Athletics Endowments vs. University-wide Endowments - Athletic Data

How Do Athletics Endowments Measure Up?

At every college, athletics endowments are dwarfed by their universitywide counterparts. Even the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's sports endowment, the largest in a Chronicle survey, is one-tenth the size of the university's total endowment. But that gap shrinks, and often reverses, when the endowments are measured on a per-student and per-scholarship-athlete basis. By that measure, North Carolina has endowed its athletes four times as much as other undergraduates. Below are the top 10 athletics endowments, based on the survey, and how they stack up against their institutions' overall endowments.

Institution	Sports endowment	Athletes	Endowment per athlete	Overall endowment	Undergraduates	Endowment per student
1. U. of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	$212,000,000	437	$485,126	$2,164,444,000	17,628	$122,784
2. Duke U.	$150,717,426	339	$444,594	$5,910,280,000	6,394	$924,348
3. Boston College	$100,000,000	262	$381,679	$1,670,092,000	9,860	$169,380
4. Georgia Tech	$80,058,950	292	$274,174	$1,608,682,000	12,565	$128,028
5. U. of Virginia	$61,873,981	477	$129,715	$4,370,209,000	15,078	$289,840
6. U. of Washington	$56,000,000	380	$147,368	$2,184,374,000	28,570	$76,457
7. U. of Georgia	$51,000,000	403	$126,551	$705,316,000	25,335	$27,840
8. Pennsylvania State U.	$49,390,069	450	$109,756	$1,590,000,000	36,815	$43,189
9. U. of Connecticut	$48,051,366	340	$141,328	$337,945,000	16,348	$20,672
10. Ohio State U.	$46,139,682	660	$69,909	$2,338,103,000	39,209	$59,632
NOTE: Enrollment numbers are for main campuses
* Sports endowment figures are from June 30, 2008, while institutional endowment totals are from June 30, 2007, the latest data available.
† Includes endowments for the institutions and their foundations.
SOURCES: National Association of College and University Business Officers; National Center for Education Statistics; Chronicle reporting