Cal athletics: NCAA financial report for FY2025 shows challenges accompanying life in the ACC
The dollars and cents from Cal’s first year in the ACC have been collected, reported to the NCAA and made available to the public. They underscore an issue, often overlooked by critics, that cuts to the heart of the athletic department’s interminable budget squeeze.
The Bears don’t have a spending problem. They have a revenue problem. And there is no short-term solution in sight as Cal settles into life in the ACC.
The bottom line from the statement of revenues and expenses for the 2025 fiscal year, which was submitted to the NCAA in January, shows a $12.4 million shortfall based on $165.4 million in operating expenses and $153 million in revenue.
(If debt service for Memorial Stadium renovation and other capital projects is included, the shortfall climbs to $24.3 million.)
The numbers also show the initial $10 million contribution from UCLA, mandated by the UC Regents, and the $15 million assist from the UC Office of the President (UCOP). Both infusions, scheduled to last at least three years, are booked under “other operating revenue.”
The financial report also shows the expected increase in travel costs associated with life in a conference based on the East Coast: The Bears spent $10.3 million on travel during their final year in the Pac-12 (FY2024) and $14.3 million in the first year in the ACC.
The majority of the increase ($2.1 million) was related to men’s and women’s basketball, which make multiple trips across the country each season for league play. (Yes, it’s insane. But that’s not our focus.)
The Bears also spent $66.6 million on coaching salaries and compensation for the administrative staff and support personnel. (It takes a city to operate 30 varsity sports.)
But the expense side of the ledger isn’t unusual.
In fact, the Bears spent less than ACC stalwart North Carolina ($188 million), which doesn’t have a stadium remodel or send its teams across the country multiple times throughout the fall, winter and spring.
Nor did the Bears spend as much as UCLA, which has comparable travel commitments, five fewer Olympic sports to fund and no stadium renovation debt to service.
The Bruins piled up $173.4 million in expenses during their first year in the Big Ten, which is more than Cal’s total without the stadium debt ($165.4 million) and slightly less when Cal’s debt payments are included ($177.4 million).
But when the focus turns to top-line numbers, the comparisons take an ominous hue.
The Bears booked $153 million in revenue in FY2025, but a whopping 42 percent came from three outside sources: $10 million from UCLA, $15 million from the UCOP and $39 million in (net) institutional support, which includes direct support, student fees and transfers from athletics back to central campus.
Remove that $64 million in external support and the amount of organic revenue generated by athletics itself is just $89 million. (It would have been lower if not for a stellar fundraising year that resulted in $20.4 million in contributions, up from $13.7 million in 2024.)
By comparison, North Carolina reported $164.5 million in revenue with campus support removed from the calculation.
Sure, the Tar Heels generate $17.2 million from men’s basketball ticket sales. (That’s twice as much as Cal and UCLA combined, by the way.)
But the primary source of Cal’s light top-line number, at least compared to its ACC peers, is the school’s partial-share revenue agreement.
As part of their 12-year deal negotiated in the summer of 2023, after the Pac-12’s collapse, both Cal and Stanford agreed to receive just 33 percent of the ACC’s media rights distributions for seven years before laddering up to full-share status in Year 10. (By then, the ACC might not exist. But that’s not our focus, either.)
The arrangement places both Bay Area schools at a massive cash deficit relative to their competition.
The NCAA’s financial reporting system assigns three lines on the revenue side (11-13) to conference media rights, NCAA distributions and postseason revenue.
North Carolina’s total in FY2025 from those three buckets: $54.2 million.
Cal’s total: $24.7 million.
The greatest shortfall was in media rights, where the Tar Heels, who receive full shares, collected $34.3 million and the Bears just $11 million.
(The ACC also has implemented a performance fund that rewards schools for postseason participation and TV ratings. But those specific amounts are not presented on the NCAA revenue report.)
Without access to the ACC’s media rights agreement with ESPN, which is the conference’s exclusive broadcast partner and owns the ACC Network, it’s impossible to calculate the difference in revenue Cal and Stanford will receive over the course of the 12-year agreement compared to the full-share members.
But $30 million annually for seven years is a good place to start.
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