KENT, Ohio – Kent State spends less on sports than most of its Mid-American Conference counterparts in Ohio, but the athletic department still needs substantial help from student fees and other non-athletic university sources to pay the bills.
School subsidies, including student fees and direct institutional support to the athletic department totaled $19 million in 2013-14. This money covered 78 percent of the cost for intercollegiate sports, amounting to $750 a year for every student on campus.
The college sports bill
This is one in a series of summaries detailing the finances of Division I sports at Ohio’s 11 public universities, based on a Northeast Ohio Media Group analysis of the most recent five years of NCAA reports for each school. Private schools Dayton and Xavier declined to share their reports. Read also:
- Spending across Ohio up faster than overall college costs; trends and issues examined.
- School-by-school summaries.
Kent State’s athletic spending of $24.4 million ranked fifth among the six Ohio MAC schools. KSU consistently has been on the low end for spending in recent years, despite winning the MAC awards for overall program success multiple times.
One reason why spending is lower at Kent is what the school is willing to pay for coaches.
Kent State operates a lower budget sports program in comparison to other Ohio Mid-American Conference schools, but has achieved success. Kent in 2013-14 paid out $4.1 million in coaching salaries and benefits, lowest among the Ohio MAC schools and 21 percent below the $5.3 million average for the others.
Head coaching pay and benefits ranked lowest for football ($388,226), men’s basketball ($271,511) and women’s basketball ($171,896).
But while Kent’s budget is on the low end, the Golden Flashes’ program annually ranks at or near the top for the share of the money that comes from student or other general university resources.
“Funds from the university are reaching their limit, not just student fees but institutional,” Athletic Director Joel Nielsen said, noting that the school is involved in a serious look at athletic financing going forward.
“We hope that by the end of the year, we will have some proposals on what we can and cannot do,” Nielsen said.
After student fees ($14 million) and direct institutional support ($4.9 million), Kent’s top sources of revenue for sports in 2013-14 were payments for away games ($1.9 million); conference, NCAA and tournament distributions ($1.1 million); donations ($968,748); and sports camps ($676,909).
Ticket sales amounted to just $468,944, well below Kent’s five MAC counterparts in Ohio. Ticket sales at the other schools ranged from $1.2 million to $1.9 million.
On the spending side, full or partial scholarships to 342 athletes on 18 teams totaled $5.8 million. Salaries and benefits for coaches, staff and administrators added up to $9.5 million.
Together, these two areas accounted for nearly two-thirds of the budget.
In addition to the operating expenses of $24.4 million for sports, the athletic department contributed $590,007 back to the school for non-athletic uses.
Kent State’s athletic teams
Men’s sports (8): Baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, indoor track, outdoor track and wrestling.
Women’s sports (10): Basketball, cross country, field hockey, golf, gymnastics, soccer, softball, indoor track, outdoor track and volleyball.
