Coming in at 42nd Nationally, a Dive into Oklahoma State’s Athletic Revenue for 2022-23

As if a July 1 engulfed with new conference eras beginning wasn’t a sign, it’s all about the money more than ever in college sports.

Sportico recently updated its College Sports Finances Database with numbers from the 2022-23 academic year. The website says, “Sportico maintains an interactive, real-time database that tracks the official balance sheets of public university athletic departments in the Football Bowl Subdivision.”

According to the database, Oklahoma State had a total athletic revenue of $122,009,946 in 2022-23. That’s an increase of $17,605,548 from $104,404,398 in 2021-22. That number will likely increase even more when the 2023-24 numbers are available. Universities release their numbers to the NCAA at the end of every fiscal year, then Sportico must put in a request to obtain that information from every available university, which is what causes the slow release.

Of the available universities, OSU ranked 42nd in athletic revenue for 2022-23. The top three was Ohio State ($279.5M), Texas A&M ($279.1M) and Texas ($271M).

Here’s a look at the top 50:

Highest Revenue Earning Athletic Programs in 2023, per @Sportico💰 pic.twitter.com/FDN80hMuUP

— College Football Report (@CFBRep) July 1, 2024

These numbers would have come during a Big 12 that included Oklahoma and Texas, but was without Cincinnati, BYU, Houston, UCF and the Pac-12 newcomers. That would have ranked OSU fifth in the conference behind Texas, OU, Texas Tech and Kansas, respectively. In the current Big 12 as of Monday, OSU would be at No. 6, with Texas Tech having the top spot in the conference at No. 26 nationally. Others ahead of OSU include Arizona, Kansas, Colorado and Utah, respectively.

The total revenue for each university is broken up into eight categories of where that revenue comes from: donations, media rights, ticket sales, conference distributions, licensing and ads, miscellaneous, NCAA distributions and direct institutional support.

Here is OSU’s revenue broken up for 2022-23:
Donations: $45,441,633
Media Rights: $35,333,019
Ticket Sales: $13,292,987
Conference Distributions: $12,603,410
Licensing & Ads: $7,242,029
Miscellaneous: $5,720,592
NCAA Distributions: $1,739,028
Direct Institutional Support: $637,248

For OSU, the biggest change from 2021-22 to 2022-23 came in donations. In 2021-22, according to the database, OSU received $19,066,624 in donations, which was its second-highest earning for the year. The next year, donations became OSU’s highest-earning category at $45,441,633, an increase of $26,375,009. Media rights, OSU’s most consistent big earner, slightly increased by $1,475,990. That number will actually decrease for 2023-24, as the Big 12 grew to 14 members and had to distribute money to more universities.

The biggest decrease came in direct institutional support. It decreased by $11,203,978 from $12,943,006 to $637,248. It went from being OSU’s third-highest category to its lowest in one year.

The revenue is also divided by sport, including football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball, other sports and non-sport specific.

Here are all those numbers for OSU:
Football: $55,606,834
Men’s Basketball: $14,991,097
Women’s Basketball: $1,032,938
Other Sports: $9,805,029
Non-Sport Specific: $40,574,048

Every sport saw an increase in revenue from 2021-22 to 2022-23. As expected, Cowboy football had the highest revenue with $55,606,834. That was up from $49,465,735 the year before — an increase of $6,141,099. Women’s basketball had the highest percentage increase, over doubling revenue,  jumping $587,147 from $445,795 to $1,032,938. However, women’s basketball’s total operating expenses were $4,669,466, meaning its cost $3,636,28 to have the sport. Other sports, including small-revenue sports like wrestling, baseball, softball, tennis, soccer and track & field, cost the most, though. Compared to the $9,805,029 revenue they brought in, the operating expenses were $26,125,338, a $16,320,309 difference in the negative.

Overall, football brought in the most revenue for OSU. Nearly half of that revenue came from media rights. The operating cost for football was $31,583,888, meaning it grossed $24,022,946 in 2022-23, a season in which the Cowboys went 7-6. This is why football is king, not only in Stillwater, but around the country and shifting the conference landscape.

Other expenses accounted for included coaching compensation, admin compensation, athletic student aid, team travel, equipment, game expenses, athletic facilities and miscellaneous.

Here are those expenses
Miscellaneous: $39,864,900
Coaching Compensation: $26,101,401
Admin Compensation: $21,794,806
Athletic Student Aid: $10,256,808
Team Travel: $9,435,109
Equipment: $5,934,872
Game Expenses: $4,747,862
Athletic Facilities: $2,867,436

Just like it costs you more everyday to live your life, these expenses for universities will also continue to rise, especially if they also have to start paying athletes directly. That means conference distributions and media rights will only become more important. That’s also why we will now start seeing new things like logo sponsorships on football fields, and maybe even see the Big 12 sell its name for more revenue.