Tulane University of Louisiana, located in New Orleans, dedicated $5,665,349 to its men’s basketball teams in 2024, investing $4,182,861 above the state’s average expenditure of $1,482,488, data from the U.S. Department of Education shows.
This figure represented 14.4% of Tulane’s total athletic spending for 2024.
Tulane University’s total athletics spending has grown by 84.5% since 2010.
Basketball remains among the most followed college sports in the country along with football, with leading NCAA programs attracting enthusiastic fan support and television audiences comparable to those of the NBA. Events like March Madness consistently draw millions of viewers annually.
The landscape of college athletics has shifted as a federal settlement now permits schools to directly share revenue with athletes for the first time. This settlement also requires the NCAA to pay $2.8 billion over a 10-year period to athletes who have competed since 2016.
In 2022, following sustained legal and legislative activity, athletes secured the ability to earn income from their names, images, and likenesses under new state laws and an NCAA policy change.
The NCAA reported approximately $900 million in revenue from March Madness and related men’s Division I basketball tournament media rights during the 2024 fiscal year, making men’s basketball the NCAA’s top revenue stream.
| Year | Basketball team’s expenditures | % from grand total sport team expenditures |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | $3,711,806 | 11.7% |
| 2021 | $3,212,785 | 10.8% |
| 2022 | $5,202,956 | 15.2% |
| 2023 | $5,949,218 | 13.7% |
| 2024 | $5,665,349 | 14.4% |
Information in this story was sourced from the U.S. Department of Education. The original data can be accessed here.
