USA Today does a great job with its database when it comes to salaries and finances. It released its latest report on finances in college sports for 2017-18 and there is some interesting data when it comes to the Wildcats.
Arizona checked in at No. 41 overall in revenue at $95,867,717 produced for the year. That's an increase of just under $5 million from the previous year. That's the good. The bad? Its expenses went up by about $11.5 million from one year to the next with UA reaching $103,329,464 for its total expenses in 2017-18.
Here's how the expenses breaks down:
Coaches: $36,305,420 (2017 - $34,672,392)
Scholarships: $12,977,775 (2017 - $14,219,005)
Facilities/overhead: $14,366,559 (2017 - $13,059,722)
Other: $39,679,710 (2017 - $29,805,844)
Here's how the revenues break down:
Ticket sales: $13,768,437 (2017 - $15,490,786)
Contributions: $23,226,028 (2017 - $18,169,527)
Rights/licensing: $43,191,756 (2017 - $44,010,303)
Student fees: $1,132,276 (2017 - $0)
School funds: $11,331,638 (2017 - $10,069,281)
Other: $3,217,582 (2017 - $3,236,861)
It marks the third consecutive year UA athletics was in the red.
Some other things to note about the data include the amount of scholarships going down, the amount of money going to coaches going up and the "other" category on the expenses side – which is where things like coach buyouts are included – ballooning by nearly $10 million from the previous year. Ticket sales going down is something else that stands out. However, contributions did go up and the new student fee meant an extra $1.1 million for the athletic department.
Overall UA ranked fifth in total revenue in the Pac-12 (minus USC and Stanford) with UCLA ($130,960,560) topping the list followed by Washington ($130,919,331), Oregon ($122,541,827) and Arizona State ($113,636,755). Washington State was at the bottom with a total revenue of $65,117,215.
