No one can keep up with the Joneses.
The University of Texas athletic department — once dubbed the Joneses by UT men’s athletic director DeLoss Dodds — has set another record for making money. According to forms filed with the federal government, UT athletics had revenue of more than $143 million for the 2009-10 school year. That’s up about $5 million from the previous year, even though UT had seven home football games in 2008 and only six in 2009.
Alabama, which defeated Texas in the Bowl Championship Series title game after the 2009 season, was second with $129 million, followed by former No. 1 Ohio State at $123 million. Others in the growing $100 million club were Florida, Louisiana State, Michigan, Penn State and Tennessee.
“It’s people with big football stadiums that they can fill,” said Ed Goble, associate men’s athletic director for business at UT.
The University of Oklahoma, with $98.7 million, was not far behind. Another Big 12 rival of Texas, Texas A&M, reported athletic revenue of slightly less than $72 million, about half of the amount pulled in by the Longhorns.
Football was the big money-maker for UT, bringing in a whopping $93.9 million. That compared with $87.6 million a year ago and $73 million only two years ago.
Those numbers reflect the recent expansions in the north and south end zones that added 9,000 seats to Royal-Memorial Stadium.
“We’re built out now,” Goble said.
Alabama reported almost $72 million in football revenue in its championship season, and Penn State and Georgia were both above the $70 million mark in football revenue. Three years ago, there were five teams within $10 million of UT in football revenue.
Goble said most of the increase in football revenue could be attributed to an increase in ticket sales and student athletic fees, which were $39.4 million, up from $33.4 million a year ago and $24.6 million two years ago.
Although UT played in the BCS title game, the school’s bowl revenue was only $2.9 million since bowl earnings are divided among conference teams. Texas spent $2.3 million going to the bowl, part of the football expenses that reached more than $25 million, up about $2.5 million from the previous year.
