Special Report: A DEEP Dive into the Michigan Athletic Department's Finances

Good morning, and welcome to our special report on the University of Michigan’s athletic department budget.

We collect a ton of financial data from schools all over the country. Beyond creating big charts on sport- or line-item-specific spending, we figured we could experiment with creating deeper dives on specific institutions’ financial performance.

If you have interest, we could do this for plenty of other schools (let us know here). But thanks to a huge influx of Wolverine fans after our ADS4000 partnership with MGoBlog, we figured we ought to start with the proverbial Leaders of the West: Michigan.

I’ll go ahead and spoil part of the report for you. In fiscal year 2025, Michigan generated a lot of revenue and spent a lot on its various athletic programs.

But you didn’t need me to tell you that. You already knew Michigan is one of the largest brands in all of college athletics, one that competes for national championships in multiple sports; boasts a huge, nationwide fanbase; and is prepared to spend what it takes to compete at that level.

Any casual sports fan would probably tell you Michigan should be near the top of any college sports financial table. But could they tell you how Michigan generated more than $275 million in athletic department revenues? Or where it spent that money? Does being a financial heavyweight mean Michigan spends the most on every Big Ten sport, or just a few?

Those are more interesting questions, I think. And thanks to our research and Extra Points Library, we have some answers. Let’s dig in:

In FY2025, Michigan’s total revenue was $275.8 million, which was second in the Big Ten behind Ohio State and fourth nationally behind Texas, Ohio State and Tennessee. Revenue increased 15 percent over FY2024 and is up 173 percent since FY2021.

Total expenses were $261.6 million in FY2025, which was also second in the Big Ten behind Ohio State and fourth nationally behind Texas, Ohio State and Tennessee. Expenses increased 10 percent over FY2024 and are up 76 percent since FY2021.

Total earned revenue — which we calculate to be revenue minus donations, student fees and institutional support — was $275.6 million in FY2025. This is a useful metric to track when attempting to make some sort of apples-to-apples revenue comparisons across the country, as many programs count stuff like student fees or direct institution support as “revenue.” This number was second in the Big Ten, behind Ohio State ($336 million), and third nationally, behind Texas ($352.5 million), Ohio State and Tennessee ($296 million).