According to USA Today, the NCAA made close to $1.1 billion in annual revenue during the 2017 fiscal year, based on an audited financial statement.
It’s the first time the NCAA has eclipsed $1 billion, although it had been close in each of the last two years.
Most of the growth from 2016 stemmed from increases in television and marketing fees, revenue from championship events and investment income.
USA Today reported, “the $105.1 million operating surplus for 2017 left the association with just under $399 million in total net assets as of Aug. 31, 2017.”
This report comes on the heels of a major development in the FBI investigation of the NCAA.
The recent Yahoo! report suggested that 25 players at more than 20 different universities had received some money to influence their school decision. Some of the biggest current names in college basketball were named in the report, like DeAndre Ayton, from the University of Arizona, and Miles Bridges, from Michigan State University.
The NCAA does not pay athletes because it believes it would ruin the “amateurism” aspect of college sports.
Following the scandal, it appears that the NCAA might be more likely than ever to change the rules that it had used to govern.
College sports and the NBA in particular are evaluating options to potentially pay athletes, end their one and done rule, and to enhance the developmental league.
While it looks like change will come, the NCAA has faced a number of scandals in college sports of athletes accepting money under the table over the years and look at how little progress has already been made.