Colleges with the Most Athletes and the Most Athletic Expenses

Parents Forum
1

The other thread got me curious about which colleges have the most athletes and athletic expenses, so I looked up some numbers in the linked database at Equity in Athletics . To avoid going off topic, I listed results below, if anyone else is interested in this kind of stats.

A small minority of non-NCAA sports are not included as discussed in the ope.ed.gov link above, so actual percentage is often slightly higher. The expenses total is overall expenses without considering revenue, not net loss. I only included colleges I have heard of. Some very small colleges I have not heard of exceeded totals below, such as ~100% athletes at University of St. Katherine (school may entered something incorrectly).

The general pattern seems to be:
Most athletes in number – Ivy League and a few large publics
Highest % athletes – Small LACs with a lot of athletic teams, particularly NESCAC
Highest expenses – Large publics with successful Div I athletics, particularly football
Highest expenses per student – Selective private colleges with successful Div I football or basketball

Most Varsity Athletes

  1. Harvard – 1065 athletes (15%)
  2. Cornell – 1058 athletes (7.0%)
  3. Ohio State – 1054 athletes (2.5%)
  4. Princeton – 999 athletes (19%)
  5. Michigan – 948 athletes (3.3%)
  6. Dartmouth – 934 athletes (22%)
  7. UC Berkeley – 904 athletes (3.1%)
  8. Yale – 898 athletes (15%)
  9. Brown – 880 athletes (13%)
  10. Penn – 873 athletes (8.4%)

Highest % Varsity Athletes: Div III or Other

  1. Webb – 48% athletes (50), $0.06M expenses
  2. USMMA – 44% athletes (436), $3.7M expenses
  3. CMC – 40% athletes (529), $5.9M expenses
  4. Williams – 37% athletes (741), $9.0M expenses
  5. Bowdoin – 36% athletes (658), $13M expenses
  6. Bates – 35% athletes (639), $5.9M expenses
  7. Colby – 33% athletes (660), $8.5M expenses
  8. Trinity – 32% athletes (666), $8.0M expenses
  9. Amherst – 31% athletes (582), $7.7M expenses
  10. Hartwick – 31% athletes (357), $2.6M expenses

Highest % Varsity Athletes: Div I FCS

  1. Davidson – 24% (440), $17M expenses
  2. Colgate – 22% (656), $30M expenses
  3. Dartmouth – 22% (934), $30M expenses
  4. Bucknell – 20% (726), $31M expenses
  5. Lafayette – 20% (523), $25M expenses
  6. Princeton – 19% (999), $33M expenses
  7. Harvard – 15% (1065), $30M expenses
  8. Yale – 15% (898), $47M expenses
  9. Brown – 13% (880), $24M expenses
  10. Lehigh – 13% (650), $38M expenses

Highest % Varsity Athletes: Div I FBS

  1. Stanford – 12% (850), $139M expenses
  2. Duke – 10% (652), $116M expenses
  3. Rice – 9% (340), $42M expenses
  4. Wake Forest – 8% (435), $77M expenses
  5. Notre Dame – 8% (708), $150M expenses

Highest Athletic Expenses

  1. Ohio State – $199M
  2. Florida State – $198M
  3. UT Austin – $175M
  4. Michigan – $168M
  5. Alabama – $167M
  6. Oklahoma – $159M
  7. Penn State – $151M
  8. Notre Dame – $150M
  9. LA State – $149M
  10. Louisville – $149M

Highest Athletic Expenses per Undergrad Student

  1. Stanford – $20k
  2. Duke – $18k
  3. Notre Dame – $18k
  4. Wake Forest – $15k
  5. Northwestern – $14k
2

interesting to see, but no real surprises.

3

Would be interesting to see which colleges have the most revenues per athlete. My guess is that the big football schools would be at the top.

4

A high percentage of varsity athletes could mean that a larger portion of admissions is consumed by recruited athletes, making admission more difficult for others than overall admission stats may suggest.