Alabama Football Posts $53 Million Surplus

Alabama’s athletic programs bring in a lot of money for the university, much of which comes from the football program. The 2013-14 fiscal year was no different.

According to Al.com, Alabama football had “a $53.3 million surplus with revenues of $95.3 million.” That’s a lot of dough and is $6.1 million more than the $47,136,001 it brought in in 2012-13. With football clearly being its biggest contributor, Alabama athletics as a whole generated a surplus of just over $33 million -- $33,050,145 to be exact. The athletics department then “transferred $9.1 million back to the university.” How generous.

Much of the revenue the football program reports comes from ticket sales ($34.9 million) and “contributions” ($20.7 million), but the program also saw gains in broadcast/television/radio/Internet rights (from $7.2 million to $9.1 million) and royalties, licensing and ads ($1.3 million to $4.5 million).

Other small forms of revenue included $730,580 from “sports camps” and a whopping $58,622 from concession stand sales.

Meanwhile, the program spent $41,993,027 on its overall operating expenses with its top expense going toward coach salaries ($12.8 million). Additionally, the program spent $4.2 million on fundraising and marketing, $3.8 million on athletic student aid, $2.7 million on game expenses, $2.7 million on facilities maintenance, $2.6 million on university support staff, $2.5 million on team travel, $1.6 million on equipment and supplies and $1.2 million on recruiting, among a bevy of other expenses.

By comparison, per Al.com, Auburn football had a surplus of $33.2 million while the Auburn athletic department as a whole “operated at a $13.6 million deficit.”

So it's happy times for all in Tuscaloosa. Oh, and just to show how feasible it is for certain schools to pay its players; if Alabama hypothetically paid its scholarship football players $3,000 each from its $53,269,715 surplus, the program would have still brought in $53,014,715 in the 2013-14 fiscal year. 

Of course, it's more complicated than that. The athletic department would have to pay all scholarship athletes, not just football players, and most athletic departments don't pull in anywhere near the amount of money that Alabama does. Still, when you break down the numbers, it really seems like a no-brainer.