As it does every year, Penn State Athletics this week released its annual financial report to the NCAA, detailing the program’s income, expenditures and more from throughout the 2025 fiscal year.
The figures in the report pertain to the 2024-25 athletic season, which included a pair of national championships for the Nittany Lions in women’s volleyball and wrestling, as well as final four appearances in football and men’s hockey and various other NCAA tournament appearances.
Here’s a breakdown of the numbers.
Revenue: $254,867,598
Penn State football had a record-setting year during its first College Football Playoff run, with $146,779,834, which was $33 million more than 2023-24.
The athletic department have several large revenue streams, with “contributions” being the largest category at $64,557,754. This includes donations to the athletic department by individuals, companies or associations.
The largest chunk was designated specifically for football ($17,581,255), followed by $3,768,707 for wrestling, $2,844,418 for men’s basketball, $1,255,934 for men’s lacrosse and $1,146,479 for baseball.
On the women’s side, soccer received the highest contributions at $827,686, then women’s hockey at $763,119, track and field/cross country at $659,876 and gymnastics at $651,911.
Contributions not designated for a specific sport totaled $27,494,589.
Just behind contributions was the Big Ten media rights package, which is evenly distributed among the conference’s member institutions as payment for the right to broadcast games and events on television, streaming, radio, etc. This sum amounted to $58,500,009.
Coming up just behind those two was ticket revenue, which totaled $50,362,976 across all sports. Football, as always, was the breadwinner for the Nittany Lions, raking in $44,260,703 in ticket sales, roughly 89% of the total. Behind that were men’s hockey ($2,296,407), men’s basketball ($1,689,643) and wrestling ($1,680,622).
Among female sports, volleyball led the charge at $202,374. Somehow, women’s gymnastics was credited with a loss of $8,953 from ticket sales.
Other notable payments include $20,818,587 distributed evenly among Big Ten members for the conference’s postseason success, $10,221,823 from parking, food concessions and other gameday revenues and $152,864 from the NCAA for hosting events on campus.
The men’s and women’s fencing teams were awarded $117,138 from the NCAA for hosting the NCAA championships, while volleyball, track and field and soccer also received payments for hosting tournaments.
Penn State’s $254,867,598 in total athletics revenue is up roughly 15% from last year’s mark of $220,758,927, which was already one of the highest in the country.
Expenses: $254,643,919
It was an expensive year for the athletics program, which had all of its usual expenditures in addition to paying for renovations and player revenue sharing.
Total expenses for football were $89,186,987, resulting in a net surplus of $57.6 million
The largest expenses department-wide were coaching salaries, benefits and bonuses ($43,458,097), support staff compensation, benefits and bonuses ($41,149,516) student aid ($24,365,001), facilities debt, renting or leases ($24,204,901), NIL revenue sharing ($18,368,391) and game expenses ($16,387,967).
This was the first athletic year in which direct revenue sharing was allowed, with the NCAA setting the cap at roughly $20.5 million, meaning Penn State was at roughly 90% of the limit. That money was distributed among nine teams as follows:
Football: $13,338,959
Men’s basketball: $3,004,666
Wrestling: $1,449,766
Baseball: $300,000
Women’s basketball: $110,000
Men’s hockey: $95,000
Men’s lacrosse: $50,000
Men’s tennis: $10,000
Women’s volleyball: $10,000
Other notable figures include $10,135,193 for team travel, $6,979,412 for postseason football expenses (Big Ten championship, Fiesta Bowl, Orange Bowl) and $4,565,666 in recruiting expenses (hosting official visits and events).
Football was responsible for more than half of the recruiting expenses at $2,410,746, followed by men’s basketball at $598,771 and women’s basketball at $160,617.
The university’s allotted scholarships were distributed as follows:
Football: 96.44
Men’s hockey: 19.09
Women’s hockey: 18.24
Women’s track and field: 17.57
Women’s soccer: 14.88
Women’s volleyball: 14
Women’s swimming and diving: 13.46
Men’s track and field: 13.17
Women’s lacrosse: 13.07
Men’s basketball: 13
Women’s basketball: 13
Baseball: 12.69
Field hockey: 12.41
Women’s gymnastics: 12
Men’s lacrosse: 11.99
Softball: 11.84
Wrestling: 10.81
Men’s soccer: 10.51
Men’s swimming and diving: 9.71
Women’s tennis: 8
Men’s gymnastics: 6.72
Women’s fencing: 6.21
Women’s golf: 5.85
Men’s golf: 4.9
Men’s volleyball: 4.88
Men’s fencing: 4.88
Men’s tennis: 4.52
The 385.93 total scholarships were divided among 617 students.
Only two teams made severance payments to former coaches: football ($1,129,497) and swimming and diving ($106,396).
The university listed medical expenses and insurance across all teams at $2,572,690, food and snack expenses at $2,472,665.
Debt: $534,650,181
Penn State Athletics reported over a half billion dollars in debt, which according to Sportico is the largest in the country. Though not specifically delineated, the majority of that is related to the ongoing renovations to Beaver Stadium, a project which is estimated to cost up to $700 million.
University officials said in 2024 that they project the financing for the stadium will be paid off, and ultimately generate $44 million in new profit, through new naming rights opportunities, premium seating and concessions contracts, as well as additional special event revenues and philanthropy.
