Southern Methodist University in Dallas allocated $4,609,735 to its women’s basketball teams in 2024, federal figures show—$3,669,391 higher than the Texas state average of $940,344, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
This figure represented 4.6% of SMU’s overall athletic budget for 2024.
Since 2010, SMU’s total sports expenditures have risen by 176.1%.
As noted by the NCAA, basketball remains one of the most-followed college sports in the U.S., alongside football, attracting event attendance and television audiences that sometimes equal those of the NBA. March Madness alone draws millions of viewers each year.
Recent changes in college athlete compensation stem from a federal settlement allowing direct revenue sharing between schools and student-athletes for the first time. The arrangement also directs the NCAA to distribute $2.8 billion in retroactive damages over 10 years to athletes who played from 2016 forward.
By 2022, after ongoing legal and legislative challenges, athletes were also permitted to profit from their names, images and likenesses, following state legislative actions and NCAA policy revisions.
During the 2024 fiscal year, the NCAA generated approximately $900 million in revenue from March Madness and associated Division I men’s basketball media rights, making basketball its largest income source.
| Year | Basketball team’s expenditures | % from grand total sport team expenditures |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $3,429,479 | 5% |
| 2021 | $3,186,130 | 4.9% |
| 2022 | $4,160,189 | 5.2% |
| 2023 | $4,273,267 | 5% |
| 2024 | $4,609,735 | 4.6% |
