OXFORD — Despite Ole Miss football increasing revenue to $18.1 million, Ole Miss athletics operated at a deficit just under $8 million in fiscal year 2024, according to documents obtained by the Clarion Ledger.
It’s the third consecutive year Ole Miss has failed to make a profit.
Loses totaled $7,714,598 for Ole Miss during the fiscal year starting July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024. It is an improvement from the year prior, in which Ole Miss operated at a deficit exceeding $8 million. The deficit in 2022 was $5.2 million.
“Obviously I don’t think you’re ever happy when you have a deficit,” athletic director Keith Carter told the Clarion Ledger. “You know, I am glad that we’re chipping away at it, even if it’s by a small margin. We do have plans in the future to get that all the way down to zero. That’s our goal.”
Ole Miss reported a $17 million profit in 2021, which was assisted to an advance on projected SEC TV revenue.
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Ole Miss’ total operating revenue was $149,304,681. The most lucrative contributions to Ole Miss’ revenue were media rights ($43.1 million), contributions ($38 million), ticket sales ($22.5 million) and conference distribution of football bowl generated revenue ($10.6 million).
Ole Miss’ total operating expenses were $157,019,279, which is approximately $7 million more than in fiscal year 2023. The biggest expenses were coaching salaries, benefits and bonuses ($34.9 million), support staff/administrative compensation, benefits and bonuses ($27.4 million) and direct overhead expenses ($19.3 million).
Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss football made big jump in revenue
Coach Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss football brought in $18.1 million, almost $6 million more in fiscal year 2024. Ole Miss brought in $75.3 million and had $57.1 million in expenditures.
Ole Miss football got $20.3 million in contributions, which was up from the $18.4 million in football-specific contributions the prior fiscal year. Football media rights also increased to $18 million, which is about a $400,000 increase.
Total operating expenses decreased from to $60.2 million to $57.1 million.
“We all know football needs to be really good,” Carter said. “It needs to be visible. It needs to be what we kind of hang our hat on, just because it does affect so many of our other sports.”
Women’s basketball increased bottom line, lost $7.5 million
Ole Miss women’s basketball operated at a $7.5 million deficit, which is a slight improvement from its 2023 fiscal year deficit of $8.4 million.
“We want to make sure that they have the resources they need to compete and be successful and win,” Carter said. “But it’s one of those that we’re going to we’re going to continue to monitor. “We want to be as fiscally responsible as we can.”
Although coaching costs actually increased by about $600,000 from the 2023 fiscal year report, the women’s basketball program managed to cut bottom-line costs through a categorization switch.
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Ole Miss’ women’s basketball program had a $2.4 million expense for “athletic facilities, debt service, leases and rental fees” in 2023. In 2024, that went to $0.
Why the discrepancy? Angela Robinson, the school’s senior associate athletic director for finance, told the Clarion Ledger last year that Ole Miss planned to change the way that expense is categorized to align with most peer institutions. Ole Miss recategorized that expense to not fall on a specific team, unlike last year when a $2.4 million expense was added to the ledger of both the men’s and women’s programs.
That expense goes toward Ole Miss’ annual payment on the SJB Pavilion, where Ole Miss basketball has played since 2016.
Ole Miss increased contributions by over $4 million
Ole Miss took in just over $38 million in contributions during fiscal year 2024.
It is an increase over the $34.4 million from the previous year. The football program was the biggest driver of the increase, with a year-over-year increase of about $2 million.
Non program-specific donations increased, going from $8.7 million to $9.9 million.
Carter said he is hopeful Ole Miss can build on that in fiscal year 2025. He said another $4 million jump would be a good achievement for next year.
“We have great donors, and they do what they can, and they support us at a super high level,” Carter said.