USA TODAY releases finances chart for Clemson, peers in recent fiscal year

Clemson football largely boosted the program to over $150 million total in revenue for the 2021-22 fiscal year.

by Brandon Rink - Staff Writer - Wed Jun 14 15:11:05 GMT-04:00 2023

USA TODAY released the 2021-22 fiscal year financial data for a number of institutions this week, including Clemson.

The ACC has a number of private institutions, leaving Clemson among eight schools to provide data for the exercise. Clemson ranked third in the league among those schools revenue-wise to the tune of $158.3 million, which trailed only Virginia ($162M) and Florida State ($161.1M).

Those schools were heavily boosted by funds allocated from outside of the athletic department, however, with each over $22.2 million in that area, while Clemson gained $6.4 million in allocated funds per the report. Clemson ranked last among public ACC schools in percent allocated to the athletic department (4.04%).

Per USA TODAY, the full definition for that "funds allocated" category is: The sum of student fees, direct and indirect institutional support and state money allocated to the athletics department, minus certain funds the department transferred back to the school. The transfer amount cannot exceed the sum of student fees and direct institutional support that the department receives from the school. (Under NCAA reporting rules, any additional money transferred to the school cannot be considered part of the department’s annual operating revenues or expenses.)

Clemson's expenses were listed at $143.4 million for the fiscal year, which then combined for the most of any ACC school's revenue clearing expenses.

Instate, South Carolina was listed with $142.2 million in revenue and $144.8 million in expenses with $1.1 million allocated to the athletic department.

Overall, Ohio State topped revenue by quite a bit ($251.6 million), followed by Texas ($239.3M), Alabama ($214.4M), Michigan ($210.7M) and Georgia ($203M).

The highest percentage allocated for a Power 5 school came with Arizona (25%; $31.1M), which had a total revenue of $124.4 million against $124.9 million in expenses.

Per Sportico, $70.6 million of Clemson's revenue came by way of football, then $62.3 million non-sports specific, $9.4 million for men's basketball, $1.5 million for women's basketball and $14 million for the remaining sports combined.

Then on the expenses side, $54.9 million came from football, $48.5 million from non-sport specific endeavors, $8.7 million for men's basketball, $4.9 million for women's basketball and $26.3 million for all the other sports combined.

In more pandemic-affected seasons, Clemson's revenue was $123.1 million against $117.4 million for expenses in 2020-21. In 2019-20, the revenue was $130 million with $131.8 million in expenses.

In 2018-19, the revenue was $133.8 million against $132 million in expenses.