The Nebraska football program knows what it has to do in order to compete with the big boys. There’s recruiting (which means NIL) to stay abreast of. There’s also winning and bringing in more money from postseasons and television appearances. And there’s spending like a big boy program.
On that last bit, it’s clear the Huskers know they need to do it. They also know how to do it. At record levels.
According to the Omaha World-Herald, the Nebraska football program brought in record revenues in 2024. It also spent record amounts of money. Though happily, the program saw a net profit, even if that profit wasn’t quite as big as it has been in prior years.
Nebraska football spends record and makes record money
Documents obtained through a public records request show that Nebraska brought in revenue in the amount of $220,165,405 and laid out expenses to the tune of $213,456,031.
While those numbers mean NU saw a surplus $6.7 million, the profit was 52% smaller than the 2022-23 fiscal year, when the school brought in $204.8 million in revenue and spent $190.9 million.
In 2023-24, the athletic programs generated $15.3 more million in revenue while spending $22.6 more million than it did in fiscal year 2022-23. That includes the Nebraska football program’s $84,059,267 operating budget — $11.3 million more than it did in 2022-23, the final year of Scott Frost’s tenure and the first offseason of Rhule’s tenure.
Starting with the next fiscal year, which begins in July, NU will have a $20.5 million budget line for revenue-sharing with its athletes. However, what is clear is that revenues are going to have to go up, or expenditures down, if the program doesn’t want to dip into those savings too often.
The thin margins that appear when plugging in that extra $20.5 million in rev share that hasn’t been a budget item before shows that Nebraska football administrators and fans will need to keep a wary eye.