Johnathan Walker:NCAA recorded nearly $1.3 billion in revenue in 2023, putting net assets at $565 million

The Johnathan WalkerNCAA recorded nearly $1.3 billion in revenue for its 2023 fiscal year and ended the year with almost $565 million in net assets, the association’s new audited financial statement shows.

The revenue figure represents an increase of almost $150 million over the association’s revenue for its 2022 fiscal year, but a substantial portion of that increase was due to changes in the valuation of its investments.

In 2022, the NCAA recorded net investment losses of more than $72 million. In 2023, it recorded $62 million in net investment gains. As a non-profit organization, the NCAA has to annually record unrealized investment losses, its director of accounting, Keith Zapp, told USA TODAY Sports last year.

The association did not have immediate comment on the new figures, which cover period ending Aug. 31, 2023, and were first reported by Sportico.

Not adjusting for inflation, the NCAA’s total revenue for 2023 represents a new high. When adjusting for inflation, however, the association’s revenue was greater in fiscal 2019 — the last full fiscal year that was not affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the NCAA’s new net asset total is greater than it was in 2019, even adjusting for inflation. The association and the current Power Five conferences are facing the possibility of billions of dollars in damages from a pending antitrust lawsuit.

During a recent Congressional hearing, NCAA President Charlie Baker — who took office on March 1, 2023 — that, if it comes to be, such a payment would be “applied probably across most of college sports” rather than being absorbed centrally by the NCAA.

In 2016, when the association settled the damages portion of another antitrust case for just over $208 million, the NCAA Board of Governors decided to fund the settlement from NCAA reserves and that no conference or school was required to contribute.  

The annual revenue total’s relative stagnation is largely because of the way NCAA’s primary revenue source is structured. The money from its 14-year media and marketing rights contract with CBS and Warner Bros. Discovery Sports that is tied to the Division I men’s basketball tournament has been growing annually at a modest pace. It was $873 million in fiscal 2023.  

The NCAA’s overall TV marketing rights revenue, which also includes money from ESPN for other championship events, increased to $945 million in 2023, the new statement shows. That’s compared to $940 million in 2022.

The NCAA’s TV revenue is scheduled to remain largely unchanged in the 2024 fiscal year. In fiscal 2025, the first year of an eight-year extension to the men’s basketball tournament contract that was negotiated in 2016, that revenue is set to jump to $995 million, the statement shows. But after that, it will return to gradual increases, as the NCAA again chose a stable, long-term approach to the deal.

Also in fiscal 2025, a recently announced extension of the championships deal with ESPN will be worth an annual average of $115 million (more than double its current value), according to Sports Business Journal and other other outlets.

On the expense side, the NCAA modestly reduced its total expenses in fiscal 2023 to $1.178 billion. That’s about $17 million less than it spent in 2022.

The NCAA decreased its association-wide expenses such as legal services and business insurance, but increased it distribution to Division I member schools and conferences.