The Colorado athletic department reported record revenue but relied on $43.5 million in university support to avoid a deficit in fiscal year 2025.
Football ticket revenue decreased to $24 million in fiscal 2025 from a record $31.2 million the previous year.
Despite the ‘Prime Effect,’ the department projects a $27 million deficit for fiscal year 2026 due to rising costs.
The Colorado athletic department reported record revenues of $161.7 million in fiscal year 2025, but that included a decrease in football ticket revenue from the year before under coach Deion Sanders and a school-record $43.5 million in combined “revenue” from university support and student fees.
Colorado recently released its annual NCAA financial report for fiscal year 2025, which ended on June 30, 2025. It covers Sanders’ second season in Boulder in 2024, when his team finished with a 9-4 record.
The report obtained by USA TODAY Sports shows the limits of the “Prime Effect” under Sanders. It also shows the university is helping pay increasingly big bills in athletics at a turbulent time in college sports.
Colorado reported a bottom-line budget surplus of $160,189 in fiscal 2025 but couldn’t have avoided a deficit without $24.5 million in direct university support, a record $17.3 million in “indirect” university support and $1.7 million in student fees ($43.5 million combined).
Big deficit still projected at Colorado for fiscal 2026
Only six public schools had more than $43.5 million in combined university support in the prior fiscal year (2024), including Arizona State, Air Force and South Florida, according to public records collected by USA TODAY Sports in conjunction with the Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database at Syracuse University.
Colorado faces bigger financial headwinds in the current fiscal year, fiscal 2026, which ends on June 30, 2026. Colorado’s athletic department is projecting a $27 million deficit for fiscal 2026 even though it still expects to get $11.9 million in institutional support revenue from the university and $2.2 million in student fees. The final numbers for fiscal 2026 won’t be publicly reported until January 2027.
Limits of the ‘Prime Effect’ under Deion Sanders
Sanders has helped provide more than $3 billion in publicity value for the university since his hiring in December 2022 while reviving a program that was 1-11 before he arrived. Colorado sold out every home game in his first season in 2023 (fiscal 2024), leading to a record $31.2 million in football ticket sales that year. This was known as the “Prime Effect” under Coach Prime.
But football ticket revenue went down to $24 million in fiscal 2025, according to the report, which includes the 2024 season and 2025 spring game. Four games sold out in 2024 instead of six in 2023 even though the Buffaloes had their best season under Sanders in 2024.
Colorado explains football revenue decrease
The athletic department said the reason for this decrease stems in part from an accounting issue.
“Total ticket revenue is essentially split into three categories, season tickets, individual game tickets, and seat contributions,” the Colorado athletic department said in response to questions from USA TODAY Sports. “The amount allocated toward seat contributions has fluctuated from year to year, creating a variance in straight ticket revenue. Holistically, the total revenue from season tickets, individual game tickets, and seat contributions from 2023 to 2024 is $37M to $32M, with the difference coming from a reduction in the commission we received in 2024 from our third-party ticket partner.”
Meanwhile, football coaching salaries and benefits went up in fiscal 2025 to a record $14.4 million from $12.5 million in fiscal 2024.
Those expenses will go up even more in fiscal 2026 after Sanders got a new contract in March 2025 that nearly doubled his pay to $10 million annually. That expense increase is one reason that Colorado faces a huge deficit in fiscal 2026. The other biggest reason for that deficit is the new $20.5 million cost of revenue-sharing with players, which started for all schools on July 1, 2025 in fiscal 2026.
‘Indirect’ institutional support shot way up
One big item that stuck out in Colorado’s latest annual financial report is that “indirect” institutional support shot up to $17.3 million in fiscal 2025 from $3.1 million the previous year, which was the previous school record in that category.
Of the 236 Division I schools tracked by USA TODAY Sports, none had more than $11.4 million in indirect institutional support in fiscal 2024.
Indirect institutional support is defined as costs and services covered by the university but not charged to the athletic department. This includes utilities, security, information technology, human resources, accounting and facilities maintenance – expenses that the athletic department would have to pay for on its own or do without if the university didn’t cover it.
In this case, the athletic department said this increase stemmed from a new scoreboard and turf at Folsom Field.
“The bulk of that increase in funding was for the construction of the south scoreboard and the installation of turf at Folsom Field, which was supplemented by campus auxiliary reserves,” the athletic department said. “No tuition dollars or state funding were used for these projects.”
Colorado’s media rights revenue demonstrates gap
Colorado reported $19.6 million in media rights revenue for fiscal 2024, its first year back in the Big 12 Conference. This is down from $21.9 million in fiscal 2020, when Colorado was part of the Pac-12. This money largely comes from through the conference and shows the media revenue gap between the Power Four leagues.
By contrast, several Big Ten schools earned more than $50 million each in media-rights revenue in fiscal 2024, according to the USA TODAY data for that year.
“This number is indicative of the first year of the newly constructed Big 12 and we anticipate revenue to increase in the years to come as the conference continues to be a major force in collegiate athletics,” the department stated.
Colorado revenue booms with university support
Colorado revenue has boomed to $161.7 million in fiscal 2025, up from $146.6 in fiscal 2024 and $94.9 million in fiscal 2022. But that’s because combined support from the university also has boomed to boost those numbers. The $43.5 million in combined university support in fiscal 2025 is up from a then-record $31.9 million in combined university support in fiscal 2024 and just $11.9 million in fiscal 2022.
This shows how university leaders have been willing to cover rising costs in athletics because they think it’s important for the university’s brand and student experience even as costs continue to rise in the changing world of college sports.
New Colorado athletic director Fernando Lovo has been tasked with raising money to decrease the deficit and university support.
“We’re gonna find innovative and creative ways to drive our revenue,” he said Jan. 5.
He gets a $200,000 bonus if he raises $25 million by June 30, 2026, according to his employment contract.
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com