The NCAA posted its highest revenue in two decades

There’s been a lot of recent discussion about what’s ahead for the overall NCAA. The organization faces an anticipated liability of $2.7 billion from the proposed settlement of three athlete-compensation antitrust cases (although questions remain on if those settlements will be approved), and has a variety of further challenges on the horizon, including potential changes to the federal Department of Education and Title IX guidelines. But, as Steve Berkowitz of USA Today reported this week, their newest audited financial statement for their fiscal 2024 (which ended August 31) showed them making the most revenue they had in decades:

NCAA’s annual revenue grew to nearly $1.4 billion in fiscal 2024, and it had $166 million surplus for year, not counting $2.7 billion one-time charge for proposed House damages that actually would be paid over 10 yrs, new audited financial statement shows: https://t.co/WwmxUMwOlq

— Steve Berkowitz (@ByBerkowitz) February 27, 2025

Here’s more from that piece by Berkowitz:

The NCAA recorded nearly $1.4 billion in revenue for its 2024 fiscal year, the association’s new audited financial statement shows. Even adjusting for inflation, that total is the association’s best in at least two decades, and it represents a nearly $91 million increase over the revenue total it reported for 2023.

…Setting aside the amount recorded in conjunction with the proposed settlement, the NCAA ran a surplus of nearly $166 million in fiscal 2024. Like the revenue total, that also is one the association’s best outcomes in at least the past two decades.

According to data collected by USA TODAY Sports dating from the 2005 fiscal year, the NCAA’s previous best annual surplus, adjusted for inflation, was just over $140 million in 2021.

The 2024 revenue of $1.377 billion is the NCAA’s best, on an inflation-adjusted basis – just ahead of the $1.372 billion in 2019.  

As Berkowitz notes, the financials here actually include all of that $2.7 billion as an already-existent charge, despite plans to actually pay it over 10 years if the settlements are approved. Under that accounting treatment, the organization’s net assets were shown as negative almost $2 billion. But the actual financial picture is much rosier even with that settlement, and the inflation-adjusted revenue and surplus numbers bear that out. And the organization could be set to make even more if NCAA Tournament expansion talks with media partners pay off.