With all the talk about money, and certain universities throwing money at certain sports, I thought it would be interesting to look at the numbers regarding this question: How does a top budget for a given sport compare to how the team ranked at the end of the season? Is more money translating into a higher ranking?
I am selectively looking at some of the so-called minor sports – baseball, softball, volleyball, and women’s basketball – along with men’s basketball. We list some basic budget numbers
based on what is publicly available, and some are estimates. Also, NIL is not included. Most private universities – Notre Dame, USC, Stanford etc. – do not publicly release budget information on any of their departments and are not included.
2024-2025
Here are the top 12 publicly available women’s basketball budgets for 2024:
- 1 – Louisiana State University (LSU) $11.87 Million
- 2 – University of Connecticut (UConn) $11.86 Million
- 3 – University of South Carolina $11.50 Million
- 4 – University of Iowa $10.20 Million
- 5 – University of Texas at Austin $9.50 Million
- 6 – Duke University $9.00 Million
- 7 – Vanderbilt University $7.99 Million
- 8 – University of Tennessee $7.80 Million
- 9 – University of Louisville $6.80 Million
- 10 – Baylor University $6.50 Million
- 11 – University of Maryland $6.10 Million
- 12 – University of Kentucky $5.90 Million
Iowa, Vanderbilt, and Louisville did not finish their season ranked in the top 25, so I have listed their NET rankings.
Nine teams of these 12 with the top budgets are ranked in the top 22 at the end of the 24-25 season. This cursory look shows better bang for the buck than we’ve seen so far for softball, baseball, and volleyball.
2025-2026
Here are the top 12 publicly available women’s basketball budgets for 2025:
- 1 – Louisiana State University (LSU)$11,870,000
- 2 – University of Connecticut (UConn)$11,860,000
- 3 – University of Iowa$10,200,000
- 4 – University of Baylor$9,800,000
- 5 – University of Texas at Austin$9,500,000
- 6 – Duke University$9,000,000
- 7 – Texas Christian University (TCU)$8,000,000
- 8 – University of South Carolina$7,900,000
- 9 – University of Tennessee$7,800,000
- 10 – Ohio State University$7,600,000
- 11 – University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)$7,300,000
- 12 – University of Georgia$7,100,000
Here, only Tennessee (NET 25) and Georgia (NET 34) did not finish the season ranked in the top 25. We have 10 of the top spenders, where information is publicly available, that have finished in the top 25, and seven are ranked in the top eight at the end of the season. Of the sports that we have looked at to date, women’s basketball appears to get the most bang for their buck when comparing budgets vs. ranking.
