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Schools That Make the Most Money Off College Basketball

April 4, 2023

4 min Read

Written by J. Arky

Edited by Ashleigh Ray

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College basketball is big business. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

And it’s not just the players who are raking in the dough with massive NIL Deals during March Madness and beyond. It’s the schools that are also seeing dollar signs from their athletic investments-millions of dollar signs for lots of them.

While it might not be the NBA, major Division I college basketball programs have pulled in huge revenues over the last few years-not just with men’s basketball, but women’s basketball as well-with the numbers getting bigger every season.

Here is a list of the 32 colleges that have amassed more than $18 million in revenue with basketball programs for both men and women’s programs.

32. Florida State University

Revenue: $18,227,195
Men’s basketball: $16,987,326
Women’s basketball: $1,239,869

31. The University of Minnesota

Revenue: $18,310,456
Women’s basketball: $643,259
Men’s basketball: $17,667,197

30. The University of Tennessee

Revenue: $18,476,072
Men’s basketball: $16,069,180
Women’s basketball: $2,406,892

29. The University of Dayton

Revenue: $18,497,393
Men’s basketball: $16,878,904
Women’s basketball: $1,618,489

28. The University of California – Los Angeles (UCLA)

Revenue: $18,526,663
Men’s basketball: $12,891,320
Women’s basketball: $5,635,343

27. The University of Nebraska – Lincoln

Revenue: $18,698,599
Men’s basketball: $16,849,124
Women’s basketball: $1,858,475

26. Xavier University

Revenue: $18,812,108
Men’s basketball: $16,067,816
Women’s basketball: $2,744,292

25. Stanford University

Revenue: $19,419,358
Men’s basketball: $11,369,560
Women’s basketball: $8,049,798

24. Baylor University

Revenue: $19,644,821
Men’s basketball: $13,308,914
Women’s basketball: $6,335,907

23. Texas Christian University

Revenue: $19,775,379
Men’s basketball: $12,670,472
Women’s basketball: $7,104,907

Today’s Top Offers

22. The University of Alabama

Revenue: $20,064,670
Men’s basketball: $19,047,972
Women’s basketball: $1,016,698

21. The University of Virginia

Revenue: $20,441,635
Men’s basketball: $14,598,575
Women’s basketball: $5,843,060

20. Gonzaga University

Revenue: $21,218,754
Men’s basketball: $17,060,871
Women’s basketball: $4,157,883

19. Vanderbilt University

Revenue: $21,578,177
Men’s basketball: $13,587,388
Women’s basketball: $7,990,789

18. The University of Michigan – Ann Arbor

Revenue: $21,755,023
Men’s basketball: $21,141,253
Women’s basketball: $613,770

17. The University of South Carolina

Revenue: $22,141,925
Men’s basketball: $12,604,227
Women’s basketball: $9,537,698

16. Villanova University

Revenue: $24,005,010
Men’s basketball: $20,513,366
Women’s basketball: $3,491,644

15. Ohio State University

Revenue: $24,268,826
Men’s basketball: $23,575,794
Women’s basketball: $693,032

14. The University of Arkansas

Revenue: $24,495,637
Men’s basketball: $24,094,372
Women’s basketball: $401,265

13. The University of Arizona

Revenue: $25,054,541
Men’s basketball: $23,287,417
Women’s basketball: $1,767,124

12. Purdue University

Revenue: $25,919,482
Men’s basketball: $18,911,360
Women’s basketball: $7,008,122

11. The University of Texas — Austin

Revenue: $26,180,959
Men’s basketball: $23,637,212
Women’s basketball: $2,543,747

10. The University of Illinois

Revenue: $26,490,527
Men’s basketball: $25,658,000
Women’s basketball: $832,527

9. Michigan State University

Revenue: $27,134,559
Men’s basketball: $26,270,974
Women’s basketball: $863,585

8. The University of Kentucky

Revenue: $27,252,990
Men’s basketball: $22,667,255
Women’s basketball: $4,585,735

7. Marquette University

Revenue: $27,751,972
Men’s basketball: $23,422,126
Women’s basketball: $4,329,846

6. The University of Louisville

Revenue: $28,768,232
Men’s basketball: $21,853,488
Women’s basketball: $6,914,744

5. Indiana University – Bloomington

Revenue: $31,192,515
Men’s basketball: $25,955,324
Women’s basketball: $5,237,191

4. The University of Connecticut

Revenue: $32,574,770
Men’s basketball: $24,055,088
Women’s basketball: $8,519,682

Today’s Top Offers

3. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Revenue: $33,193,398
Men’s basketball: $31,965,031
Women’s basketball: $1,228,367

2. Syracuse University

Revenue: $35,765,493
Men’s basketball: $34,157,191
Women’s basketball: $1,608,302

1. Duke University

Revenue: $47,751,792
Men’s basketball: $45,108,538
Women’s basketball: $2,643,254

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George Malone contributed to the reporting for this article.

Methodology: For this piece GOBankingRates used the United States Department of Education’s “Equity in Athletics Data Analysis” (EADA) dataset to find (1) total basketball revenues; (2) men’s basketball revenues; and (3) women’s basketball revenues for all NCAA Division I schools all in FY 20-2` data (the most recent available). Only the top 50 schools in terms of factor (1) were included in the final list. All data was collected on and up to date as of March 15, 2023.