Emmanuel College in Boston, Massachusetts, spent $110,858 on its women’s basketball teams in 2024, which is $422,068 below the average of $532,926 spent by colleges across the state, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
This spending represented 6.3% of all sports team expenditures at the college in 2024.
Since 2010, Emmanuel College’s overall sports spending has risen by 81%.
Basketball ranks among the most followed college sports in the United States, alongside football. Major NCAA programs attract enthusiastic fan bases and television audiences comparable to those of the NBA, and tournaments like March Madness draw millions of viewers each year.
College sports have entered a new era where schools can directly share revenue with athletes, following a federal settlement. The settlement also requires the NCAA to pay $2.8 billion in back damages over 10 years to athletes who competed from 2016 onward.
Athletes have also been able to earn compensation for use of their names, images and likenesses since 2022 after updated NCAA policies and state laws went into effect.
The NCAA reported around $900 million in revenue for fiscal year 2024 from March Madness and Division I men’s basketball tournament media rights, making basketball its largest revenue source.
| Year | Basketball team’s expenditures | % from grand total sport team expenditures |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $103,217 | 6.5% |
| 2021 | $0 | 0% |
| 2022 | $47,453 | 3% |
| 2023 | $106,072 | 6.7% |
| 2024 | $110,858 | 6.3% |
Data for this report comes from the U.S. Department of Education. The original data is available here.
