With recent disappointing seasons, UT’s basketball programs continue to spend and earn big bucks

Mack Brown isn’t the only coach at the University of Texas in the hot seat this season. After missing the NCAA tournament last year with a losing record for the first time since his arrival to the 40 Acres in 1998, men’s head coach Rick Barnes’ future is in question entering his 16^th season with the university.

The men’s basketball program hasn’t achieved the expectations of an elite athletic program recently. In the past five years, the Longhorns have not advanced past the 2^nd round of the NCAA tournament. Last year’s early exit in the College Basketball Invitation, a tournament many people had never even heard of, was the icing on the cake for a run of disappointing seasons during Barnes’ era. The women’s basketball team has also experienced their fair share of early exits from the women’s NCAA tournament and recent unsatisfactory seasons.

Despite having the worst season during his tenure at UT, Barnes remains one of the highest paid coaches in college basketball, with a salary of $2.4 million. Following last season’s below average 12-18 record, Karen Aston will be making $600,000 entering her second season as the women’s head coach. That’s nearly half of what former head coach Gail Goestenkors was supposed to make in the final two years left in her seven-year contract. The contract would have paid her $1.25 million per season, but Goestenkors resigned from the position after the 2011-2012 season.

In Texas, sports are an important aspect of the state’s culture, especially football. The University of Texas will always be known as one of the top universities in the country that spends millions of dollars for their athletic programs, regardless of their unsuccessful seasons.

Below are charts depicting the revenues of UT’s sports other than football from the 2013 University of Texas Athletics Report. The report includes information from the 2009-2012 seasons. The men’s and women’s basketball teams are in bold:

Men’s Sports Revenues	2009-2010	2010-2011	2011-2012
Baseball	$5,650,027	$5,812,088	$7,691,843
Basketball	$15,602,348	$16,437,705	$18,748,467
Golf	$262,178	$347,670	$296,835
Swimming and Diving	$610,891	$684,149	$525,389
Tennis	$195,027	$195,451	$215,525
Track and Field/Cross Country	$423,117	$340,010	$60,994

In each of the three seasons, the revenue from all other sports besides basketball in this chart total less than half of the revenue from men’s basketball alone. Here’s how the women’s sports revenues shaped out:

Women’s Sports Revenues	2009-2010	2010-2011	2011-2012
Basketball	$1,769,333	$1,754,323	$1,582,747
Golf	$222,827	$265,280	$202,891
Rowing	$126,979	$131,498	$140,401
Soccer	$585,756	$638,014	$528,707
Softball	$540,917	$641,814	$611,638
Swimming and Diving	$585,445	$757,608	$508,602
Tennis	$194,064	$201,291	$214,964
Track and Field/Cross Country	$375,343	$296,543	$319,029
Volleyball	$1,321,284	$1,438,410	$1,428,665

Despite volleyball’s success over the past few years, women’s basketball revenues continue to top all of UT women’s sports. Below are charts of the men’s and women’s sports expenses from 2009-2012:

Men’s Sports Expenses	2009-2010	2010-2011	2011-2012
Baseball	$3,732,260	$3,790,958	$3,389,785
Basketball	$8,887,250	$8,109,741	$8,528,312
Golf	$903,909	$924,188	$922,968
Swimming and Diving	$1,966,538	$2,052,630	$1,932,904
Tennis	$831,456	$824,198	$837,467
Track and Field/Cross Country	$1,742,129	$1,525,750	$1,524,218

Much like the revenue charts, men’s basketball expenses exceeds the total of all other men’s sports other than football combined. Here are the results of the women’s sports expenses:

Women’s Sports Expenses	2009-2010	2010-2011	2011-2012
Basketball	$4,532,021	$4,757,675	$4,904,727
Golf	$891,492	$862,203	$754,441
Rowing	$1,408,955	$1,453,076	$1,457,461
Soccer	$1,825,504	$1,953,747	$1,758,192
Softball	$1,453,221	$1,429,639	$1,597,305
Swimming and Diving	$1,760,143	$2,068,432	$1,805,090
Tennis	$848,398	$883,000	$828,167
Track and Field/Cross Country	$1,715,540	$1,854,332	$1,832,962
Volleyball	$2,571,243	$2,820,435	$2,442,330

Once again, women’s basketball leads all other women’s sports in terms of expenses. The results of last year’s revenues and expenses of the men’s and women’s basketball programs were not included in the Athletic Report. According to the Equity in Athletics Data Analysis Cutting Tool of the U.S. Department of Education, here’s how the men’s and women’s basketball expenses and revenues of the 2012-2013 season turned out:

2012-2013	Total Expenses	Total Revenue
Men’s basketball	$8,991,640	$16,896,653
Women’s basketball	$4,688,863	$1,619,530

The women’s basketball team expenses were a little more than half of the men’s expenses in the 2012-2013 season. The women’s basketball team revenues last year were roughly 9.5% of men’s basketball total revenues.

The University of Texas takes their sports very seriously. They wouldn’t spend millions of dollars if they didn’t. This season both programs are off to a good start. The men’s team stands at 7-1 and the women’s team at 6-2. Whether the season ends good or bad for either program, both teams will continue spend and earn tons of money, as well as their coaches.