Athletic Budget 2026 and beyond

[JMV JustMyView]

We will figure this out.

EL O EL

[jaxmc1023]

Oklahoma has a huge budget yet couldn't afford to send their band on a road game. OK State coach complained that Oregon's budget was so much larger that they would have trouble competing and lost 66-0.

Schools with $100M+ still have trouble with finances and can't compete with schools with $200M budgets.

LA Tech has a roughly $30M budget and just beat USM who has a $36M budget. ULM has a $20M budget and just beat UTEP. What will UL do with a lower budget when they aren't competitive now?

The school has already told you..

Their goal is to "compete for conference championships"

Thats the stars-aligned, 'everything comes together' result that they are shooting for. The only people foolish enough to believe that we are seriously competing on a national level - in any sport - are the dwindling collection of season tickets buyers

[CajunRebel]

My question is how did we actually get here?

It’s not just the athletic department that under financial scrutiny.

It is not a coincidence that virtually every state university is having a budget crisis right after the state legislature cut millions in funding. I’ve been saying this would happen for the past year. The State Board of Regents released a report last year that basically said these cuts would cripple our universities and well… here we are.

Savoie and Leblanc were not perfect, but they aren’t the root cause. Their biggest sin was not being able to say no. And no one benefited more from that than athletics. All the people who thought Savoie wasn’t doing all he could to invest in athletics are about to find out.

[Louisiana84]

Unfortunately, it's not about how bad you want it. It's about how hard you work for it.

We don't work that hard.

[HoustonCajun]

What you are hearing at this point hasn't been stated in private other than $4M. That number is 10% from 2025, $46M to $40M at this point. Additional cuts could be coming but nothing has been stated beyond that discussion even in private. It's speculation from this point how far is could go from there. But if we eventually fall back to $34M to $36M, the program is pretty much cooked across the board.

If we are starting at a $46M budget to be cut down to $40M and will have trouble being competitive, how do fellow SBC members with a $20M budget (ULM) and $30M budget (LA Tech) even survive after their budget cuts? Over 1/2 of all SBC members have budgets at $37M or less. The SBC schools with the highest budgets like JMU & ODU have huge student fees which we do not have. At $40M, we will still be in the top half of the conference, but, that isn't saying much. We aren't competitive now. A losing record, dwindling attendance, and fan apathy will only lower revenue and cement our position in one of the 3 lowest conferences, SBC, MAC and CUSA.

I don't think any school in the AAC, PAC 12 or MWC had a budget under $50M, except Wichita State (no football). Ohio State had the highest budget in 2024 at $280M and spent $28.5M on football coaching salaries alone. That's just football salaries which are higher than several G6 school total budgets.

Top Sun Belt Athletic Budgets (approximate)

James Madison:
$68 million
Old Dominion:
$54 million
Texas State:
$47 million
Appalachian State (App State):
$46 million
Louisiana:
$46 million
Coastal Carolina:
$45 million
Marshall:
$45 million
Georgia State:
$37 million
South Alabama:
$36 million
Georgia Southern:
~$35.5 million
Troy:
$34 million
Arkansas State:
$33 million
Southern Miss:
$30 million
Louisiana-Monroe (Monroe):
$21 million

[CajunRebel]

Unfortunately, it's not about how bad you want it. It's about how hard you work for it.

We don't work that hard.

Who specifically at UL isn’t working hard?

[CajunVic]

Who specifically at UL isn’t working hard?

"we"

[Turbine]

Who specifically at UL isn’t working hard?

No names.

I would love to see a daily (year round) (location moving) public awareness season ticket drive for all sports.

[CajunVic]

No names.

I would love to see a daily (year round) (location moving) public awareness season ticket drive for all sports.

"WE" is all names - not no names . . .

[Turbine]

"we"

I understand.

"WE"

Who? Everybody!