TOLEDO, Ohio – The University of Toledo depends less on student fees and other general university resources to pay for its sports program than any other Mid-American Conference school in Ohio.
One reason is successful athletic fund-raising – tops among the Ohio MAC schools with $2.6 million in 2013-14. A second factor is a relatively low budget. Toledo fields the NCAA-minimum of 16 teams for football-playing schools at the FBS level.
Yet the program couldn’t exist as is on its own.
The total subsidy in 2013-14 was $12.9 million – $10.5 million from student fees and $2.4 million in other university help, according to the school’s report filed with the NCAA.
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.
In each of the last five years, Toledo ranked lowest of the MAC Ohio schools for subsidies from student fees and general university contributions. For 2013-14, the subsidy averaged out to $687 a year for every student on campus.
From athletic sources, the most recent report showed, Toledo received the $2.6 million in donations; $1.4 million from tickets; $1.3 million to play away games; $1.3 million in tournament, NCAA and conference distributions; $1.2 million from royalties, advertisements and sponsorships; and lesser amounts from other sources.
“UT is No. 1 in the Mid-American Conference in self-generated dollars,” spokesman Paul Helgren said in an email response to questions about the athletic budget.
The University of Toledo leads Ohio’s MAC schools in using donations to help pay for sports. Toledo spent $26.3 million on intercollegiate sports in 2013-14, up from $20 million in 2009-10.
How was the money used?
Full or partial scholarships for 356 athletes on the 16 sports teams cost $7.6 million.
This included a new commitment fully pay for the cost of summer tuition.
“In part this was a recruiting issue as other competing institutions are fully funded, but more importantly for student-athletes that were enrolled in summer school and on campus for summer workouts to help meet housing and nutritional needs,” Helgren said.
Pay and benefits for coaches, administrators and staff totaled $8.3 million, including $5 million for the coaches.
Head coaching salary and benefits totaled $647,741 for men’s basketball, $635,701 for football and $429,413 for women’s basketball. The nine assistant football coaching positions accounted for another $1.2 million.
Toledo’s athletic teams
Men’s sports: Baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf and tennis.
Women’s sports: Basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, indoor track, outdoor track and volleyball.
