On Tuesday, The Athletic’s Scott Dochterman released a deep dive report into the 2024 spending habits and current financial situation for all 18 Big Ten athletic departments. His resulting article focuses mostly on what his research revealed about the financial situations of all 18 football programs.

Not only did he write about which programs spend the most money (SHOCKER: it’s Ohio State), but also where they spend it, where they get it and whether or not they are making more than they are spending.

Don’t worry, Gopher fans. You can sleep easy knowing that the U of M athletic department comes out of Dochtorman’s report looking very financially stable. But you can look into that yourself. This isn’t about PJ Fleck’s football program. This is about the non-revenue money maker that is Minnesota Gophers hockey.

Gophers hockey making money for the University of Minnesota

According to Dochterman, the Golden Gophers hockey program is the only non football or basketball program in the entire Big Ten that finished 2024 with a net surplus ($1.82 million). They did so, thanks to a total revenue generated of $7.84 million, which also led all “non-revenue” sports.

Only two other sports beyond football and men’s basketball recorded profits in fiscal year 2024: Minnesota men’s ice hockey and Nebraska women’s volleyball. The Gophers generated $7.84 million and featured a $1.82 million surplus. The Huskers earned $7.25 million in revenue and were $1.34 million in the black.

Scott Dochterman – The Athletic

A previous version of this article read that Gophers hockey led the entire country in revenue generated by “non-revenue” sports, which was not verified in Dochterman’s report. That doesn’t mean it isn’t true, however. If they lead the Big Ten — one of two power conferences in the country — then they very well may lead the nation. Verifying that with the financial records of over 130 FBS-level institutions is research I am not willing to do, however.

So, how did the Gopher hockey program do it? Well, they’re popular and it shows in their ticket sales, where in 2024, they cashed in on $3.98 million worth of revenue via ticket sales, again the highest of any non-revenue sport in the conference, including Iowa women’s basketball with Caitlin Clark.

But it’s not just that. A deeper dive into the U of M’s financial reporting for 2024 shows that Gophers hockey brought in $1.5M in sponsorship and advertising revenue last season, only $500K behind Gopher men’s basketball’s $2M and $1.5M behind Gopher football’s $3M in the same category.

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No other U of M sport brought in more than $40K in advertising/sponsorship revenue last year. Mariucci Arena also made $883K in concession and parking revenue in 2024, second only to football’s $2.8 million. The men’s basketball program, which is struggling to get fans into The Barn, made just $451K in concession/parking revenue last year.

Men’s hockey doing what other non-revenue Gophers sports can’t

As mentioned in Scott’s reporting, men’s ice hockey at the University of Minnesota brought in $7.8 million in total operating revenue in 2024. that’s third of all Gopher sports behind just football ($90 million) and men’s basketball ($14.9 million). No other sport posted over $513K.

Yes, Minnesota’s exodus from the WCHA came with serious negative consequences, some of which were felt immediately. When they left, other top programs (SCSU, UND, UMD, MSU, NEB-Omaha, DEN, CC) followed. By 2022, the WCHA conference crumbled and now only exists on the women’s side.

But as years go by and the college sports landscape continues to change more and more rapidly, we are seeing the longterm “why” in the University of Minnesota and Wisconsin’s decision to bail on the familiarity, history and rivalries created within their conference home of 47 years, in exchange for the financial security being offered by the Big Ten.

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Unlike other non-revenue sports, Minnesota Gophers hockey is turning into an additional money-maker for the University. No, it is never going to bring in cash like football does and collegiate hockey is never going to be as nationally popular as basketball. But to be crowned as the only revenue generating “non-revenue” sport in the entire Big Ten means Gopher hockey is doing something right.

In case you haven’t heard (you have), the University of Minnesota is voting to cut three non-revenue generating sports from the Gopher athletics department today. To be honest, most people don’t care. Mainstream media, however, wants you to feel like we do (or should). At the end of the day, it’s impossible to keep floating sports that run in the red year after year.

I wrote about it months ago, after financial expert Patrick Reusse of the Star Tribune (who will occasionally write about sports on the side) gave the U of M some interesting financial advice. To help recoup $10’s of millions in lost revenue from the the coronavirus pandemic, Financial Advisor Pat said Mark Coyle and the U of M Regents should make cuts within the football program.

Athletic Department Revenue

If you’re interested in athletic department finances at the University of Minnesota then you know football makes ALL of the money inside that department. Seriously, basketball makes a chunk of the cash too… but if you were eating a pie made of Gopher athletic department revenue, you couldn’t finish eating the piece that covered the football revenue.

These numbers come right from the University of Minnesota and they are easy to find, easy to read and they come from 2019, so they are very recent. I won’t speculate (but you can) as to why we haven’t seen these very relevant and easy to find numbers from any mainstream media outlets in the Twin Cities recently…

Remember, these numbers are BEFORE expenses are taken out. Do you know how much a student scholarship costs? I do… because it is in the same report as the numbers above. U of M Women’s athletics scholarships alone costs the school $6 million every year, which is double the revenue women’s sports bring in (before other expenses are even tallied).

Athletic Department Expenses

Thanks to Title XI, the Gophers can’t spend more on men’s scholarships than women… and they are dangerously close to being out of compliance (thus one reason for these men’s sports getting cut). In 2019, the university spent $7.6 million on male athletic scholarships. If you’re a math whiz, that’s $1.6 million more than what they spent on females…

Football needs $4 million of that scholarship money, which comes in at just 6% of the revenue ($63M) they bring in. In fact, all football expenses only equal about half of its revenue. Men’s basketball runs a 2:1 revenue to expense ratio, as well, and men’s hockey can support itself too. Beyond those three, everyone is sucking off the football teat to survive.

Money Matters and Life Isn’t Fair

Don’t let other media outlets lie to you about these numbers. Don’t listen to their dreadfully sad individual stories about how hard these athletes have worked to get here. Hard work doesn’t always pay off. That’s a good life lesson for them.

Men’s Track, Tennis and Gymnastics are being cut because the University of Minnesota is trying to recover some covid-lost revenue back AND because they need to become Title IX compliant. Just from my brief research this morning, it’s easy to see why they are making the moves they are making.

The university cannot cut any women’s sports because it would push the university farther out of Title IX compliance and they are already spending a noticeable amount more on male scholarships, than female.

That made this an easy decision. The athletic department had a chance to kill two problematic birds with one stone, and they threw the stone. The cuts shouldn’t be a shock to anyone and media never should have made these student athletes think their sport had a chance at surviving after these announcements were first made. The truth is in the numbers and Title IX.

These cuts were unavoidable.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan