBS schools, according to Sportico’s college finance database, trailing only James Madison ($54.6 million) and Air Force ($54.1 million). As a percentage of the topline athletics budget, the total subsidies accounted for about 60% of Houston’s spending.
In its first season in the Big 12, Houston’s subsidy total dropped to $38.4 million in 2023-24, though that does not account for the $8.2 million deficit. Sportico does not yet have the full data to compare across the nation, but the $38.4 million total will likely keep the Cougars in the top 10 amongst all public schools.
Nuñez is caught in the modern college sports business paradox, trying simultaneously to keep pace with richer peers while also trying to make his department more self-sufficient. When Nuñez was hired last August, Houston chancellor Renu Khator challenged him to double the school’s athletics budget. “Excellence does not come cheap,” Khator said at the introductory press conference.
That jump, however, also came with added costs, part of a larger run-up in expenses for Houston as it has gradually climbed the college sports ranks. In 2013-14, Houston’s first season after leaving C-USA for the American, the school spent $39.5 million on athletics. By 2017-18, it was $57.1 million. In 2022-23, the school’s final year in the American, it spent $81.5 million. Last year, as a Big 12 member, the budget grew to $96.4 million. The school has leaned heavily into wealthy donors, like billionaire Houston Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta, and begun to spend on larger capital expenditure projects, like a new $140 million football facility, which was originally approved as a $75 million project.
There’s more, but you get the point!
🚨 Bracket Update 🚨: Industry insiders took down both of this year’s bracket challenges. Congrats to (Sportico Senior Editor) Bette Canter for winning our women’s pool, and Dan Shanoff for winning the men’s pool.
Programming note: We’ll be back on Thursday with our first post-Madness edition of Club Sportico. Let us know in the comments what you thought of this series, and if you’d like to see us go daily again soon!
Club Sportico is a community organized by Sportico, a digital media company launched in 2020 to cover the business side of sports. You can read breaking news, smart analysis, and in-depth features from Eben, Jacob and their colleagues at Sportico.com, and listen to the Sporticast podcast wherever you get your audio. Contact us at club@sportico.com.