Ohio State athletics breaks revenue record with banner 2023 fiscal year
COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- Once again, the Ohio State University's athletic department brought massive revenue and set a new record for public NCAA schools.
The university said on Tuesday that the athletics department brought in a whopping record $279.5 million in revenue for the 2023 fiscal year (July 1, 2022 to June 30, 2023), according to the NCAA's annual financial report. This past year's revenue is an 11% increase to the school's $251 million revenue last fiscal year.
A resounding $73.3 million came from ticket sales with more than 85% of that amount from just eight football games. Among the Buckeyes football games at Ohio Stadium during the fiscal year was the Sept. 2022 win over Notre Dame and the anticipated top-three showdown against Michigan in Nov. 2022.
Nearly a quarter of OSU's athletic department revenue came from just the $64.3 million made from football tickets. Amongst the notable ticket revenue changes include a decrease for men's basketball year-to-year and massive gains for multiple women's sports.
| Sport | Ticket revenue in FY23 | Change from FY22 |
| Football | $64,342,912 | +34.9% |
| Men's Basketball | $4,739,605 | -8.8% |
| Not related to specific teams | $2,304,828 | -57.3% |
| Women's Basketball | $559,942 | +98.1% |
| Men's Ice Hockey | $494,470 | +13.9% |
| Men's Wrestling | $365,452 | +21.7% |
| Women's Volleyball | $305,965 | +62.5% |
| Women's Gymnastics | $103,186 | +98.8% |
| Baseball | $89,914 | +46.8% |
| Men's Lacrosse | $80,612 | +71.2% |
Other reported revenue by OSU was close to $58 million in contributions from individuals, foundations and companies along with more than $49 million in media revenue, under the new media rights deal the Big Ten has with NBC, Fox, and CBS.
Massive changes to the college sports landscape, from Name, Image, and Likeness to incoming Big Ten expansion, has contributed to the huge increase in Ohio State athletics revenue and to other public universities for FY2023 and presumably for FY2024. Michigan and Penn State were the only Big Ten schools that cracked the top-ten in total revenue for FY2022 with the Wolverines reporting operating revenues of $215 million in June.
Among the incoming Big Ten schools, Oregon and Washington both earned over $145 million in revenue in FY2022 and cracked the top-25 for public universities.
While the Buckeyes earned the most this fiscal year and last fiscal year, right behind them is the Texas Longhorns who earned $271 million this past fiscal year, a more than $30 million increase from last fiscal year. Texas' revenues for the 2024 fiscal year will likely be even higher after making the college football playoff and moving to the Southeastern Conference.
During the FY23 period, the Buckeyes football team had another 11-2 season that ended in the college football playoff with a narrow loss to Georgia 42-41 in the Peach Bowl. Despite the men's basketball team missing the NCAA Tournament, the women made it all the way to the Elite Eight. The women's ice hockey team made the NCAA final while men's tennis, men's volleyball, men's fencing, and women's swimming all won conference championships.
The athletic department will also have new leadership for FY2024 and FY2025 with Ross Bjork stepping in as the athletic director in July after Gene Smith's retirement and president Ted Carter already at the helm.