The future of fiscal decision-making in Division I athletics began to take a clearer shape earlier this year when the Division I Board of Directors reviewed a new system that allows for financial comparisons among Division I schools.
Called “dashboard indicators,” the project is the result of work done by the fiscal responsibility subcommittee of the NCAA Presidential Task Force on the Future of Division I Intercollegiate Athletics and in collaboration with the National Association of College and University Business Officers.
The task force called for a moderation in the growth of athletics budgets and a re-centering of athletics within the educational mission of the university. The dashboard indicators will provide schools with new tools and appropriate data to inform decisions about resource allocation and investment.
Planned for a rollout in May, the financial dashboard indicators will provide a consistent, uniform approach to analyzing data from institutions within Division I and will also offer an early warning system to indicate emerging issues in an athletics program.
The data within the new system will be presented both as an institutional comparison over time and as a comparison to other institutions. Those interested would be able to match their own institution with others in their conference or subdivision or use other factors, such as public or private or institutional size.
The dashboard indicators will allow presidents and others involved with the management of athletics to compare the financial picture for their institution with data for institutions with similar characteristics or peer groups selected by the president. The identities of the individual institutions will be masked, though schools will be able to compare themselves within specific percentiles.
A variety of financial dashboard indicators will be available to all, including an athletics expenditures to institutional expenditures ratio, total revenues and athletics debt. Optional indicators that will be available include self-sufficiency and athletics expenditures per student-athlete.
Memphis President Shirley Raines, chair of the Division I Oversight and Monitoring Group that was formed to oversee the implementation of recommendations from the presidential task force, said the major advantage of the financial dashboard indicators is that it allows member institutions to make accurate comparisons because of its use of similar definitions for different data pieces. Although the data reporting may still have some imperfections, it provides a baseline that will better inform decisions on athletics spending.
“Its major advantage is to give presidents these kinds of data,” Raines said. “Comparisons will help leaders to be realistic about what the costs are as well as what others are spending in order to be competitive.”
Board members were intrigued by the project and indicated a strong interest in using the data when making future financial decisions. Raines said the project will go a long way toward fulfilling the presidential task force recommendation on fiscal responsibility and institutional accountability.
“This is a major step forward,” she said.
This dashboard-indicator prototype shows how intercollegiate athletics decision-makers will benefit from the provision of accurate, comparable financial information.