The Big Ten Conference expanded its brand into East Coast media markets with the addition of Maryland and Rutgers to the league in the summer of 2014, a key step in the Big Ten becoming one of the countries two true super conferences.
Clearly, the affiliation hasn't been mutually beneficial for the Scarlet Knights.
Keith Sargeant of NJ Advance Media reported Tuesday that Rutgers’ latest athletics financial report shows its deficit topped $70 million for the third time in five years in 2024-25 after the state university spent a record $193.8 million.
NJ Advance Media obtained Rutgers’ latest fiscal year report, which covers the 2024-25 academic year, through an Open Public Records Act request.
"The report shows $146.6 million in total operating revenues, thanks to a record $61.3 million from the Big Ten for its media rights and $10.7 million from the conference as its share of the league’s Football Bowl revenue fund," Sargeant wrote. "Those gains were offset by an 8.7% increase in Rutgers’ sports spending from the previous year."
According to Sargeant, the highest expenditures included $46.1 million in coaching salaries, $31 million in support staff and administrator salaries, $23.1 million in scholarship aid, $14.4 million in facilities debt, $13.5 million in team travel and $8.4 million in student-athlete meals.
"The ledger shows a $47.2 million shortfall. When added to the $7 million subsidized from the school’s general budget, $8 million from the state budget and $15.8 million in student fees, the department’s deficit reached a record $78 million," Sargeant wrote, adding, "It brings Rutgers’ athletics deficit to $516.9 million since joining the Big Ten in 2014-15."
Rutgers’ $193,831,838 total expenditures in 2024-25 was 3.7% of the university’s $5.28 billion budget for the year, Sargeant reported.
Rutgers’ latest financial report doesn’t include a $20.5 million in revenue the athletic department will be obligated to share with athletes as a result of the House v. NCAA settlement — an expenditure that will show up for the first time in the athletic department's 2025-26 numbers.
“Obviously our expenses have exceeded and outpaced our revenue and in some cases year over year to a pretty significant degree,” first-year athletic director Keli Zinn said. “That’s a piece that we will spend quite a bit of time on, understanding that the current fiscal year that we sit in there was a $20.5 million expense with the revenue sharing [for athletes] and the additional scholarship support.”
Zinn expects 2025-26 spending to exceed $200 million.
“I think what you’ll see a year from now is that’s going to be our worst year looking at a profit and loss scenario,” Zinn said, as reported by NJ Advance News. “But you’ll see some level of improvement that’s expected in that ‘26-‘27 year and then by ’27-’28, based upon the current projections we have, in some growth categories and opportunities with revenue, I’m hopeful you’ll actually see [the deficit] start to decline.”
